-
Asked by anon-196637 to Paddy, Sebastian, Lee, Jennifer, Fiona, Eleanor on 12 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by anon-196670.
-
Fiona Scott answered on 12 Mar 2019:
My research is important because there are enzymes in our bodies that we don’t fully understand. I am making chemical probes that help biologists to suss out what jobs a particular kinase enzyme does and if shutting down that particular kinase is useful for cancer treatment because the kinase seems to do weird things in several types of cancer. If that proves useful then it could save the lives of many cancer patients but equally, if it doesn’t I can still publish my work and save other people trying to do the same thing to find it doesn’t work.
-
-
Sebastian Cosgrove answered on 12 Mar 2019:
I like to think that what I do will one day be used in industrial processes, but that is a bigger picture hope really. In reality, science is small increments done by a lot of people. There will be other people working on similar things to me and other people in my group, but individually we may not reach an appropriate conclusion. Collaboration, or working together, is what moves science forward. So my work is important because it is contributing, albeit in a small way, to the overall goal of all the researchers in my field!
-
Eleanor Senior answered on 12 Mar 2019:
My research is important because my parasite causes cows to miscarry their babies which is traumatic for the cow and also costs the farmers a lot of money (over $60 billion in the US) so hopefully i’ll be able to stop this from happening which will make a lot of people and cows happy.
-
Jennifer Harris answered on 14 Mar 2019: last edited 14 Mar 2019 5:44 pm
The research I did during my Masters and my PhD, looked at the role of the immune system in cancer development. The immune system is switched off in many cancers and is unable to kill the cancer cells. My research is an extensive of some of the immune-therapy work that you see in the news. It’s an important aspect of cancer treatment, as many cancers cannot be cleared simply by targeting the cancer cells with drugs. In fact it requires targeting cancer cell growth, cancer cell metabolism, the immune system and perhaps other factors also. My research therefore was important as we need to work towards a model whereby patients with cancer have immune therapy options available to them.
Comments