Profile

I live in York in a bungalow by the River Ouse. I own 11 and a half plants (the half plant is a baby spider plant still attached to its parent!)

Baby Spider Plant attached to Parent Spider Plant

And when I am not doing science I love doing yoga, playing the piano and sewing. I recently made my first quilt (I am very proud of myself!!).

First quilt I have made

My pronouns are she/her.

I am a Structural Biologist and the University of York. I engineer enzymes by changing parts of their structure to make them better at their job. I find out information about the enzymes by growing crystals.

Crystals that I have grown

These are sent to the Diamond Lightsource in Oxford where they shoot high energy X-rays at them to get information called a diffraction pattern. I then build structures of the enzyme from this information.

Building a crystal structure

The engineered enzymes can then be used to make medicines for drug companies (like Pfizer, who fund my work). This is a more environmentally friendly way to make medicines than currently used and is called biocatalysis.

Every day can be different! And the experiments that I run can vary a lot day to day. This is something I love about my work. Some days I grow my enzymes in E.coli bacteria and other days I crystallise my enzymes or look at chemical reactions by gas chromatography (a big expensive machine!). Here is a photo of where I spend my time.

My lab bench

In addition to these daily activities, sometimes I will teach undergraduate students in the chemistry teaching labs.

Before covid hit, I had plans with the Department of Chemistry Outreach Team to develop an engagement activity for the Festival of Ideas Science Fair in York. This could not go ahead but I can use this opportunity to make the activity bigger and better for future outreach events. I plan to make 3D printed models demonstrating enzyme engineering and hands on activities explaining how proteins are built.