• Question: What's the most exciting thing you've done in your job?

    Asked by danielorton to Alan, Damian, Emma, Liam, Luca on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Damian Bailey

      Damian Bailey answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I do a lot of research with brain surgeons because of my interests in the human brain and how it copes with less oxygen…
      Patients can have a blockage of arteries (furs up with junk because they’ve eaten too much fish and chips over the years without any exercise!) that carry blood and oxygen to the their brains which makes them more likely to have a stroke, basically a heart attack of the brain…
      They come to us feeling very ill and they feel miserable, complaining of dizziness, headaches and difficulty concentrating, even finding it hard to change channels on TV…!
      During the surgery which by the way is called a carotid endarterectomy (what a moutful and try spelling that!), we repair these arteries (bit like repairing a hole in your inner tube after a puncture, except a little bit trickier and way more important!). We do this under a local anaesthetic with the patient awake and speaking just so we can make sure that they’re feeling OK…The operation can take anywhere from 30-90 minutes and the transformation is AMAZING!!! They start off feeling like a clapped out Mini Metro and leave feeling a turbo-charged Ferrari…They can speak clearly, think, concentrate, laugh and feel way, way better…
      The bottom line here is that they won’t have a stroke and go home a totally new person; that’s sooooo exciting for me because you can make a difference; oh and the reason why…? Well, it’s all about getting oxygen to our brains; the more we get, the better we feel!

    • Photo: Liam Bagley

      Liam Bagley answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I think in the short term its spending loads of money! Ha!
      Spending around £50,000 on new equipment for our labs is a pretty big rush.
      In terms of scientifically exciting, I think it has to be having someone in our lab, who is verging on diabetic. studying them after giving them certain exercises to do and drinks to take and they’re slowly and slowly better after 12 weeks! Until eventually, they’reclassed as healthy again. That was really satisfying.
      Makes you feel like you can do anything with a bit of scientific knowledge!

    • Photo: Emma Ross

      Emma Ross answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I’d have to say trekking up to Everest to do some research at high altitude. We lived at 5050 metres for a month to see how the brain copes with having less oxygen for so long, and how we adapt to life with less oxygen available to our bodies. We had to walk for 8 days to get to our high altitude laboratory, which was close to Everest base camp. There was no way to get to it apart from on foot (no cars, planes or trains can get there!). It was a real adventure!

    • Photo: Alan Richardson

      Alan Richardson answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I spent 3 months in a tent living at Everest base camp taking blood and doing VO2max tests on over 200 people on their way up Everest. That was pretty cool. However, taking 25 students to Peru was also really good as I organised the whole project including all the research.

      Alan

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