Profile

I live in the city centre but at the weekend I love to get out and about walking in the Leicestershire countryside or further afield.  I hope to soon have some 4 legged friends 🐶 to accompany me on my walks as I’ve recently volunteered to help dog owners out by walking their dog(s) when they’re busy.

I’m a big fan of the Great British Bake Off and I try to bake something from the show every week 👩‍🍳 and I’m proud to say that everything I have baked so far has been edible!

My favourite drink is tea 🫖 and I’m happiest when I’m taking care of my indoor house plants (I have 20 different plants in my bedroom alone).

I’m a research engineer at the University of Nottingham, which means I spend most days in labs investigating my research project which usually includes designing experiments, talking to other scientists and analysing data from my experiments. Being a research engineer means I am working towards an Engineering Doctorate which is like a PhD but with an industrial focus (this means that I work and research alongside a company – Deep Branch Biotechnology Ltd.). An engineering doctorate, like a PhD, takes 3-4 years of researching, after which you present your findings and hopefully earn the title ‘Dr.’!

My research project involves working with bacteria (very small living things that are found everywhere but are invisible to the naked eye – you need a microscope to see them properly) that are able to eat carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce protein which can be eaten by animals, like chickens and fish. I am working to improve the protein produced by the CO2 eating bacteria so that it is more nutritious for the animals that eat it. I will be improving the bacteria through synthetic biology.

Video Resources:

• What is Biotechnology? (what I studied at university)
• An example of biotechnology in action (plant example)

What is synthetic biology?

Each cell in our bodies contains a material called DNA, which are often called the ‘building blocks of life’.  DNA contains all the information on how living things look and work, for example, what colour our eyes are is determined by our DNA. This information is stored in sections of the DNA, known as genes, which have a particular sequence of building blocks.

Synthetic biology involves playing around with these building blocks, so it is possible to change building block sequences (genes) by removing building blocks, and even inserting completely new building blocks (known as genetic engineering) to create different building block sequences to the one we started with! A lot of synthetic biology is focused around bacteria cells which also contain DNA and so it is possible to play around with the building block sequences in bacteria.

We play around with the building blocks or engineer bacteria cells in this way to give the bacteria cells new useful properties. For example, in bacteria cells, we can remove or insert building block sequences to make the bacteria cells create products including fuels, food ingredients and antibioticsMATOMO_URL

*antibiotics can be used to fight disease and a doctor may give you them if you’re unwell.

Video Resources:

• Synthetic biology overview
• Genetic engineering

 Why is what I do good for the planet?

CO2 is a greenhouse gas and too much of it is bad for our planet because like a greenhouse traps heat to keep the plants inside warm,  gases like CO2 trap heat around our planet causing it to warm up and this is what is known as as the greenhouse effect which causes global warming and speeds up climate change (the earth’s climate naturally changes over a long time but because of global warming the climate is changing a lot quicker than normal). Global warming is changing our climate and causing ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise and loss of habitats for wildlife. Feeding the bacteria I work with, with CO2 is good for the environment as this takes CO2 away from the atmosphere and creates a protein source for animals to eat, which is better for the environment and more sustainable.

CO2 is produced naturally but increasing amounts of it are building up in the atmosphere, speeding up climate change and aiding global warming. CO2 can be produced from many sources including when making electricity from fossil fuels or driving a car.

Video Resources:

• Greenhouse effect
• Climate change

Why is sustainability important?

There are a limited amount of natural resources available on earth and over the years, humans have used up a lot of these resources. Sustainability is the idea of trying to re-use resources, instead of always using brand new natural resources (think of how we recycle plastic and paper), and a truly sustainable process should be able to continue forever without relying on the use of new natural resources. Moving towards more sustainable processes will be a big help in tackling global warming and climate change.

Video Resources:

• Sustainability in everyday life