Profile
Aisling McGarry
My CV
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Education:
I went to Thornhill College, Derry where I studied for my GCSEs (2010-2012) and A Levels (2012-2014). I studied for my Bachelors of Science (BSc) in Neuroscience at the University of Manchester (2014-2017). I studied for my Masters of Research (MRes) in Experimental Neuroscience at Imperial College London (2018-2019).
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Qualifications:
GCSEs and A Levels (Biology, Chemistry, English Literature); BSc (Hons) Neuroscience; MRes Experimental Neuroscience
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Work History:
During my BSc degree, I worked as a waitress at the Old Trafford stadium during match day and also worked in a hotel in Manchester city centre. When I left University of Manchester, I moved to London and worked as an Editorial Assistant at the Royal Pharmacetical Society. For a few months before starting my Master’s degree, I worked as a waitress at a posh hotel called Number Sixteen Hotel, London. My Master’s degree was very busy, but I worked at the University on a small project to help students with planning for their future job.
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Current Job:
Research Techinican in Molecular and Cellular Neuropathology (long name!)
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About Me:
I’m hoping to be a future neuroscientist – I am currently studying how the human brain is affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
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Read more
I’m from Derry in Northern Ireland and I moved to London in July 2017. I live in a flat in Fulham, West London with my friend, Emma. I work as a Research Technician at the UK Dementia Institute in Imperial College London. When I’m not working, I like to bake cake, draw, paint and occassionally try to do some yoga. Sometimes, I even push myself to go to a spin class! My favourite kinds of food are Chinese, pizza and chicken burgers. My favourite music is rock – I love the Arctic Monkeys and the Strokes. Although I love cats and dogs, we don’t have any pets in London (yet)! I have two black cats with my family at home in Derry called Kitty and Thomas.
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I am Research Technician, which means that I will do experiments using human brain tissue and produce results which give us more information about the different parts of the brain affected in Alzheimer’s disease. I look at human brain tissue which has been donated to a brain bank after a person dies. People who donate their brains may have had Alzheimer’s disease, which causes damage to the brain slowly over a long period of time (years) which means the person may slowly lose their memory and forget things. People who are healthy and do not have this disease can also donate their brain. This is useful to compare what a normal, older brain looks like compared to a diseased brain.
The plan for our research group is to take small chunks of brain tissue from many different parts of the brain which carry out different things, for example memory and thinking. With the chunks of brain, we will use different lab experiments to understand how the brain is affected by disease at different levels. This means looking at the different cells in the brain, neurons (which are the main cells, they send electrical signals to each other) and cells which help neurons to live and stay healthy such as astrocytes (they look like stars!), microglia (they look for bad things that shouldn’t be in the brain and get rid of them) and oligodendrocytes (they help neurons send faster electrical signals to each other). In these cells, we look at gene expression (genes are the part of DNA which tells the cell how to make proteins), protein expression (proteins are the building blocks of the cell, they carry out all the important tasks that a cell needs to live) and many others things.
In Alzheimer’s disease, we can also get proteins that can stick together in the brain and cause damage to the neurons. There are two types. One is called amyloid-beta, lots of it can clump together into what we call plaques. The other type is call tau, which are long, thin proteins which are normally found inside neurons. In Alzheimer’s disease, they can become damaged and clump together into tangles. Plaques and tangles together are usually only found in the Alzheimer’s disease brain and not a healthy brain which is why they are interesting to us.
In our group, we want to look at the genes and proteins in all the cells of the brain and what they are doing differently in Alzheimer’s disease. Looking at the brain chunks in the lab, we can try to get all of this information and create a map of the human brain in Alzheimer’s disease! This will be useful for scientists who are looking at Alzheimer’s disease, so they can compare their results to our map.
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My Typical Day:
I spend my day cutting slices of brain, staining brains with different chemicals and looking at brains down a microscope.
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When I arrive at the lab, the first thing I need to do is plan my experiments for the day. I usually write all the chemicals I need, any calculations and all the instructions I need to do my experiments into my lab book (essential for any scientist). I may also need to pick out which samples (so slices of brain) I need for my experiment. I might check that I have enough of all the chemicals I need to start my experiment.
Then, I will go into the lab and start my experiments!
The most recent experiments I have done looked at molecules called RNA, which tell us what genes the cell is expressing (meaning what proteins are being made). Each gene is different to each, which means that each RNA is also different to each other. To look at RNA for a gene I would like to look at, I have to treat the brain tissue in chemicals and with heat so the RNA is free. When the RNA is free, I can add chemicals which stick to the RNA and turn pink. I can see pink dots under the microscope which show me where the RNA I want to look at is in the brain. My experiments so far were used to test whether this experiment would work so when I go back to the lab, I will get to do the experiment again in Alzheimer’s disease brain.
In my in-between or waiting times, I am usually on the microscope. We have a microscope scanner which can take a picture of my brain tissue at very high magnification. This means we can zoom into the image really far and look at cells (which are very, very tiny!). I can then look at these cells on a computer programme which can help me gather information, like counting the cells (because there are lots of them and I have lots of pictures to look at!). Then the computer will give me data in an Excel spreadsheet. Other things I do during this time are on the computer, so this could be looking at data, or reading new research about Alzheimer’s disease or organising my experiment instructions.
Most days will be around 9am to 5 or 6pm. My experiments can be shorter or longer, with different steps that can take different amount of times from 5 minutes to 3 hours. This is why it is very important plan your experiments at the start of the day, so you can use your time well. This is important when we have to meet other scientists. Sometimes, we have meetings where we have to talk to other scientists in our group about what we have found out in our experiments, or talk about other people’s experiments. So we need to always know lots of information about our experiments, to help other scientists learn.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Diligent, passionate and empathetic
What did you want to be after you left school?
Biomedical Scientist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not that I remember...
Who is your favourite singer or band?
The Voidz
What's your favourite food?
Buttermilk chicken burger - if it's on the menu, I'll order it.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Number one is to be happy always. Number two would be to help towards finding a treatment or cure for dementia. Number three would be to have freedom.
Tell us a joke.
When does a brain get afriad? When it loses its nerve.
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