Profile

I’m a second year student doing a PhD (a four-year research project) in the microbiology department (bacteria and fungi) at the John Innes Centre in Norwich.

I am looking at pea plants and a special type of bacteria, called rhizobia, which lives in the roots. The rhizobia are able to take nitrogen from the air and turn it into a form that the plant can use to make DNA and proteins. In return for the nitrogen compounds, the plant gives the bacteria sugar to make energy. I am trying to understand a set of proteins that the bacteria makes when they are inside the plant, but don’t make when they are living in the soil.

One of my lab-grown pea plants:

At university I studied plant science – and I am really fascinated by all areas of biology, especially plant science and bacteria. In my spare time I also try and get involved in science communication and also science policy – how the government is influenced by the science that researchers like me do!
In my spare time I like to bake lots of cakes. I then like to go to the gym so I don’t feel bad after eating all the cake! I also donate to the Battersea Dogs Home, or go to visit my parents with their new puppy (it is a very cute puppy).

I often run experiments overnight –  so my first job in the morning is always to look at the results of those or set up the next experiment (if there is one)! I then set up any new experiments, and my day is off. If an experiment takes a while (sometimes they can take hours) I try and do lots at the same time to keep myself busy.

If I get any spare time, I like to update twitter, or the blog I run to keep the world updated on my scientific (and other) interests. I sometimes also spend time doing something a bit different – maybe helping out with a school visit, or something like I’m a Scientist… I have even had a few chances to speak to people from newspapers and radio.

Often in the day there are talks from other scientists about their work – both people who work here, and visitors. These talks are great to hear about all the new discoveries that people are making! Science is a fast-moving world, and I love that about it! Sometimes it’s me doing the talking – but this can be quite scary!