Profile

I am a final year PhD student at Imperial College in London, working in the department of Cellular and Molecular Biology. I study the stem cells that live in the bone marrow and develop into all the different types of white blood cell that make up your immune system. In particular, I am interested in how stem cells develop into a specific type of white blood cell called a Natural Killer cell. These cells are really interesting as they have the ability to search out and kill cancer cells and are part of your body’s natural defences against cancer.

With a better understanding of how Natural Killer cells develop we hope to find a way to influence the amount of Natural Killer cells that are made in your bone marrow. By producing lots of Natural Killer cells your immune system could be made to fight off your cancer on its own, rather than using traditional toxic drugs.

For me nearly every day working in the lab is different, as I love trying out new experiments! However, a typical day would normally begin with a coffee before I go to lab to look at my cells and see how well they are growing. My cells generally have to be fed every two or three days to keep them happy! Most of the experiments I do last more than one day, and some can take many weeks to finish, so each day I will normally spend time doing a little bit of each experiment that I’m running. When I am not in the lab I will spend time planning future experiments, analysing any results I have got and also writing down everything I have done in the lab on that day, because I will forget!

Each week I will also have a couple of meetings with my boss and with my team to discuss how our work is going and plan future experiments. Another important part of the week is trips to local coffee shop to pick up tasty snacks and all important coffee!