Briefly, tell us about your background and career/studies up to this point?
I am a senior technician and Registered Scientist in the Multi-Disciplinary Teaching Laboratories at King’s. After getting a Higher National Diploma (HND) majoring in Analytical Biochemistry and Microbiology, then Neuropharmacology, I accumulated an extensive range of skills over many years working in Teaching and research: the first 18 in Pharmacology and Neuroscience, then 6 years in Physiology, before switching to Molecular Biology and taking charge of my own Teaching Laboratory.
Outside term time, I do research, and am co-author on many Pharmacology research papers and articles, with at least 2 Neuroscience publications, on the blood-brain barrier. From 2010 to 2018, I was involved in protein production and purification at the Randall Institute, researching the DNA sequences involved in coding the active sites for smooth muscle contraction and the types of proteins involved in certain ataxias.
In 2013, I became involved (via then ISSET Chief Scientist, Julie Keeble) in developing winning experiments from their Mission Discovery Summer School programmes, globally, to a format that can be launched to the International Space Station, for initiation and monitoring. Between 2018 and 2022, I assisted project students in developing further microgravity experiments, which are now my primary research commitment.
What is a typical day like for you?
There is no typical day. During the Practical Teaching in Semesters 1 and 2, I am preparing for, setting-up and taking down, taught practicals for up to 72 (mainly undergraduate) students at a time. Outside that time there is equipment and lab maintenance, ordering and preparation of materials in good time, ahead of the practicals. Then there is Research and STEM outreach, mainly in the Summer Recess, and any courses that I may want or need to enrol on.
Looking back, did the pandemic and resulting lockdowns teach you anything you’re willing to share?
Furlough gave me the opportunity to write up the results of completed Microgravity Experiments, carried out on the ISS (International Space Station), and learn that I could work from home effectively.
What do you think people in the School would find most surprising about you?
That I worked on the first experiments, designed by Secondary School Pupils, to be launched from anywhere in Europe, and that they were launched on Antares Cygnus Orb-1, the first unmanned Cargo Resupply Services module to successfully deliver a scientific payload to the ISS (on 09/01/2014).
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
Apart from developing Mission Discovery Week winners’ Microgravity Experiments, I also help with the Mission Discovery Week, and am included on the Judging Panel. I help students develop their ideas, and bring examples of the module that the experiments have to fit in, and the kinds of materials that they can use.
I am also involved in other STEM Outreach: I helped Julie Keeble to develop experiments to illustrate the effects of ‘performance enhancing drugs’ such as caffeine and propranolol on heartrate of the water flea, Daphnia magna so that school children could examine the role of these drugs, and do mock drug tests on pretend ‘urine’ samples, to spot the drug cheat athletes. This was so popular that Glaxo SmithKline turned it into an activity pack to send out to UK schools during the 2012 London Olympics year.
I became involved, last year with Space For All, headed by researchers at CHAPS, a global initiative to find ways to make Astronaut Training more accessible to differently physically and mentally-abled individuals. I think this was partly inspired by the British astronaut and surgeon, John McFall. I have been thinking of ways that flight suits and exercise equipment could be adapted to accommodate different disabilities, and sharing those ideas with others in this group.
A recent project has been to use my longer weekends to travel in our motorhome, from Kent to the New Forest and Isle of Wight.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
My most recent is to win a Staff Award for Outstanding Technical Services Support in Education, having been previously nominated unsuccessfully
What is your favourite thing about working at King’s?
The variety of my job, and the people and students, who I love to help!
QUICK-FIRE:
Favourite season: Summer. I think all days should have 12 hours of daylight.
Favourite London restaurant: Ladywell Tandoori (Ladywell, Lewisham); Milaad Tandoori, (Deal) Sapporo Ichiban (Catford, Lewisham).
Favourite book: The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley: I love the message about treating people the way you would wish to be treated.
Favourite scientist: Roger Altounyan. In some ways he was a bad Pharmacologist, as he experimented on himself. But, he had severe allergic asthma, and discovered Sodium cromoglycate (Cromolyn) in 1965, while investigating plants and herbs which have bronchodilating properties. One such plant was khella (Ammi visnaga) which had been used as a muscle relaxant since ancient times in Egypt. He deliberately inhaled derivatives of the active ingredient khellin to determine if they could block his asthma attacks. After several years of trial, he isolated an effective and safe asthma-preventing compound.
Like him, I had hayfever that was not prevented by antihistamines, and this drug has prevented me developing COPD (which killed my grandmother) although, sadly, it has been de-listed in the UK since 2021.