• Question: what diseases have you cured?

    Asked by 321blastoff to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 19 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by parishadabasia.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hi 321blastoff!

      Scientists don’t get to cure diseases, but they get to advise doctors and pharmaceutical companies on what treatments to test, which will then cure patients. This is a really complicated and long process, because we have to make sure there are no side effects and that the treatment really works – so it’s several years before our research becomes a cure, and I think all of us are too young to already have cured a disease!
      But I have worked on projects on brain cancer, on stroke, on cervical cancer and on herpes virus infections – all of which I hope will be cures in the future!
      I’ve also participated in clinical trials as a volunteer and had my brain scanned to test a new MRI technology that could be a cure too.

      Do you want to be a scientist or a doctor?

      🙂 Sarah

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hiya – I’ve not really cured any disease – my research is more increasing our basic understanding of how cancer forms with the hope someone else can take what I learn and use it to find cures.
      that said I was part of a project that really reduced the ammount of cancer a mouse gets in its intestine by taking away a gene called MBD2. We’re now talking to chemists and people who design drugs to see if they can figure out a way of stoping this gene with a drug.

Comments

  • Photo: 321blastoff

    321blastoff commented on :

    thank you for answering my question, at first when i was younger i wanted to be a doctor, however i realised i was crap at science. So instead i have decided to become an accountant, as my math skills are wayyy better than my science skills.
    I find it interesting of how you guys are studying these projects, such as cancer and viruses.

    • Photo: Karen

      Karen commented on :

      My one bit of advice is to do something you enjoy – what ever career you choose you could be doing it for a long time (like the rest of your life) so you need to be able to enjoy it. Usually if you enjoy something you’re good and it and vice versa – so that helps – Good luck

    • Photo: Sarah

      Sarah commented on :

      Hi 321blastoff, if you’re good at maths, then studying maths or physics at uni will be a doddle for you – and then you can still do science if you want to, but stick to doing all the maths the scientists are scared of. I work in Systems Biology, with lots of mathematicians that set up computer simulations of how biochemistry works in cells – and they need good people! So do look into that too if it sounds interesting!