Profile

I am 26 years old and just this year finished my PhD in France. Having a PhD means that you have produced original research that gave new information nobody had before – and you get to add Dr to your name! It’s a pretty important step towards becoming a permanent scientist in a University, which is what I would ultimately like to do.
For my PhD, I study how cocaine affects the brain; this is a hot topic in “Neuroscience” (brain-related) research. Cocaine is an addictive drug used by humans that stimulates certain regions of the brain. We try to figure out what has been activated by cocaine in these brain regions and whether we can block it using other drugs. If we can understand better how cocaine works, we may find a way to help addicted people stay off drugs.
To do this, I perform experiments using mice, because in some ways mice behave like humans do when given drugs like cocaine! Neuroscientists study carefully how a mouse’s brain biochemistry and behaviour changes under the influence of addictive drugs (see here). Cocaine makes people energetic and likewise mice will run around their cages. Mice will even choose to take cocaine over other rewards. Importantly, they will even learn to push a button for cocaine, and will continue to push and push even if they receive an electric shock to discourage them! So mice really become hooked on the drug, despite obviously bad consequences.
We test new therapies on mice to see whether we can prevent the influence of cocaine on their brains and behaviour. During my PhD, we discovered new targets that are activated by cocaine. Our study will be published in an international science journal and tells us more about how cocaine is working, but it’s just part of the story that remains a tricky mystery.

In my lab there is not a set time for everyone to start, in general people arrive around 9.30am. I’m an early riser so I get in before 9am, except for the odd morning after an interesting evening! Everyone starts off at the coffee machine, and then I spend the morning preparing experiments, making up reagents and chemicals that I will need to use and taking care of any mice I’m going to be using.

We all eat together in the University canteen, its not the best, I’ve even been offered Beef Tongue before (Vive la France!) but its very cheap and people take a long break at lunch (Vive la France again).  After lunch I continue experiments, these vary a lot depending on what I need to study but usually it involves working with mice, using drugs on cells cultured in dishes, and observing cells under microscopes. I need to keep up to date with what’s happening around the world in addiction research so I spend a good part of each day reading scientific articles published by other scientists.

The day can vary a lot, some days we have lab meetings to present our work or some days I go do teaching in the University. Sometimes I finish quite late and have to work weekends, but then other advantages make up for that, like being paid to travel to present my work (I have been to the USA, Spain, the UK and around France).