• Question: Have you invented anything that has saved life's or changed peoples life's.

    Asked by Killerwaffel77 to Carolyn, Siana, Sara, Richard, Peter on 6 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by killerwafer1360.
    • Photo: Carolyn Nielsen

      Carolyn Nielsen answered on 6 Nov 2015:

      Not yet- but this is why I wanted to be a scientist! The main thing I am interested in is vaccine development because vaccines are the most effective way of protecting public health, after clean drinking water.

      My research looks at understanding why vaccines work better in some people than others. The reason I study cytomegalovirus (a virus that affects your immune system) is to try and understand if this infection stops vaccines working as well. This will help other scientists develop better vaccines that can protect more people.

    • Photo: Sara Falcone

      Sara Falcone answered on 6 Nov 2015:

      Not yet, unfortunately. But I am in contact with an association of patients affected by a kidney disease I am studying and every year we meet so they can give me some feedback on what they would like the studies to be focused on. Not all their requests are feasible, but it is nice to direct the research on something that I am sure is important for them.

    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 6 Nov 2015:

      Not directly, although who knows? In my work I have certainly done things like test and invent new experimental methods which other scientists have used (so it may have changed their lives, as without my work they wouldn’t be able to do what they have).

      One of the beauties of science is that it’s a team effort so you never know who you might influence or what the future will hold. We have very recently found a change in the brain of people with Huntingtons disease, an inherited form of dementia, which could be useful for measuring disease progress (by MRI scanning or by blood test) so you can use this to measure how well new medicines are working. We have also ‘cured’ animals in the lab of kidney failure caused by diabetes using a new medicine which we hope to be able to test in patients in the next couple of years, so you never know!

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