what are you currently researching?

Quentin Leclerc answered on 21 Apr 2021:

Hello! I’m currently trying to understand how bacteria are sharing DNA with each other. This is important because normally when bad bacteria make us sick, we can get rid of them with antibiotics. However, sometimes bacteria can get some DNA that makes them become resistant to antibiotics. Because bacteria can then share this DNA with each other, more and more can quickly become resistant to antibiotics, which makes it hard for us to get rid of them when they make us sick!
Hopefully, by understanding how bacteria share DNA, I can stop them from doing that, and therefore prevent them from becoming more resistant to antibiotics 😀

Ed Peake answered on 21 Apr 2021:

I’m using computers to learn from people’s MRI scans of their knees. If they have osteoarthritis then from the images we can predict if they will need to have joint replacement surgery. The computer ‘AI’ can also predict how bad people knee’s hurt.

Steve Briddon answered on 21 Apr 2021: last edited 21 Apr 2021 12:57 pm

We’re working on lots of different projects, but they are all looking at how cells talk to each other using messengers (often called hormones or transmitters). The messengers signal to the cells by sticking (“binding”) to special proteins on the outside of the cell called receptors. If you think of a cell as a balloon, the cell membrane is the balloon, enclosing the cell contents (the air in the balloon). The receptors sit across the membrane. The messenger sticks to the receptor on the outside of the cell and this sends a signal to the inside of the cell to change its behaviour.

We are researching how the cell organises these receptors, how they move around in the cell membrane, and how this changes how they bind to medicines. We do this using microscopes which can “see” where the medicine are (if we make them glow).

There are lots of medicines that use these types of receptors (like heart medicine, anti-histamines for hay fever etc.) – almost a third of the medicines we use. So understanding this is really important in designing better medicines in the future.

Ross Low answered on 21 Apr 2021:

We have found a new parasite that is killing songbirds in the UK. Their numbers have gone down 70% in the last 10 years. Turns out this new disease (not COVID-19) is being caused by a brand new parasite and I am trying to work out how different it really is and how we can stop it.

Rosie Goodburn answered on 21 Apr 2021:

We’re working on ways we can use a new machine called an MR-Linac that combines MRI with Radiotherapy. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a way of making pictures of internal organs like your lungs and liver using a super-strong magnet. And Radiotherapy is a way of treating cancer using radiation to kill cancer cells and leave the healthy parts unaffected.
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By combining them, the idea is to see tumours and nearby organs more clearly when we’re treating patients so we can improve the chances of curing the cancer and reducing side effects.
It was really difficult to combine both of these machines into one: It’s a new technology and a lot of technical challenges are still being figured out today. I am working on the MRI side that allows us to see the organs really well so we can be more sure radiation is sent to the right places.
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In normal Radiotherapy, scientists calculate where the radiation will go in the body with 3D X-ray images that show the bones very well. It’s important to see the bones for these calculations. MRI images look different from X-ray images: You can see organs better in MRI scans, but you can’t see bones very well. My job is to make fake versions of the 3D X-rays from the MRI scans so we can calculate where the radiation is going to end up right before we treat patients with Radiotherapy.

Angela Mwape answered on 22 Apr 2021:

Hi Alysia

I am currently looking behavioural change interventions to minimise the misuse of antibiotic within UK primary care

Abdullah Iqbal answered on 22 Apr 2021:

I am reserching the use of stem cells (cells that can turn into other cells) in the spinal cord and if they can replace the cells lost during diseases such as spinal cord injury and multiple scleorosis. It involves cutting tiny slices of spinal cord and testing. Hopefully we can eventually test the drugs on humans depending on our results.

Lucile Crete answered on 22 Apr 2021:

Hi Alysia,

I am currently working on two different projects, both focusing on the diet and behaviours of animals that lived in East Africa about 3 million years ago. By looking into the biology of these animals, we hope to get more information on the environment and climate at the time, as animals tends to adapt to their environments. Learning about the environment and climate in East Africa about 3 million years ago is important for studies on Human Evolution, because fossil from several hominin (human) species have been discovered in this region, and researchers would like to understand how much environmental and climate change might have influenced Human Evolution.

At the moment, I study the diet of two specific antelope species, the impala and the springbok, which still exist today and have a very adaptable diet (they can eat grasses but also fruits, seeds, leaves). We believe that what they eat is influenced by what type of vegetation is available around them. Therefore, if we can observe changes in their diet in East Africa through time (and we do!) we believe that it is likely to be related to changes in environmental conditions and climate.

In the same way, I am currently working with a team that looks at the diet of carnivores from the same region (mostly lions, leopards and hyenas). Because carnivores feed on the herbivores that are abundant in their habitat, we think that their content of their diet might give us some information on the environmental conditions these animals lived in, because the type of herbivores present in a habitat changes depending on the local vegetation and climatic conditions.

Rebecca Reed answered on 22 Apr 2021:

I’m studying whether we can treat cells to keep them healthier for longer when they get older. I’ve been testing a lot of different treatments in a cell model of ageing to see if I can lower the inflammation cells get when they’re stressed or old. So far, it seems that I can! There’s a lot of work to go still but it’s exciting information so far 🙂 The aim is to find a way to improve what we call ‘healthspan’ so that eventually people will be able to live without disease for longer.

Kip Heath answered on 22 Apr 2021:

My current research is on sepsis diagnosis. Sepsis is a blood stream infection that has a fatality rate of 32%. It can take 72 hours to work out which bacteria is causing the disease. I’m working with coworkers to see if we can reduce that to 8 hours. That way patients will get the right treatment earlier.

Sian Green answered on 23 Apr 2021:

I am currently researching whether it is better to use videos or photographs to record wild mammals, and whether people find it easier to identify mammal species in photos or videos, and if people prefer to look at videos or photos.

Michael Capeness answered on 28 Apr 2021:

I’m engineering bacteria to recover metals from industrial waste. The bacteria I work on Desulfovibrio (De-sulf-o-vib-rio) is excellent at picking up metal from the environment, and I’m changing it’s DNA to make it even better or to only pick up certain metals. Some of these metals are quite valuable, like Copper, Platinum, Aluminium, so we are hoping to then give them back to industry once we have captured them so they can be made into more things.

Question: what are you currently researching?

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