• Question: what do you all specialise in in your science career and what are you studying at the moment?

    Asked by osmium456 to Aaron, Ananthi, Ashley, Christopher, Emma, Lea on 4 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Emma Stevenson

      Emma Stevenson answered on 4 Nov 2017:

      I have specialised in disease causing bacteria. At the moment I work with one that infects the lungs of people with a condition called Cystic Fibrosis.

    • Photo: Ananthi Ramachandran

      Ananthi Ramachandran answered on 5 Nov 2017:

      I have specialised in Microbiology. This simply means the study of tiny living things. At the moment I am doing a PhD. I have 3-4 years to answer a research question. My research topic is looking at a bacteria called C. difficile which causes a nasty infection in the stomach resulting in really REALLY bad diarrhoea. This bacteria is becoming very clever and is getting so strong that the medicines aren’t as active against the bacteria anymore. I am looking at a possible replacement to antibiotics called bacteriophages which are viruses that attack bacteria.

    • Photo: Christopher Richardson

      Christopher Richardson answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      I have specialised in microbiology. Specifically medical microbiology, my focus of my research and studying is bacteriophages (small viruses that only infect bacteria) and there ability to kill bacteria as a replacement for antibiotics that no longer work!
      I have recently discovered 6 new bacteriophage viruses that have never been seen before and are able to easily kill MRSA and many other dangerous bacteria! I am working to apply these newly discovered viruses into foods/tablets/creams/sprays for use in hospitals, and food factories! Its going well!

    • Photo: Ashley Otter

      Ashley Otter answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      I’m specifically looking at the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacterium that causes the nasty disease tuberculosis or TB for short. I’m working on one gene that controls other genes and trying to determine what it does and whether it makes the bacteria more easily able to hurt/infect us or makes it easier for our immune system to target!

    • Photo: Aaron Brown

      Aaron Brown answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      I have specialised in Environmental Microbiology, understanding how microorganisms can help us generate renewable energy to slow down the effects of climate change.

      This is done through a process called anaerobic digestion. Basically what happens is you feed grass to a sealed container of microorganisms. They then eat the grass and produce methane gas, which can be captured to be burnt to generate heat and electricity to power whatever you like 🙂 Any carbon dioxide Greenhouse gas produced by burning the methane is then re-absorbed by other growing grass, so there is zero emissions!

      The grass is really tough and takes a while for the bacteria to break it down, so I’m trying to make it more digestable.

      Basically I think microorganisms can be a huge help to solving some of mankinds problems.

    • Photo: Lea Carlesso

      Lea Carlesso answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      I have specialised in soil ecology and particularly to understand how soil life can provide goods to human being and how can we preserve these functions of soils.
      Over my PhD, I am studying how farming can affect soil fauna and the functions all the soil bugs are carried out.

Comments

  • Photo: osmium456

    osmium456 commented on :

    Thanks guys! I’ve got a lot of answers to this question so i’m sorry but I’m not going to reply to you all separately! your work sounds really cool and I hope to (in the future!) be lucky enough to get a job like you.