• Question: What do you guys actually do?

    Asked by colea to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by apjk03, dado93, septembersunshine, elmo97, joannekennard.
    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hi colea,

      sleep, party, and have lots of fun…

      No, sorry – must have been thinking about something else – that doesn’t sound like my life at all!

      As a professor at a university, I teach people about new technologies and how to use them safely. I carry out research (usually with other people) into doing stuff as safely and as usefully as possible. I write lots of stuff about new technologies – in boring scientific journals and exciting posts on my blog (I’m kidding – they’re probably boring as well). And I look after the day to day running of the Risk Science Center at the University of Michigan.

      Then I also get to meet and talk to interesting people around the world. And do fun stuff like this!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Officially, I’m a lung doctor and a scientist.

      BUT in reality I’m a muscle-bound, cape-wearing, law enforcing super-hero with a deep fear of anchovies!

      A typical day starts with coffee, email and printing out the experiment plan i prepared in advance.. Then I go take blood from a (usually) willing victim. I take the blood and spin it down in a centrifuge to remove the plasma. Then I separate out the white blood cells by removing the red cells and using a gradient system. I’m usually interested in white blood cells called neutrophils (about 3hours work). I take these and treat them with different chemicals/stimuli and then either look at them down a powerful microscope to see what they’re up to or break them open and take their protein/RNA/DNA to see what’s happening at a molecular level. (another 4-6hours).

      Then I write up the results and I’m home in time for breakfast. Sorry I mean Dinner!

    • Photo: Marianne Baker

      Marianne Baker answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      I work in a group that specialises in angiogenesis.

      That’s the growth of blood vessels, from pre-existing ones.

      It’s important in cancer because tumour cells, like all other cells, need food and oxygen to grow and they need to get rid of waste like CO2. The blood supply provides this.

      So when you get a small tumour, it tends to attract blood vessels to it to feed it and allow it to get bigger.

      In cancer therapy, mostly after surgery, you want to stop the blood vessels re-growing and feeding the tumour. Now people tend to use these anti-blood vessel (anti-angiogenic) drugs on patients in combination with other chemotherapy.

      Our work looks at the cells that make up blood vessels, called endothelial cells, and how they move around – how they interact with each other, with other types of cells (including tumour cells) and what makes them grow more (or less) into tumours and how this can help our understanding of tumour growth.

      So we have to use mice in our work because this is a process we don’t really understand, and we cannot grow blood vessels and tumours outside of an organism in the lab. The whole lot needs to be present for it all to work, and we don’t even understand all the molecules involved yet – that’s what we do – try to work out what’s important and what isn’t, and why!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Hi everyone! I am employed as a Scientific Officer for the Royal Navy, specialising in Environmental Science. I look at Government Policy (and any environmental targets they set to reduce our environmental impact) and look for any new environmental law that affects the land (air, inland water and soil) that is being introduced. I provide advice to all the Royal Navy’s Shore Establishments ie the “land estate”. These are places where we train our Service Personnel to fly helicopters, sail ships and gain other military skills before they go to sea or abroad.

      I then assess how the Government policy/targets and law would impact on the Royal Navy’s Shore Establishments and then write the policy on how we should apply it to our work. I also look at other ways we can work to minimise our environmental impact. We then monitor how well we are doing in reducing our the impact of our activities on the environment. Every year, I promote the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Environment Day for the Royal Navy with educational material that describes ways to minimise our environmental impact. 🙂

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