• Question: Before you decided to be a scientist about sleep, do you want it to be another type of scientist?

    Asked by anon-189210 to Yousef, Rachel, Petrina, Michael, Jason, Emma on 6 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-189285.
    • Photo: Rachel Sharman

      Rachel Sharman answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      Hi,
      What a great question. In sixth form I really enjoyed the chemistry of life so decided to pursue a degree in biochemistry. I was really really interested in oncology and how the cancer cell manages to break the control systems stopping it from dividing unrestricted. During my degree I was offered the chance to do a year placement in industry as part of my degree. I was really fortunate to go the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard in the USA. To tell a secret, I really hadn’t even thought of sleep as a career and the rest is, as they say, history.

    • Photo: Petrina Lau

      Petrina Lau answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      Sorry that I dint’ have time to answer it during the section! I worked on synaptic plasticity, which is the flexibility of communication between brain cells. That’s fascinating work and we discover there are different rules that different brain cells follow~

    • Photo: Jason Ellis

      Jason Ellis answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      Nope…I wanted to be a poet! If you ever read any of the poetry I have written you would understand why sleep science was a better choice!

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