how would your research help me as an individual?

Question: how would your research help me as an individual?

Asked by microcoolio to Darren, Deuan, Duncan, Lori-An, Michelle on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: Your Research.
- Darren Nesbeth answered on 15 Jun 2010:
  
  Many ways. Let’s just think of some at random:
  
  New Medicines
  One of the major barriers to new medicines (stem cells etc) is actually being able to make enough of them. If my work on biological manufacturing succeeds then new medicines will be available to you and your family to help them cope with or fight off diseases.
  
  Your pension
  When you retire you will expect a pension. Where does that money come from? Magic? David Cameron? No. It comes from profits made by your employer investing in UK companies. The more successful those companies are, the better chance you have of getting a pension. If my work helps UK companies to be successful, then it helps pensions funds.
  
  Developing countries
  Manufacturing medicines is very expensive, so many developing countries (such as Jamaica or Sudan) must import them and rely on foreign companies to offer them medicines at a price they can afford. If manufacturing of medicines was made much cheaper, then developing countries might be able to make their own medicines, which would be much cheaper for them. This would increase the wealth, prosperity and stability of the country. As an individual, this will make you more likely to visit these places for a holiday, or maybe even stay there to work!
- Deuan Jones answered on 15 Jun 2010:
  
  Well that depends if you’ve got African sleeping sickness – that’s what I work on.
  
  Although most scientists work on a particular problem, science has a habit of being a bit random – things we discover in my projects can help people working on something completely different. For example one of the best drugs used to treat African sleeping sickness is DFMO but it was originally discovered as a treatment for cancer – just happened it also killed the parasites that cause sleeping sickness.
  
  I don’t think it’s best to aim science at individuals – we hope our research will benefit society – our discoveries won’t be important for everyone but we hope they’ll make a real difference to a group of people somewhere.
- Lori-An Etherington answered on 15 Jun 2010:
  
  I am involved in the early stages of preclinical research for potential medicines which might help in diseases which affect learning and memory. If any of these chemicals make it through the long process of drug development they may be useful in the treatment of conditions such as Alzheimers disease which affects many thousands of people in the UK alone. Technically this type of drug might make learning and memorising easier for exams but I doubt very much if they would ever be allowed to be used for this!!
- Duncan Hull answered on 15 Jun 2010:
  
  If you are unlucky enough to catch a nasty disease or develop cancer, my work could help develop drugs to treat you if you get ill.
- Michelle Hudson-Shore answered on 16 Jun 2010:
  
  The research I do is about finding alternatives to animal experiments and about designing experiments more effectively. Hopefully both of these things will mean that when drugs are developed they will be tested using methods that are as relevent to humans as possible and that more information will be found out from each experiment. This will mean that the development will be quicker and that safer drugs willl be available sooner to everyone who needs them.

Question: how would your research help me as an individual?

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