Profile

One part of my work deals with looking at DNA and proteins of this nasty virus called Human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes warts and cancers. I look to see if i can get clues from their DNA to see why and how they cause disease in humans. I play around by putting bits of their DNA into human cells that are growing in a dish in the lab and see what they do to the cells. By understanding how they act within our cells, we can see if we can make medicines that can stop their activity!

This is what the virus looks like

Another part of my work deals with looking at  how the vaccination against HPV is having an impact in Scotland. Some of you might know that girls are vaccinated against HPV in school. I look to see if that is causing a reduction in number of people being infected with these viruses.

A third part of what I do is to develop new ways of detecting the virus to see if people are infected with HPV or not.

As a scientist, my typical day is spent doing lots of little things such as taking care of the cells we grow in our lab, playing around with the viral DNA or some big experiments that take all day long and even overnight!

Take a look at the lab i work in  

Also, this is where my cells live  

And this is what they look like under the microscope

We use lots of machines in our lab. For example, check out our cool spaceship like PCR Machine

I also spend a lot of time discussing new ideas with my team, planning the right kind of experiments and doing lots of reading about what other scientists are doing.

But basically, i try to have fun doing science!!!