• Question: Do you enjoy doing projects to discover new things so that you can investigate more, and what was the last discovery you had made?

    Asked by shashank to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB, Ruth on 17 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by lilyandzarahh.
    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      The best thing about science is when you find something completely new, it doesn’t happen very often but when it does it is very rewarding.

      My group discovered a brand new virus, which has not been seen before, in a species of bushbaby living in Africa (one of these guys! : http://www.zooborns.typepad.com/zooborns/galago/). We are very interested in this, because these bushbabies live 300 miles across the sea from the nearest animals with related viruses and have for millions of years, so we want to know how the virus jumped from one species to another. We are trying to figure this out now, we think a mouse or rat might have transferred the virus, but this would be very unusual for this type of virus.

    • Photo: Ee Lyn Lim

      Ee Lyn Lim answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Every project tries to discover new things! That’s the whole aim of research really, and that’s why I do what I do. Sometimes when it seems like questions just lead to more questions rather than answers, it can get exhausting but still that’s the thrill of the chase!

      The latest thing I’ve discovered – which I’m still trying to look deeper into – is that, if you knock out a protein called p110-delta in some of your immune cells, they become completely round and lose the funny hourglass shape they usually have. What does this mean? Why do they do that? Does it mean they don’t work as well anymore? I don’t know – but I’m working on it…

    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I love it!

      Our last discovery (in April) was that a protein your body makes to defend against infection (the protein is called TNF) is actually exploited by HCV (the virus I study) to gain entry into new cells. Just plain devious, and so clever.

    • Photo: Ruth Mitchell

      Ruth Mitchell answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Each new discovery leads to another unquestioned question, so doing your project leads you to discover new things and then comes the unanswered question and so starts a new project…. and on and on – it’s exciting and I enjoy it!

      My last discovery is that the molecule I’m working on (interleukin-4) is working through a cell type (dendritic cells) which we didn’t think was happening! So the question now is how…?

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Hi Shashank-

      I love it, especially when it works!

      The proof of a good project is in how many new questions it generates, so its a neverending process really

      The last discovery I made is that whale bone is very very hard to cut!!

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