#LetsTalkLabs with Nisha Nair

Laboratory or lab-based research is often the first step in research that makes a difference. However, we don’t talk enough about it, so #LetsTalkLabs!

To spark more conversations about this aspect of research, we have partnered with research advisory groups BRAG and Voice Up, people from Greater Manchester and researchers on #LetsTalkLabs, an initiative funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF).

Nisha Nair is a researcher and laboratory manager in the Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases Theme for the Manchester BRC. She is dedicated to improving the lives of people living with conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis through her laboratory-based research.

In this Q&A she tells us more about her work and meeting with Ahmad from Voice Up, who is interested in understanding how young people can be involved in health research.

What motivates you to do research?

I’m motivated to do this work because I’ve always wanted to make a positive difference to people by improving the medical field through science and biology. We’re able to make a real-world impact thanks to the patients who generously give us their samples.

I also really like that laboratory-based research, and research more widely, is a team effort. My research involves people who process these samples so that we can use them, people who help me analyse the samples and I also ask for advice and thoughts from other researchers, and importantly, the patients themselves.

How can your work benefit people?

The work I do focuses on improving the way we give medications to people affected by rheumatoid arthritis. I do that by looking for markers, biological clues, such as molecules, that help us understand what’s happening inside our bodies. Because not all people react in the same way to the same medication, I hope our better understanding of these markers will help us to better predict how effective a medication would be to a patient before it is prescribed to them.

Our end goal is to have more detailed information about every patient, so that we can give them medication that we know will work for them without people having to go through a long process of trial and error. This will ultimately improve their quality of life.

What do you do in the lab?

As a laboratory manager, I manage the staff who receive all the anonymous samples that patients have donated to us, such as blood. They then prepare the samples so that they can be used in research. In my research, we run different experiments using different parts of a sample, such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which carries our genetic information or ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is essential in producing the proteins that our cells need.

Once I have DNA and RNA from a patient, I use them in ‘microarrays’. These are a laboratory tool that can detect whether genetic markers are present or not, tens of thousands at a time. This means that we can get detailed information on a person’s DNA quickly. Because a person’s DNA is quite complex and big, we use really powerful computers that can analyse this information quickly.

I then pair this information with data we have about the patient (such as their age, sex, when the disease first started and symptoms), which they have provided in questionnaires. This will help us see for example if the rheumatoid arthritis affecting the patient could be caused by their DNA or other factors, such as smoking, or maybe both.

Often, what we do will raise more questions than answers, which is an integral part of research.

How did you find taking part in Let’s Talk Labs?

I really enjoyed talking to the young people from Voice Up that Ahmad brought together to discuss laboratory research. It was very nice to meet them and to hear their questions and enthusiasm for health research. I think it’s really important to talk to people who benefit from the work we do. I feel it helps give us new angles to look at our research from, put roles like mine in perspective and challenge stereotypes. I don’t only work in the laboratory wearing a lab coat, I do lots of other things as well, but it all leads to the same aim: to improve the lives of people in the future.

Find out more about how laboratory-based research makes a difference on Facebook and X. Visit our opportunities page to find out how you can have your say in research and benefit people in the future.