Question: What do your experiments involve? And how successful are they usually?

Anne Canning answered on 15 Jun 2015:

Hi Ria,

My experiments involve lots of polymerisations, so making the polymers. the reactions have to be done at 0 degrees C and air must be replaced by nitrogen, if not the polymerisation doesn’t work. I use different amino acids in my reactions to make peptides (a type of polymer). I almost always work in a fume hood as I have to use solvents which aren’t very safe. After synthesis comes analysis, so I analyse the properties of the polymers I’ve made, in different ways to see how long they are, what shape they are, how many of each amino acid they contain. The polymerisation is normally successful, as long as I’ve been careful when setting up the experiments. The problems normally arise in the next steps when I try to attach my polymers to surfaces, this part is normally more difficult, however I think it’s getting better! Next month I hope my surfaces will be ready to grow cells on, which I’m really looking forward to!