• Question: Can you explain what you do in more detail ?

    Asked by 242sysb44 to Steph on 8 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Stephanie Dyson

      Stephanie Dyson answered on 8 Mar 2015:

      I am developing a computation model of Crohn’s disease. To do this, I have to determine a set of rules that the cells have to follow, for example: If a cell of type A meets a cell of type B they will bind to each other for a certain amount of time, in the hope that we see outputs that represent what we see in biology. The things we look for include cell numbers and concentrations of chemicals at the site of infection a given number of days into disease development. Once this is done we can start changing the rules (so say if a cell of type meets a cell of type B they will only bind 50% of the time) and see how that effects these outputs. The idea behind this approach is that we can then look for potential medical treatments that would basically make this rule change happen in patients suffering from the disease to treat the symptoms they are suffering.

Comments

  • Photo: Carmen

    Carmen commented on :

    Hi there. I’ll give you a quick run down! I study bacteria in a laboratory. I spend a lot of time designing experiments to do in the laboratory, then carrying them out. My broad research interests lie in bacteria that can live in the environment as well as make us sick- this field of research for me is termed medical microbiology. As a molecular microbiologist, I am interested in the mechanisms of how an environmental bacteria can adapt its lifestyle and cause disease in humans or animals. The ability to cause disease is termed virulence in bacteria.
    In 2013, I completed my PhD at the University of Exeter. My PhD revolved around cystic fibrosis respiratory pathogens that live in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis lung disease. During my PhD research I used whole genome sequencing, microarray and RNAseq techologies -these are tools molecular biologists use to study plants, humans, bacteria, just about everything! We use these tools to tell us more about what is going on with the organims as a whole, not just what it looks likes but what its genes and proteins are doing. Now that I am not a student anymore, I am a post doc. At LSHTM, I am a research fellow concerned with making vaccines against bacteria that we currently don’t have any vaccines to protect us against. If you want to know more about what I do, just ask! But I hope that is a good ‘taste’ for what goes on in my world.

    Cheers!
    Carmen