Question: what do you like/enjoy about what you do for your job and what how much have you found out about prottien so far??

Loren Macdonald answered on 20 Jun 2014:

Hmm, interesting question. I really enjoy getting hands-on in the lab and doing experiments. But they can also be really frustrating when they don’t work. When I get a good result I often can be found doing a little dance somewhere before showing it to my boss- who then helps me decide what we’re going to do with it!

Technically, I’m still a student rather than a member of staff but I have the same amount of freedom as a staff member. I don’t have classes or exams and I work mostly to my own schedule. Some members of the lab come in around midday and stay til late at night whilst I come in at around 7.30am and will be home by 5pm at the latest usually. I’m definitely a morning person and I like being able to work flexibly.

As to what I’ve learned about proteins so far? Well, I’ve learned some interesting interactions between some proteins that I work on and I’ve been able to study what happens in cells when there is less of the proteins.

As a geneticist initially, I didn’t really know a great deal about proteins as I had only really learned about genetics and DNA. So, I’d say I’ve probably learned quite a lot about proteins in general since starting my current project. However, I work in a different area to someone who studies proteins and their structure- so I don’t know a lot about that (just some things that were taught in my degree) whereas some of the scientists here do.