• Question: What are you currently working on?

    Asked by mariahcarey to Neil, Alan, Ciorsdaidh, Lauren, Leonie, Martin, Shuo on 6 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by Jemizle.
    • Photo: Lauren Webster

      Lauren Webster answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      I have just finished on my project, but what I was working on before was Alzheimers. What it involved was…think of Alzheimers as a seed, a seed that grows in your brain. The seed then starts to make more seeds and before you know it your brain has lots of seeds in it = you suffer from Alzheimers. My team were aimed at trying to develop a drug that would stop this seed growing and kill the seed. As we are only in early stage research we have tested over 60,000 compounds against cells containing the seed. Using a special microscope, the microscope finds all the seeds that remain (if any) after the compound has been given. It is very cool to watch! So here is a question I ask you guys. If Alzheimers is caused by a seed growing, where did the seed come from? It is like the story of the chicken and the egg, which came first?

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      One of the projects that I’m currently working on is a collaboration with a fish biologist looking at the impact polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with oxide nanoparticles on the development of fish embryos. There is evidence that the nanoparticles may interact with the PAHs in a way that might impact on the toxicity of the PAHs. That interaction involves the PAHs and the nanoparticle surfaces. This is something we are already studying in relation to the interactions of PAHs with dust grains in space.

    • Photo: Alan McCue

      Alan McCue answered on 9 Mar 2018:

      I’m trying to figure out how to convert ethene into propene… That way we can make polypropylene plastics instead of polyethylene plastics.

    • Photo: Neil Keddie

      Neil Keddie answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      I’m working on making a new part of a molecule called a motif that can be placed into functional molecules (such as liquid crystals for screen technology). This motif has a number of fluorine atoms in it, which makes it responsive to electric fields (or charged areas of molecules), meaning that you can make new types of interactions with other molecules. We’re hoping that we can add this motif onto chains of rings (about 3-5) to make better liquid crystals, meaning you screens respond faster, so the pictures look even better than they do now.

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