Profile

Having grown up in Scotland, I grew up to love nature. I was a curious child who especially liked observing animals and insects; this was usually in my back garden. Now, I have a mini forest at home and I go for long walks most weekends. So far my favourite trails have been in Scotland… I can’t wait to explore trails in Europe and around the world!

One cool fact is that I helped to double check (quality control) the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was good enough to go into people’s arms. 

I am a research scientist and flow cytometry facility manager.

My job has two parts: first is the research aspect and secondly I manage a flow cytometry facility (flow cytometry is a technique used in science). 

My research looks at immune cells called ‘Natural Killer cells’ – NK cells in short. Their role in the body is to find and kill cells that have: 1. been infected with a virus and 2. cells that have turned cancerous. 

A second aspect of my research looks at the human microbiome. Everyone has a balance of good bacteria and bad bacteria in one’s body (this is called the microbiome). We want to know why an imbalance of good:bad bacteria (this is called dysbiosis) in some people are causing them harm, in some cases even leading to autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.

The technique flow cytometry is used a lot in immunology research so it is important that these flow cytometer instruments are well maintained – this is part of my job. 

I wake up before 7am, and struggle to get out of bed. Then I get ready and have breakfast. The cycle to work helps wake me up ready to start my day at 9am. 

The first thing I usually do is to check my emails with a cup of tea – I love having tea in the morning! After I finish my tea, it is time to do some work. Usually I have some computer work to do and some lab work, luckily I get to plan my own day. 

So, in the morning I am usually in the office doing all my computer work. This might be checking my results from my experiments, planning for future experiments or reading research papers. 

Lunch time for me is at 12 noon, I get to catch up with my friends and go for a walk – my favourite.

After lunch, I go to the lab, put on my white lab coat, safety glasses and gloves before I do lots of experiments. Sometimes this will be starting new experiments and other times I need to check on my experiments I set up the day before. I make sure I finish my experiments by 5pm when I go home to cook dinner and relax.