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I work with influenza viruses.

A drawing of a flu virus:

These are really tiny, but they can make you feel very ill. The flu virus doesn’t just give you a runny nose and sore throat, but can make you feel so ill and aching that you can’t even get out of bed, chances are if you can get up to play a game or watch your favourite TV, you probably haven’t got flu.

I look at how the virus works in the body, how the virus changes over time and at how it is able to travel through the air and infect new people.

I also spend a lot of time training and helping students doing their first degrees or the ones to become scientific doctors.

My day starts with an early morning dog walk with my very enthusiastic spaniel, who gets spoiled by my Mum whilst I’m at work. I then catch a train into London with lots of sleepy commuters in very smart suits. I like to read the difficult science papers on the journey in because my brain works best in the morning. The lab where I work is just next to Paddington station, so I get to wave to the bear  on platform one before a quick stroll into work.

The first thing I do is to check my cells are happy. I work with influenza virus, it can’t grow on its own, it has to grow inside another living thing. In the past scientists collected cells from cancer tumours and found if they gave them liquid food and space to grow, they would keep multiplying and multiplying. Lots of science is done with these cells, especially work with viruses. So I have to keep my cells fed and make sure they have room to grow in special very clean flasks. Usually I share the clean safety cabinet, where I look after my cells, with the other early bird in our lab, who is taking care of her cells too. We usually have the radio on in the background and tend to gossip about weekend adventures.

This is an incubator full of cells

The cells are being fed and a bigger flask to grow in

There are many different types of experiments I run, but often they start and end with me needing to know the amount of virus I have. So I spend a lot of time measuring viruses using a method called a plaque assay, the end result is counting hundreds of white holes in a layer of cells dyed purple.

When I have the results, sometimes it is obvious what I want to do next, sometimes it isn’t. When I’m not sure, I go and have a meeting with my boss, Prof. Wendy Barclay, this usually involves lots of coffee and drawings on whiteboards or the back of bits of paper, sometimes the other members of the team get involved too, throwing in ideas based on things they’ve tried or have read about in other scientist’s research.

Once we’ve come up with a plan, I’ll sketch it out in my lab book and do a list of everything I’ll need and check that I’ve got it all. Usually I will need lots of cells, so I will prepare them so they will grow enough to be ready the next day of later in the week (biology takes a lot of planning).

Then it is time for lunch, on busy days I eat at my desk whilst checking emails or new bits of research that have been published, on quieter days I make it to the tea room or even better, outside by the canal on sunny days.

In the afternoon, I’m often helping students with their research projects, looking at the data I’ve produced in my experiments or setting up the next set of virus infections. Then the day frequently ends with a talk where we learn about other scientist’s work, these researchers can come from all around the world and we get to ask them questions and even suggest ideas they might not have thought of.

Finally it is time to catch a train home (sometimes I read a book, listen to podcasts or play a game on my ipad). Once home I relax by walking or running with my dog, cooking a tasty supper and then sleep ready for the next day’s very early start.