• Question: What has your biggest achievement as a scientist so far

    Asked by anon-252550 to William, Melissa, Melanie, Ella, Annabel on 5 May 2020. This question was also asked by anon-252820.
    • Photo: Melanie Krause

      Melanie Krause answered on 5 May 2020:


      Thank you for the question! ๐Ÿ™‚
      I think I’ll give two answers: In my PhD I have found a new way by which the virus I study (Vaccinia Virus) tricks the immune system of the cells it infects. There is a process called autophagy which cells use to ‘eat’ incoming pathogens up so they are not dangerous anymore. Some viruses have found a way to escape autophagy and my virus found a way that is very different from other ones previously known and I discovered that :).
      Another thing I was involved in is that I worked for a pharma company during my Masters degree. There we developed a screening mechanism to identify not chemicals that could be used as cancer drugs. I was only a very small part in a big project but its great to think that I helped in the development of something that treats cancer.

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