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Our bodies are made up of small building blocks called cells. Inside each of these cells is a molecule called DNA. DNA is a very long molecule – each cell contains 2 metres of DNA which is coiled up so it can fit into the cell which is so tiny you can’t see it with the naked eye. The DNA is made up of lots of short sections called genes, each of which tells the cell what to do.

The cells are constantly dividing to make new cells. If they become damaged they can stop dividing in a process known as senescence. Senescent cells also go through some other changes – their DNA bunches together in blobs and they produce chemicals which tell other cells what is happening to them.

In the cells of people with cancer, often the cells can’t become senescent anymore which is why they divide so often and form tumours. If we understand more about the process of senescence, we might be able to turn it back on in these cancer cells and help to treat people with cancer.

I mainly try and find out about this by growing cells in a dish and doing different experiments on them. These include extracting the DNA from the cells and analysing it on a computer using coding.

7:30 Wake up and eat some breakfast.

8:45 Get on the bus to the lab.

9:30 Arrive in my office, check my emails in case my supervisor wants me to do anything new or anything else exciting is happening (like free food!)

9:45-12:00 I spend the morning either in the lab doing experiments or at my desk doing coding on the supercomputer.

12:00-1:00 Lunch with the other PhD students.

1:00-2:00 Seminar. A science expert usually from another institute will come and talk about their research for an hour. We have topics ranging from hair colour to dinosaurs!

2:00-5:00 More experiments or coding.

5:00 Home time! (Unless I have an experiment that takes a long time, in which case I’ll stay a bit longer in the evening. Occasionally I will have to come in at the weekend but I try and avoid this if possible because its good to take breaks!)

I’d like to make an app called You’re The Scientist. This would be a game where you’d be a scientist working in a lab to show the public what day to day life as a scientist is like. You’d be able to do stuff like grow your own cells and look at them through the microscope. There’d also be the chance to see some of the problems we come across, like cells being contaminated and accidentally dropping your experiment on the floor!

Although I have some coding experience I have never done any app development so I’d use the money towards teaching me how, or getting someone else to help me with it.