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I live in Edinburgh with my husband, two kids, eight hens, about 50 tadpoles and one Grandma. I compulsively re-read science fiction books I first encountered years ago. My favourite author is Ursula le Guin. I chose to do neuroscience at university because I thought it looked cool and cutting-edge…and thankfully, it is!

The lab I work in is trying to help a particular group of people with a really really rare form of epilepsy. No-one even knew this disease existed until 8 years ago. It is caused by a particular gene  getting mutated. Genes are like recipes that each cell in your body uses to make the things it needs to survive. The name of the gene we’re interested in is eEF1A2. Not the catchiest name but I didn’t get to decide it unfortunately.

So when eEF1A2 goes wrong then the cells in your brain can’t work properly. We don’t exactly now how they go wrong..YET! That’s my job. To find out how these cells go wrong I have used a really fun technique called CRISPR (ask me about it if you’re interested) to make a new type of mouse in which eEF1A2 has gone wrong, just the same as in the humans we’re trying to help. We can study the mouse to try and find out what’s going on, and then fix it.

I wake up, eat breakfast with my family and take my daughter to school. She’s 7. Then while I’m cycling along the beautiful green path towards the lab I start thinking about what I need to get done that day. Sometimes it’s an experiment with my mice, sometimes it’s working with DNA or  microscopes, or PCR machines, or RNA, or proteins in a Western blot. Sometimes it’s analysing data on the computer for several hours. Sometimes it’s preparing a talk to show others what I’m up to an to ask for help. I go home in time to help put the kids to bed, then I relaaaaxxxxx.