Profile

I trained as a vet and became a specialist in working on the medical problems of cats and dogs before getting the bug for research in science.  I still do some work as a vet but mainly I work in a research institute that is part of Cambridge University where I study the genes that make humans and animals over-eat.  At home I am mum to two small boys which means I spend a lot of time chasing pirates and clearing up mess. I play hockey for a local team. We have a very noisy cat.

Our research starts with people’s pets – obesity is a common problem in pet dogs so we collect information and slobber from slim and overweight dogs to learn about which genes are important in controlling body weight.

We use dog slobber to extract DNA in a ‘proper’ research lab (lots of white surfaces and fancy kit) using cutting edge techniques to find out about the genetic variation that causes some dogs to gain weight when others stay lean.  A lot of my work is at a computer – the data we generate needs to be analysed using computer programs that allow us to focus on the genes of interest.

Once we have found genetic variants which are associated with obesity we study them in the lab (cells in plastic dishes, transferring small volumes of clear colourless liquid) and in real dogs.  People bring their pet dogs in to be tested for how they behave around food and how much energy they use up during daily life.  Those experiments are quite fun!

I usually spend most of my day in an office. I run a small team of scientists so I help them plan their work and spend a lot of time organising new projects, writing papers to share the work we’ve done with other scientists and applying for money to do more science.  That might sound a bit dull but I like it because I am always focussing on how to learn more about how our bodies work.

I really enjoy meetings with the people I work with to discuss our projects. It’s sometimes very difficult to work out what the results mean, or how to do the next experiment and I like working to solve those problems with someone else.

Sometimes I actually ‘do science’ myself – usually by writing code that gets the computer to ask questions about the genes that are important in regulating how much animals eat.  I sometimes work with actual dogs to study how they eat and how much energy they burn up every day – it’s lovely to be able to play with dogs and call it work!