Lesley-Anne Pearson

"I never feel like I match personality types all that well. I find it difficult to see which of the options I am most like! I know that I like nice neat columns of numbers, and graphs, and I get excited when I can explain something new to people. I have recently been diagnosed as autistic, so that is a whole new way of understanding myself!"

"I help in the development of new medicines by designing and running ways to test if the compound the chemist gives us can affect the enzyme we are trying to impact. This involves lots of moving very small amounts of liquid surprisingly short distances, using upsettingly expensive machines, and making many pretty graphs. I love the practical lab work, learning new things that no one else knows yet, and making a difference. My work may go onto to inform new medicines to treat things like cancer, asthma and covid19.Starting salary for my job is £32,000."

"I always knew that I wanted to work in science. When I was in school I said I wanted to be a biochemist, and then I went to university to study biochemistry.I finished my honours degree and then got a bit confused as to what I would do next. I ended up spending the next few years working in offices before I got an entry level job working in a lab. I stayed in the same job for around 7 years before I started working at the University."

"I collect fountain pens and fancy inks, and taught myself to write in the kind of cursive they used in the 19th century. It means that all my meeting notes are fabulous!I am currently learning Japanese, so on my lunch break I am often practicing my Japanese writing with my previously mentioned fancy pens!"

"The best experiments are started at my desk - planning! That might involve looking up scientific papers if it's a completely new piece of work, or analysing the previous experiments if it's an on going project. Once I have decided what I need to do and how to do it then I can go into the lab to get started. Most of my experiments can be finished in a couple of hours and then it's back to the office to analyse the results. I also spend time keeping in touch with colleagues and collaborators via email, and there are regular project team meetings where I have to present the data I have produced so far."

"I stayed on in school till 6th year (6th form college in England) and did Highers and SYS (sixth year studies) - I think that is Advanced Highers now. After that I did an honours degree in Biochemistry, so I studied for 4 years.I didn't do a PhD, but got experience working in a CRO (Contract Research Organisation) for a few years before I started working in the University."