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Asked by to Anita, Daryl, Nimesh, Amy, Sandra on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by , , , , , , , .
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Anita Thomas answered on 16 Jun 2014:
Hi u12callawayl,
I’m considered a bit strange – I like best to write up the studies we’ve completed, ready for publication. But, really, I tend to like best the task that I’m performing at the moment. Perhaps I just ‘live in the now’?
Today I’m setting up an assay that we’ve been planning and collecting samples for not just months, but years (some samples are labelled 2011). Using this assay, we can determine the concentration of cytokines (factors produced by cells) in each of our samples. It’s taken the two of us all day -and we’ll be going until about 20:00, we think (the day started at 07:30). This is not a 9-5 job, that’s for certain. We’ll read our plate tomorrow. The kit ‘only’ cost ~£1400! so we hope that it works. We can’t afford to repeat it, really.
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Daryl Jones answered on 19 Jun 2014:
My favourite part of my job is going on conferences around the world!! I get to travel all over Europe and America, and sometimes other places too, to present data that i have gathered and share our findings with other scientists. It’s so cool because we get to see all different places and meet new people. In March i went to Colorado and I got to go skiing, for work!!! SO much fun.
At the moment i’m working on how alzheimers disease spreads in the brain! It’s really interesting! We are trying to develop ways to cure alzheimers disease.
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Amy Monaghan answered on 19 Jun 2014:
The best part of my job is definitely getting to travel all over the world! I got to go to Italy for two weeks last year for a conference and spent a lot of time sunbathing and eating pizza.
I also like the fact that I can work whatever hours I like – so if I decide to have a lie in I can go into work late (although that means I have to stay later in the evening). Sometimes I go into the lab at midnight to run experiments and put the music on really loud like I’m having a party.
The best part of my job though, is when I get to share it with other people, so keep asking questions!
At the moment I’m working on finding new drugs for prostate cancer by testing chemicals that have come from plants and animals in deep sea trenches. These trenches have never been explored before so we’ve no idea what they might hold and the diseases these chemicals might be able to treat!!
Amy
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Nimesh Mistry answered on 20 Jun 2014:
Hi Guys,
My favourite part of the job is making a compound that no one has ever made before and for it to work as a medicine. That’s an amazing feeling.
Making it is fun too. I like the apparatus set ups I need to for my experiments. A lot of the time it’s improvising with the glassware I have in the lab. It’s nice to have a white material to see at the end of all the hard work.
Comments
Anita commented on :
Yayyyyy! It worked! Whew……………… 🙂
Amy commented on :
Am I allowed to answer this too?
My favourite part of being a research scientist is actually talking to people about my research and getting their opinions. It’s always an amazing feeling when an experiment you have been trying for months finally works, but telling people about it, particularly people who aren’t scientists, and seeing there excitement is even better