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Why did you get
into science?
So I guess the above goes some way to explaining
why I went into science,also I loved biology at
school. When I first saw Oliver Gillie's book
(The Living Cell) with a picture in colour of
the inside of a cell I just stood and looked at
it with an open mouth. Was it possible that every
cell in my body had all of those wonderful bits
in it? And they could all work together to keep
me alive? I just had to find out how.
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Why do you work
in the area that you do?
I work on Alzheimer's disease because
I truly believe I can make a difference. It isn't
really for myself although I would be lying if
I said that I wasn't afraid of being old and unable
to help myself. I don't want to be relying on
someone to feed me and wash me. Most people with
Alzheimer's disease are over 70. If we can get
a drug that will help keep the nerve cells functioning
for a few years longer then those people who would
otherwise be unable to care for themselves will
be able to for that much longer.
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Are you a scientist
24/7?
In reality it is more like 14/6-
although I worry 24/7 about work and often wake
up dreaming about it! But I also try to fit in
art and writing. I used to be a performance poet-
though I admit I was known for my poems about
science. I was involved in setting up the Bristol-Bath
poetry association, The Poetry Can. Later I was
lucky enough to study enamel- glass on metal-
under the artist Elizabeth Turrell for four years
at Clifton.
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I cannot begin to express what a wonderful
art form it is. I adore it. Glass is applied onto copper,
or steel, or silver and heated in a kiln to about 850oC.
I feel like an alchemist, and in my art forms I am trying
to find a true meeting point between art and science.
I also am affiliated
to a wonderful group of women artists, Catalyst. Once
a year they get together and put on an exhibition about
a scientific theme- this year it was the brain. I am
trying to get money for them to put on an exhibition
about Alzheimer's disease, which would provide the public
with both a scientist's and artist's view of the disease,
its problems and its solutions.
What's your favourite
trivial pursuit category?
I suppose I'd pick science and nature
because I'd have the best chance - although I'd have
a stab at art and literature.
What was the title
of your last published paper?
The title of my most recent published
paper was 'Measurement of pre- and post-synaptic proteins
in cerebral cortex: effects of post-mortem delay' which
was a methods paper. It had its moments and I was proud
of it for many reasons but it isn't going to get the
readers fainting in the aisles. I think I'd prefer to
give the title 'Alpha and beta secretase: profound changes
in Alzheimer's disease' showing a doubling of activity
of an enzyme involved in Alzheimer pathology or 'Specificity
in neurotrophin:Trk-receptor interaction: the crystal
structure of TrkB-d5 in complex with neurotrophin-4/5'
which solves the structure of a growth factor with its
receptor. Even then it's not snappy is it?
What scientist do you admire from the past?
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. I work in the
new Dorothy Hodgkin University Building in Bristol.
She was Chancellor of Bristol University from 1970 until
1988. She recorded the first X-ray diffraction pattern
from a protein crystal while at Cambridge in 1934. She
solved the structures of penicillin, vitamin B12, insulin
and many other proteins through X-ray crystallography,
and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964. What
an amazing, and by all accounts, humble and gracious
woman!
What would you like to be remembered
for?
I am truly not worried about being remembered.
Even the largest and greatest monuments will come tumbling
down in the end, that applies to scientific discoveries
too. I am only worried about making the most of every
moment I have and contributing to the enlightenment
of humanity. That answer was too heavy to end on- we
need to have fun too!
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