How did you get involved in your rescearch? What inspired you?

Question: How did you get involved in your rescearch? What inspired you?

Asked by anniemoose to Chris, Kay, Kerstin, Lorna, Liv on 17 Mar 2010 in Categories: About.
- Kerstin Zechner answered on 17 Mar 2010:
  
  Hi Annie! At uni I started to get interested in how you get proteins from genes as all life is really based on this process. I think trying to make a discovery towards understanding how genes are expressed is one of the most exciting things I can personally think of within research. My teachers at uni inspired me to start research in this field.
- Kay Penicud answered on 17 Mar 2010:
  
  I knew I wanted to study science at uni when I was in sixth form. I only knew I wanted to be a scientist when I was in the middle of my degree and found I loved research. A professor once said to me ‘ours in the only job in the world where not only do we learn something new every week, but we learn something in the world that no-one else has ever known’. That’s why I love science, it can be very frustrating but its soooo interesting!
  
  As for cancer research in particular, I guess I’m not alone in knowing people affected with cancer.
- Olivia Hibbitt answered on 19 Mar 2010:
  
  Hey Anniemoose,
  
  I always thought gene therapy was a great idea! There are so many genetic conditions that have poor or no treatment, gene therapy offers the hope for a cure! Take something like thalassaemia…..this is a blood disorder where the red blood cells die….patients need to have blood transfusions all the time….but this creates it’s own problem, iron overload! Because the new blood contains iron far too much gets put into these people so they need to have chelation therapy, which is a horrible needle under the skin pumping drugs in all night EVERY night…….it’s horrible…..but gene therapy could cure these people with NO need for further treatment! I find that pretty inspiring!
- Lorna Houlihan answered on 19 Mar 2010:
  
  I find inheritance really interesting – how traits follow in families, like wearing glasses, having a big nose, having a particular illness for example. And this is because of genetic information passed down through generation! And it’s even more interesting when you think of it on a population scale and how we could all be distantly related.
- Chris Needham answered on 19 Mar 2010:
  
  I got involved by it being a good area in which to apply maths and computing as it’s so interesting and the relationships between DNA, genes, proteins and molecules in cells, tissues and organisms is so complex and so important.

Question: How did you get involved in your rescearch? What inspired you?

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