Question: what made you want to be a scincentst?

Jo Broadbent answered on 14 Jun 2010:

Hi StarGirl

I like finding things out and analysing things. Plus I really liked the idea of finding out something that no-one in the world had ever found out before! So I did a PhD looking at the genes that controlled heart growth in fish embryos. And cloned a gene that had never been cloned before and found out lots about what it did in the fish embryo, that no-one had found out before. Which was very satisfying.

But I also found out that being a scientist in a lab meant working on your own a lot. And I am more of a ‘people’ person than that.

And I also found out that although its great to know more about fish genes, it wasn’t actually very useful to anyone directly. What I found out might in many years turn out to have contributed a little bit to a great discovery about how to make hearts healthier. But not for many years. And only a little bit.

So I changed jobs and became a scientist in the NHS, analysing health information and interpreting other people’s research. This means I can help people in our community to be healthier. Doing this job, I think I can use my analytical skills make a bigger impact on the lives of a bigger number of people RIGHT NOW.

Jo