Have you ever wondered: How to become a scientist?

What’s up guys? Have you ever wondered why skie is blue? Why onions make you cry? What was the deal about that dress? Well, this is the channel for you. Welcome to have you ever wondered. This channel is all about asking you what you guys wonder about and then answer yet so I thought I’d use my first video to introduce myself and ask you. Have you ever wondered how to become a scientist? So hi, my name is mouse. I’m a scientist sounds a bit like Alcoholics Anonymous. Oops. So we should probably go back to the beginning. But not that far. I was born in Kent in the South East of England, and I had a pretty normal upbringing. As far as school was concerned. I was always quite good at school, so I did quite well at GCSE. And I didn’t really have to try too hard. But after GCSE is it’s time for A levels and I had to pick the subjects I wanted to study for the next two years. How was I supposed to know what I wanted to do? I was only 16! Because I was quite good at science, I chose to do biology, chemistry and physics. I also wanted a little outlet for my creative stuff. So I did media. Now I thought A levels were going to be a jam, just like GCSE like a breeze through them. And it’d be fine. But I was wrong. A levels of so much harder than GCSE. Yes, no, I wanted to do medicine in university. But after my A levels, I knew I could have picked my grades up enough. So I thought about doing something slightly instead, like biomedical science at university. It was quite broad. I could do medicine after I wanted to. But when my A level results came, they were really bad. At all the six universities that had applied THD biomedical science rejected me. So I had to go through something called clearing. In the end, I was offered two places. And I chose to go to the University of Kent. I wasn’t really sure about going to Kent, because I didn’t really know the course, I haven’t gone to any of the open days. And it was a bit too close for home. I wanted my independence at university. But nevertheless, I went, I actually had an amazing time, the course was really broad. So it gave me scope for jobs later on. And I have some amazing lectures, some of which I keep in contact with today, apart from the work. Another important thing about university to me was the life experience, I learned to be independent, make some great new friends and learn to adapt to new situations. And I really enjoyed the course and A levels had definitely given me a kick up the butt to do well in university. So in third year came around, it was time to choose what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I still didn’t know, I was only 21. I wasn’t sure about jobs because I didn’t know which field I wanted to go in. So I thought maybe I could do research instead. And I started looking around for Masters and PhD projects, I came across this really cool one, sponsored by industry. It was about creating the artificial kidney device for drug testing. So I applied for it and pending my results. I got the place but then it was time for the dreaded results day. I was so terrified because of what happened in A levels even though I done okay during my first and secondary exams. On results day I found out I had got what I needed. So then it was off to Loughborough University to start my PhD project. Now this project was funded by the BBS RC and sponsored by AstraZeneca. And the eventual title of the project was incorporating primary human renal proximal tubule cells into hollowfibre bioreactor as an in vitro model for pharmaceutical research. That’s a mouthful, but basically it involves recreating a part of the kidney, which is involved in drug processing outside of the body. For drug testing. The project was really good because most of my favorite modules from undergraduate like pharmacology and physiology, but also have some new elements in it like chemical engineering and material science being sponsored by AstraZeneca. And I could go up to their research facility and do part of my project there as a placement. And it was really interesting to see the difference between industry research and academic research. I was also really lucky because I got to Loughborough I was aligned with DTC and regenerative medicine in my cohort, there were nine other people. Now I was a bit nervous when I first got there, because most of my colleagues had either done a job beforehand, or had done a master’s, and I was fresh out of university. But it was great because we had a support network there, which is really important during your PhD. What’s more is I got to work alongside some great projects during my PhD, like turning stem cells into heart cells, creating muscles and joints outside of the body. I even saw some embryonic stem cells spontaneously transformed into beating cancer cells. Pretty cool. But I also learned that stuff goes wrong. And you need to be able to pick yourself up when all of your work goes wrong. But it was a really good experience in the end. And after four-ish years, I submitted my thesis, pass my viva, and I’m now a doctor.

So what do I do now? I’m working on a postdoc, so at Loughborough University, on developing artificial liver devices for patients with liver failure to either keep them alive until they get a liver transplant or to help them until their liver heals. It’s pretty cool stuff. So what’s next? Well, who knows? I don’t. But I really love science. I love research. So maybe I’ll stay in this field. This video was made for the heart blog blog all about the awesome field of regenerative medicine. In this blog, scientists write back their research into treatments to help the body fix itself. It’s pretty cool, so go check it out. If you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up. If you want to stay up to date with my next videos. Click on my face to subscribe. And let me know what you wonder about in the comments below. And I can make a video about it. Check out Have you ever wondered on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates on cool things that are going on science. All the links are in the description box below. Thanks for watching. Have a wonderful day.

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