Question: What's your favourite part of working as an immunologist?

Alicia Galdon answered on 18 May 2020:

Good question! There’s lots of things that I love about being a scientist in general, like getting to use really cool technologies and equipment to do my experiments, and making exciting discoveries that nobody else in the world has seen yet. But something I love about being an immunologist specifically is that because our immune systems are so important in protecting us against so many different kinds of diseases (even conditions like cancer), I know that even the smallest step I can make in helping to understand how our immune systems work in one disease could end up helping thousands of patients in a big range of diseases in the future. Even now, I’m investigating how we can use our immune system to treat cancer, but some of my research is being used by other people to help understand COVID-19 better, which is pretty cool! Seeing how the work you do in the lab is helping people in the real world is definitely my favourite thing, and helps to keep me motivated through the tougher times when things in the lab get tricky!