• Question: when you publish your work/ findings, what hppens from there? does your work really make a difference to people's lives, and how?

    Asked by tessa to Chris, Kay, Kerstin, Lorna, Liv on 17 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Lorna Houlihan

      Lorna Houlihan answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      We publish our work when we have found something new, or finished a project. What we want is to tell people about the research we have done, how we did it and the results we found. If it’s interesting then for example pharmaceutical companies or other researchers will take that result to design drugs that can help people.

    • Photo: Olivia Hibbitt

      Olivia Hibbitt answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      Hi tessa,

      I try to publish my findings as soon as I get them……science is all about the number of publiations you have whihc can make it feel quite synical at times. A lot of people I know work by the rule ‘will it get me a publication in 6 months’ that means that a lot of stuff that is really interesting isn’t done because people think there is too much risk in it not working!
      The second part of your question…..about making a difference…….my work is trying to develop treatments for people. I hope that it will eventually help people but to be honest it is probably at LEAST 5 years from the clinic, although I do have a some people interested in looking at clinical trials for the stuff I do. Whether or not my vector actually goes to the stage of being given to people the things that I find with it can help other scientists answer important questions…..all science is teamwork!

    • Photo: Kerstin Zechner

      Kerstin Zechner answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      Unfortunately, my research doesn’t directly benefit people as it is basic research – trying to understand how a cellular process works rather than finding an application for something. I’d hope that my discoveries would eventually find an application that would be researched by another lab.

    • Photo: Kay Penicud

      Kay Penicud answered on 18 Mar 2010:

      You start your next research project! There are always more questions then you have time to answer….

      Personally, my 18 months working for cancer research has not made a difference to any cancer cure. However, i hope that when i’ve finished the project we will have a new cancer drug target.

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