• Question: What type of experiments do you carry out in the lab

    Asked by Mind_13 to Andy, Chris, Harriet, Jess, Nikki on 4 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Christopher Blanford

      Christopher Blanford answered on 4 Mar 2016:

      Hi Mind_13
      I stick down blue proteins on surfaces like gold and graphene. I measure how much sticks to the surface and how well they work. I want to generate electricity using these proteins instead of expensive metals we have to mine from the ground, but I work out how to make them work longer and better.
      Chris

    • Photo: andy chapman

      andy chapman answered on 4 Mar 2016:

      ooooo that is hard. I do all sorts of stuff. Ok, one thing is two try to make special molecules that you can inject into the bloodstream and will allow doctors to take ‘pictures’ of particular areas of the body or particular things in the body (like a tumour). This is really important for diagnosing cancer and heart disease….and well…loads of things! This is probably my favourite thing at the moment

    • Photo: Nikki D'Arcy

      Nikki D'Arcy answered on 6 Mar 2016:

      I work a lot with bacteria and investigate antibiotic resistance. One basic experiment I do quite a lot is called an MIC assay, which stands for minimum inhibitory concentration. So what that means is we try to find out what is the smallest amount of an antibiotic that stops bacteria growing. I grow lots of bugs like Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and others with crazy names. I also do a lot of cell culture where I grow cells in a flask to see if antibiotics have any effect on them.

    • Photo: Jessica Groppi

      Jessica Groppi answered on 6 Mar 2016:

      Hi!

      Actually what I do in the lab is quite similar to what Chris does, but for a different application. I use proteins that react with sugar and when they are attached to a surface, I’m able to measure the electricity generated by such reaction and this tells me how much sugar is in the sample. Moreover I make molecules which help transfer the electricity from the protein to the surface, to obtain better measurements. This kind of device is called biosensor and the ones I build can be used to measure the amount of sugar in blood, which is really important for people with diabetes.

      Jess.

    • Photo: Harriet Reid

      Harriet Reid answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      I also work with proteins. I’m using them to make tiny football shaped particles that we can fill with drugs to treat different diseases. At the moment we are working on one that will seek out and and kill cancer cells.

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