Meet the scientists!

Stroke is the third biggest killer in the UK, and it is also the leading cause of disability. Every 40 seconds somebody has a stroke. A stroke happens when blood is stopped from getting to part of the brain, just like a heart attack but instead of the heart not being able to get enough blood it is the brain which ends up getting damaged. It is very important to get someone to a hospital as soon as possible if they have had a stroke because there is something that can make the brain damage worse… your own body’s immune system!! We normally think of our immune system as keeping us fit, healthy and repaired, but when your brain has a large amount of damage your body goes out of control and makes the situation worse. Your body sends white blood cells into the brain to kill the problem, but because a stroke is different to an infection as there is no alien bug to kill, instead the white blood cells end up killing your healthy brain. I am currently doing a PhD looking at the early stages of this immune response after stroke, so I can hopefully target a particular chemical with a drug and reduce the damage caused after stroke. As we can’t test experimental drugs on humans straight away without knowing the consequences I use lab rats in my research. If you want to learn more about animal research please go to http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/

In a PhD you have to organise yourself and set your own targets which means every day can be different.  Some days I might be in the lab measuring things out or running assays, others I might be staining rat brain tissue for different markers of inflammation and brain damage, and then other days might be spent at my computer or on a microscope analysing data. 

I am really passionate about helping to reduce the problem of stroke. You may think that stroke only happens to old people so why should you care about stroke now when you are young?! Well because loads of labs across the world got together and shared all their data on loads of stroke patients and realised that there were patterns in the patients lives before having a stroke. They found that there are 10 risk factors for stroke, such as eating a high fat diet, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, smoking etc. With the money I want to make a free interactive computer program or animation which can be shared with loads of schools and on the Internet to make people aware that it is not just important to look after yourself to have a healthy heart… but it is also important to have a healthy brain!