Inside the lab with Anaïs
How did you get involved in CF research?
It's a sad story, but I think it's one that's shaped my academic career. I grew up in London and my best friend had really bad asthma. She died suddenly when she was nine years old. It was found that air pollution in her area could have been a cause of her death. After years of campaigning by her family, she was the first person ever to have air pollution as a cause of death on her death certificate. It’s made me very passionate about clean air and also, importantly, passionate about respiratory health. When I saw this PhD advertised, I thought I could put my interests and previous studies to use to help people with CF.
What’s your research about?
I work with a team lead by Professor Jane Davies, looking at repurposing a drug called glatiramer acetate, or GA for short, to improve treatment for lung infections that people with CF develop.
GA is a multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment that also has promise as a potential antibiotic adjuvant. An adjuvant is a treatment that could be taken alongside an existing antibiotic to improve its effectiveness. For example, alongside tobramycin in the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.
People with CF have unwanted side effects from antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance can develop. The idea is that GA makes antibiotics potentially more effective at treating the infection and reducing the dose of antibiotic required. This is an area of research that people with CF have told us is a priority for them. Working with such a clear set of goals continually updated by people with CF themselves and their healthcare teams, means there is clear direction for research and the great impact it will have on the CF community.
What does a typical working week look like for you?
I love being practical in the lab, so I plan lots of experiments a week at a time. If I'm planning to use new protocols – new methods for my studies – I’ll see if there are any bits that I don't understand. I am a fan of baking so reading a protocol feels like following a recipe for a cake!
Collaboration in our team is valued so we always ask each other questions and help with problem solving or trouble shooting. I tend to analyse the results of my experiments on a Friday, or a Monday of the next week. That way the data gets analysed in one go!
On a typical day, in the mornings I’ll read through experiment plans, previous data and any writing I am doing, have a herbal tea and some food, then start my experiments after lunch. Hopefully they’ll be finished by 5 or 6pm and I can start to analyse the data when it is ready the next day. I have a spreadsheet of all my experiments and it's very satisfying to tick all the boxes!
Where do the samples for your studies come from?
The samples we use in our studies are donated from people with CF who are attending the CF clinic at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Some of the samples are from the same individuals, for example, collected at different points in an infection. We wouldn't be able to study the things we do in such depth, without those samples from people with CF. They’re super important to us.
How do you use the samples?
We grow the bacteria from these samples and use them in our experiments. I work with 96-well plates. These are plastic dishes with 96 tiny tubes – known as wells - included within them. A whole plate is a similar size to typical mobile phone, in width, length and depth! It means we can run lots of different experiments at once.
Each well contains slightly different combinations. All of them have a bacterial culture, with different amounts of antibiotics and GA added too. I then let the bacteria grow for around 18 hours. After this, I measure how much the bacteria have grown in each well. An ideal result would be that in the wells where GA has been added, the bacteria would be growing more slowly or not at all. This would mean that the GA is helping the antibiotic do its job of slowing down or stopping the growth of the bacteria.
Do you have music on in the lab or is it quiet?
Sometimes we have music on out loud, but most of the time everyone listens to their own. Before I go into the lab, I’ll look for a playlist to work to. Recently we have started joining other people's playlists – we can like what they're listening to and add new music to it.
What do you love most about your work?
Everything is so collaborative and everybody is so supportive, especially at research conferences. Everyone really values the voices of people with CF, the healthcare professionals, and their family that look after them. It’s so uplifting to work in an area where everyone is open to working together.
When you walk away from the lab, how do you switch off?
I'm famously not very good at switching off! I love live music and I see as much as possible. I also help run a charity which runs events and goes to music festivals to campaign for young people to become more actively involved in social and climate justice. We do this by discussing issues like clean air and public health and it’s nice to do it whilst at a festival and dancing in a field!
The samples Anaïs uses in her research are available to other researchers through the CF AMR Syndicate Biorepository Network. They’re used by many people, for many different projects with many different objectives, all working to improve how lung infections are diagnosed and treated in CF.
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