Profile
Ella Mercer
At home trying to work... not very successfully though!
My CV
-
Education:
Claverham Community College (2005-2010) Parkwood Sixth Form (2010-2012), University of Sussex (2013-2017), University of Edinburgh (2017-2022)
-
Qualifications:
13 GCSE’s
A Levels: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths
BSc (Hons) Medical Neuroscience (with a study year abroad) -
Work History:
When I was in college I worked in a care home for old people. During university I had lots of different jobs; I washed up dishes in a pub, taught biology and spent three months in Greece working at a scuba diving school!
-
Current Job:
Tissue Repair PhD Student
-
About Me:
I’m a 25 year old PhD student living in Edinburgh (Scotland!) I also love scuba diving and playing guitar.
-
Read more
I live with my boyfriend, two pet birds and adopted stray cat in Edinburgh. We met at University and he’s a brain scientist. I love to travel and hope one day to visit every country in the world. I’m also a scuba diving instructor and enjoy swimming through old shipwrecks looking for sharks.
-
Read more
Head and neck cancer is very common in the UK and across the world. If you are told you have head and neck cancer, the doctors will offer you a treatment called radiotherapy; this is where they try to kill the cancer by firing powerful laser beams at the part of the body affected. Radiotherapy is very good and getting rid of head and neck cancer, but most of the time it causes damage to healthy parts of your head/neck too.
One of these healthy parts is the salivary glands.Β These are the parts of your body that produces spit (saliva)! Saliva is very important and we need it to be able to eat and talk properly. My grandma had cancer in her neck and after her radiotherapy she couldn’t eat her favourite food – French bread! It made her very sad. It also hurt her a lot to talk so she used to write me lots of letters instead.
If the salivary glands have been damaged, currently, there is no cure.
My work as a scientist tries to use stem cells to re-grow the salivary glands. If we can do this then patients like my grandma could eat their favourite foods again.
-
My Typical Day:
I go to work at 09:00 and start my experiments. I have lunch between 12:00-13:00 and talk to my friends. In the afternoon I do more experiments and write everything down in my lab book – otherwise I’ll forget what I’ve done!
-
Read more
I work best in the morning so will arrive in the lab between 8am-9am. Every day can be different so I find it very important to write everything down in my calendar. As I’m still in my first year I spend most of my time learning new things – just like at school! Mainly, I learn how to do different experiments such as brain dissections or how to use the microscopes. Around midday there’s often lunchtime talks from different scientists which are always very exciting to go to. In the afternoon I might do some reading, plan experiments or analyse data. In the evenings sometimes I’ll play guitar or take a walk with my camera … but most of the time I’ll just watch TV!
-
My Interview
-
What did you want to be after you left school?
A doctor
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not so much, only really for laughing too much with my best friend. Once a group of boys locked our teacher in the cupboard - we all got into trouble then!
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Julia Michaels
What's your favourite food?
Shepherds Pie
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1) Scuba dive with whales 2) Visit Antartica 3) Fly a plane
Tell us a joke.
What does a brain do when it sees a friend across the street? It gives a brain wave!
-