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Jamie McDonald

    • About Me:

      I live with my roommates in Cardiff. I am a computational biologist in the day. For fun I bake (with a deep love of cookies) and run in the evenings. I love climbing and traveling abroad!

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      I love organizing craft nights with my friends, and about once a week we all get together and paint, draw, crochet and talk about what’s going on with us. We mostly come from science degree backgrounds and its amazing to see the differences in where we’ve all gone from the same degree in biology. One friend is currently undertaking a 2nd degree in optometry, 1 is working in an NHS lab, another has just finished a medical writing internship, and the last has gone into an industrial research lab. My best friend with a Masters in Chemistry is now working in government on patents. So there are lots of careers available to you after a science degree.

      I also love trail running (up and down hills) and traveling abroad. I’ve also been able to have my scientific research presented abroad in the USA and Spain, as well as across the UK.

       

       

    • My pronouns are:

      she/her

    • My Work:

      I compare, using computers, the differences between healthy brain and diseased brains to see what we should target with drugs. I’m studying dementia, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease.

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      I work in comparing the molecular differences, such as DNA, RNA and protein, in healthy compared to patient samples of different diseases. We want to study the mechanisms that may cause the changes in patients with a disease in order to see what should be targeted with drugs. We also want to see if there are similar changes in multiple diseases, which may mean that the change can be targeted with 1 drug for multiple diseases.

    • My Typical Day:

      I wake up at 8, to get into work for 9, and I check on my experiment’s (scripts of code) left overnight. I then have lunch with friends in the café downstairs. I will then edit my code and run the next experiment that follows on from my results. I go home at 5.

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      I wake up at 8, to get into work for 9 (although my hours are flexible so long as I get 9 hours done in a day). I check on my code’s results that I will have submitted the day before (leaving it while I’ve gone home to run on the computer without me there) and will fix any issues with the code before reading some paper’s that have been published about my area of research. Then I have some lunch with friends, in the afternoon I’ll go back in the lab and continue to code, or go to a presentation of a lab-mate’s work, I will submit my changes to code, and then leave at 5.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would make a computational engagement activity for students, so they can see how computers can be applied in science to address scientific questions.

    CV

    • Education:

      I went to school at Durrington High School, in Worthing (the South of England), and then went to university at Cardiff University for a BSc in Biology (a degree). I am now doing a PhD in Computational Biology (an advanced research degree) at Cardiff University.

    • Qualifications:

      10 GCSE’s – I took triple science, drama, geography and Spanish as my choices.

      3 A levels and 3 AS levels:

      3 A levels- Biology, Physics, Mathematics

      3 AS levels- Chemistry, Further Mathematics, EPQ (Extended Project Qualification – in Antibiotic resistance)

      BSc Biological Sciences with Industrial Placement in the NHS in a research laboratory.

    • Work History:

      I first worked in Sainsbury’s during the summer of my degree, I worked on tills and stocking shelves.

      I also worked at a motor circuit and horse racing event site in the ticketing department, selling tickets, and later, managing other people selling tickets.

      My industrial placement in my degree was in the NHS in partnership with Keele University. I worked as a proteomics and genetics researcher in a hospital specialising in bone and muscle injuries (an Orthopaedic Hospital). I worked alongside PhD students, surgeons and Senior researchers to analyse samples for changes in disease vs healthy states.

    • Current Job:

      I am a PhD student, this means I work at a university researching while getting paid a wage, but I am still classified as a student as I am writing up my work into a thesis (around 80,000-100,000 words!) when I’m done and will submit it to my university for review and, if I graduate, will be given the title Dr (PhD). A PhD typically takes 3-4 years.

    • Employer:

      Cardiff University.

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        A mathematician

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        A few times for untucking my shirt, my school was very strict on uniform.

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        A doctor or nurse

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Sofia Valdés

        What's your favourite food?

        Brownies

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        To live in a nice house by the beach, to have more money to go to concerts, to live closer to some of my friends.

        Tell us a joke.

        What kind of water can't freeze? Hot water, duh.

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