• Question: what have you achieved so far? have you saved anyones life so far?

    Asked by annafrancis893 to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 12 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      I don’t think anything I’ve done so far has directly saved someone’s life but it might do one day.

      My research discovered a previously undiscovered chemical from a plant which is able to kill breast cancer cells but doesn’t harm normal breast cells. This could potentially form the basis of a new drug but would first need to go through a lot more lab testing and animal testing before it could be given to patients.

    • Photo: Amar Joshi

      Amar Joshi answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      My current job is trying to improve a therapy for multiple myeloma. There is no specific treatment for myeloma yet. I am part of a large team which makes, tests and improve a potential chemotherapy drug. Doing this job I have helped to make the drugs more active and have fewer side effects.

      I haven’t saved a life doing my job but I hope that one day the work I am doing will.

    • Photo: Anastasia Wass

      Anastasia Wass answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Nothing I’ve done has directly saved someone’s life but then very rarely does one scientist get to take credit for something, usually its a group of people or lots of groups working together who come up with the big answers.

      I’m looking at how and why cancer becomes motile and I’m working on publishing a paper which would be a big achievement for me!

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      I have worked my way up to a senior Biomedical scientist. I do every thing and anything that needs doing in the laboratory and its also my job to teach trainees! I work in a histopathology department that receives biopsy specimens, fluid samples and surgical specimens. we save lives every day. We process specimens and cut very thin tissue sections. These are then stained with a dye called a H&E (haematoxylin and eosin) this stains cells nuceli purple and cytoplasm pink(check my profile page for a picture ). the slides are looked at down the microscope and the histopathologist doctors diagnose if a biopsy is cancer or not. If its a large surgical specimen for instance a breast the specimen will be sampled so the doctors can tell the surgeons and oncologists if all the cancer has been removed or if has spread to near by blood vessles and lymph nodes. The information we provide about a patients specimen directly impacts on their treatment.

      we also receive specimens from bowel, cervical and breast cancer screening programmes. screening programmes are so important as they aim to catch cancer early, this gives the patient a better chance of survival.

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