Profile
Ailish Tynan
My CV
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Education:
I grew up in a small village near Glasgow. I went to St Fillans Primary School, then Gryffe High School in Renfrewshire. After finishing school I studied Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow. I then studied for a Masters degree in Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh and now I am working towards a PhD degree also at the University of Edinburgh.
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Qualifications:
In my fourth year of high school (aged 16) I sat my Standard Grade exams, I did 8 subjects in total – English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, French, Modern Studies, Geography and Music.
In fifth year I sat 5 highers – English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry and French.
In my sixth and final year of high school I studied Advanced Higher Biology, Advanced Higher Chemistry, Higher Music and the Scottish Baccalaureate in Science.
I have a Bachelor of Science with Honours (BScHons) degree in Neuroscience from the University of Glasgow. A Master of Science by Research (MScR) degree in Integrative Neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh and I am now working towards my PhD qualification.
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Work History:
During my final years of high school I worked in a children’s soft play centre, it was completely panda themed and called Pandamonium. While studying for my undergraduate degree at university I worked as a waiter in an Indian restaurant to earn some extra money during the summer holidays. After finishing my Masters degree, I gained more lab experience by working as a research technician in a lab at the University of Edinburgh. Although some of these jobs are not directly related to science, there are a lot of skills I gained doing these jobs that I still use every day – especially learning how to communicate and work together with other people.
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Current Job:
PhD Student
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Employer:
University of Edinburgh
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About Me:
I work at the University of Edinburgh as a PhD student. At the weekends, I love going on road trips to explore the beautiful Scottish scenery or wandering around the museums in Edinburgh. I also enjoy going to a weekly pub quiz with my friends!
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I am a PhD student at Edinburgh University trying to understand how one single gene is involved in ageing. This research will hopefully help us to understand how dementia might develop as we get older and if we can slow down brain ageing.
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Read more
I am researching why genetic mutations in a single gene called STUB1 can cause a specific disease where people develop dementia early in life (dementia is a disease that commonly only affects older people over the age of 65 and causes some brain cells to die. This results in memory loss and confusion). By studying the processes in our cells that go wrong when this gene is not functioning properly, this will help me to understand what the normal functions of this gene are and might help us to find new treatments to help patients living with this condition.
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My Typical Day:
Every morning I come into work and plan what experiments I will do in the lab that day. Once I have my plan ready I head into the lab and do those experiments. Some experiments can be done fairly quick while others might take a few hours so it helps to have a plan before you start! I have lunch with my friends who work in other labs in my building, and in the afternoon I finish my experiments so I can analyse the results and write up reports for my supervisor.
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Read more
My experiments are very varied and almost every day is different which I love! At the moment I am growing cells that originally came from a brain tumour and now they grow on little plates that I keep in an incubator. I can watch how they grow under different conditions and stain different parts of the cells in different fluorescent colours to see if those conditions affect the staining of the cells.
I am also growing bacteria that I’ve engineered to produce lots of a specific kind of protein and I can extract that protein to use in some different experiments to see how good it is at performing its function.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would love to be able to create an interactive exhibit or activity that can help others to understand my research and what happens in an ageing brain/dementia in general! I think it would be a great opportunity to take this to science festivals or schools and get more people interested in how genetics can help us to understand big complex diseases likes dementia in such small detail.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
I wasn't sure but I knew I liked studying biology in school so I wanted to keep doing that
Were you ever in trouble at school?
No not at all!
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Science teacher - I like helping people to understand science better
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I really like Sam Fender at the moment
What's your favourite food?
Always lasagne with garlic bread
Tell us a joke.
What do you call it when a biologist takes a photo of themselves?.... A cell-fie
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