Question: Where do you hope to be in the future with your work / what is your big picture?

Katie Fala answered on 22 Nov 2019:

Thanks for your question Timmy!

In terms of my project, I hope that my work goes well and will lead to the discovery and application of new quorum quenching molecules that can be used to stop problematic bacteria from talking to oneanother, hence making them more susceptible to antibiotics. This is especially relevant when thinking about the future as there is a big problem, even today, with bacteria becoming resistant to more and more antibiotics at an alarming rate – this is referred to as AMR, or antimicrobial resistance.

In terms of my own career, to be quite honest I am not sure. If the lab skills that I am learning in my PhD will be in demand for other projects in drug discovery, then I might continue in research as a postdoctoral researcher. I can also see that regulation is important to help reflect up-to-date research and evidence in legislation – generally at the moment people don’t really seem to know how/want to develop frameworks considering for example bacteria and microbiomes, so this also interests me career-wise.

Bigger picture again, outside of my own life, I hope that people and countries and corporations will be able to work together and commit to prioritise climate stability over short-term economic gain, because the alternative is worrying. And I hope that human society continues to evolve, believing in hard evidence and valuing good science. After chatting with hundreds of students over the past 2 weeks, I feel a bit more optimistic!