Musings of a Regenerative Medicine Scientist and Cat Lover
Oh geez, I haven’t updated my blog since June. The reason is that I’ve been really busy finishing my PhD. It’s a rather drawn-out process which confused many of my friends and family. After I handed in at the end of September lots of people were excitedly asking if I’d finished. Then I had to…
I’m really excited to have been selected to present a poster at the University of Manchester Postgraduate Summer Research Showcase again. It’s such a special event because it brings together postgraduates from all disciplines to share their work. As a PhD student, it’s easy to forget about the breath of research being done at the…
Just before Christmas, I was fortunate to be awarded an Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) public engagement grant from the Wellcome Trust to develop some new activities to help explain my lab’s stroke research. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working really hard to get everything ready for our first event in June.…
This is my cat, Marzipan, responding to some catnip I rubbed on the floor. She usually responds by rolling around but other behaviours often seen include licking, sniffing, biting, drooling and kicking. The effects typically last for 5-15 minutes and after it wears off, they won’t respond again for about 30 minutes. Have you ever…
In a break from convention, here’s a more personal post about why I think volunteering has had a positive impact on my PhD life. In my spare time, I’m an assistant cub scout at 23rd Manchester Scout Group and have been since April 2016. I was involved in scouting as a child for almost 10…
Happy New Year! I know it’s a little late but I did have the flu. For my first post of 2018, here’s a quick round up of my favourite regenerative medicine stories from the past year: Stem Cells Were Sent into Space! How cool is that? Starting out with a literal highlight (cue sarcastic laughing),…
I recently teamed two of my favourite things together, science and cats, and made two videos. The first explains some basic genetics using cat coat length as an example: In the second, I explain some of the genetics of cat coat colour inheritance: The genetics turned out to be far more complicated than expected but…
Hi! Just a quick post to say my next regenerative medicine video is up. I’m thoroughly enjoying making these and I think I’m improving all the time. I now know what more of the buttons on our DSLR do at the very least. Thanks to my other half, Johan, who very kindly made me a…
Oh jeez. I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I posted anything. I’ve been crazy busy with my PhD and cubs recently. I’ve been interested in the history of science for a number of years and the history of regenerative medicine does not disappoint. Surprisingly, the story begins as far back as 382-322 BC…
Here’s a couple of questions I’m often asked when I tell people I’m a regenerative medicine PhD student. What is regenerative medicine? Regenerative medicine is a really exciting and fast moving field of research that aims to develop therapies to repair or replace tissues and organs damaged by disease or injury. There are a number…