Question: have you been studying this for long, do you hope to complete your curiousity within the next few months or year? how would you feel if you discovered the perfect explanation of why there i so many infections/diseases?

Amy MacQueen answered on 17 Jun 2011:

Hey eimear!

What a fantastic question! Thanks! 🙂

I have been studying my PhD for a year and a half – it is very specialised which means I am looking at a tiny little protein (which can’t even be seen down a microscope!) in cells of the immune system and looking at its important role in how these cells behave. Because all these systems are so small and so incredibly complicated it has taken years of study by other people to even identify and characterise this protein in the first place!!

I should be finished my PhD in 2 and a half years time, by which point I hope to have discovered the difference between two different forms of this protein and how they might be used differently in white blood cells called T cells when they fight infection. This may seem like a really small thing to find out but its very important to know exactly what is going on so that we can make new medicines in the future.

If you think about it thousands of scientists have done lots of work across the world so that someone can publish a diagram in your school textbook of how things work inside cells!! 🙂

I may never know in my lifetime what its role is in every infection and disease but hopefully my work will give other scientist of the future the tools they need to carry work on and help more people. Other scientists like you maybe?!

🙂