#LetsTalkLabs with Polly Downton

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).

Polly Downton, a scientist at the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, is dedicated to helping researchers improve the way health conditions are treated. Using her expertise in laboratory-based research, she helps BRC researchers by designing and running experiments that support them in answering research questions.

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 do you like about your job?

One of the things that I enjoy about my role and working in a laboratory is the problem solving. I really find the process of starting from a question and creatively coming up with ways to answer it with laboratory-based experiments satisfying. I also enjoy feeling like I can contribute to a diverse range of research projects that focus on improving diagnosis and treatment for patients.

How does your work help benefit people in the future?

Not all ‘health’ researchers will have a lot of experience working in a laboratory, so they work with people like me to provide that expertise. The role I play helps them bridge that gap and, hopefully, find the answers that they’re looking for using cutting edge techniques. These answers will, for example, help them create a picture of how a medical condition affects cells in our body. This could lead to different things, from finding new treatments to developing a new way of diagnosing a condition.

What do you do in the laboratory?

I actually spend my time in the office as well as in the laboratory! This is because there is a lot of preparation that needs to be done before we can do experiments in the lab. I will have discussions with researchers to understand their research, then design experiments that are tailored specifically to what they’re trying to find out. I then run these experiments in the lab and help them to interpret the results.

In the laboratory, a lot of my time is spent growing cells donated by patients. This means we’re able to find out more about the cells and why they cause disease. I also do a lot of genetic work, where I ‘cut and stick’ different bits of DNA together and use them to make genetic changes in cells, for example. I may want to mimic a disease by introducing a genetic change found in patients. Changing the DNA may result in a protein modification, so looking at cells where the DNA has been changed helps us to understand how that protein works and how this is changed with disease.

Can you give us an example of the work you’re doing?

An example of this is work that I’m doing with a researcher at the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre to explore a genetic disease called Albinism. People with the condition develop sight impairment from an early age, and we want to understand the genetic mechanism that causes this in the specialised cells of the eye. In the lab, I modify the DNA of cells donated by patients. The researcher will then analyse these cells as they grow and compare them to cells that have not been modified. This activity in the lab will lead to better scientific understanding and could ultimately lead to new treatments.

How was talking to young people about laboratory research?

It was great to see the different things that they were interested and enthusiastic about. I also think it’s really valuable for me to think about how I can help people who are less familiar with laboratory research understand why this work is important and contributes to improving how we diagnose and treat conditions. It was really nice to see that they were enthusiastic about taking part in the event to find out more about research.

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.