A shot of science 2017

I gave a two-minute talk as a part of a "shot of science", at a "Pint of science" on 15th May 2017, I even won a prize (as voted by the audience!) Here are some photos and at the bottom of the page, is my laypersons description of my current project. (Original Google photos here)

Me - talking about the "spiderman" action of neurtophils

L-R Dr. Elinor Chapman (with a pint!), Jennifer Mitchell and Dr. Angela Hackett (with a pint!).

Tweets by my colleague on the evening!

I study whether white cells explode in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a conditions where joints become inflamed and causes pain and immobility. My friend Sue, who’s 37, is a wife, mother of two energetic girls, keen runner and GP suffers from arthritis. Medication normally keeps her arthritis under control, but recently an episode of flu caused a major flare up, leaving a normally jolly competent individual, in significant pain and struggling to do her job well.

The honest truth is that scientist and medics have an incomplete understanding of what triggers and causes’ arthritis like Sue’s. If we’re to better treat these conditions, we’ve got to understand them better.

I study one particular type of white blood cell – the neutrophil. We know that these cells normally protect the body from infection, you could consider them the front line infantry by shooting and by eating up bacteria and viruses that try to attack our bodies.

Recently scientists described these cells not only as eating up bacteria but by exploding, releasing a NET to trap and kill bacteria, maybe think of them as being like spiderman.

In conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, we know that these white blood cells rush to the joints where they breakdown the bone, leading to immobility and pain. I’m interested in this spiderman response, and release of NETS by white blood cell in rheumatoid arthritis and working out what is contained in the NETs, so that we can understand the biology of the disease better and hopefully provide better treatments for people like Sue.