Profile

My name is Kieran, I;m 22 years old and from Galway, Ireland.

I started studying to be a doctor in 2014 and last year I decided to take a break from being in the hospital to begin research in medical devices. I spend most of my time in the lab and some time in the hospital meeting patients and surgeons.

The spine is made up of bones called ‘vertebrae’ and in between the bones there are ‘discs’. These discs give the spine flexibility and help you to move. When people get older these discs get smaller and can get damaged and this causes back pain.

My work involves researching new materials that we can use to help fix the disc in the spine. We create new materials to carry cells and drugs that we can inject into the disc to help repair it and reduce pain.

My typical day begins in the lab at 8am. I make my plan for all the experiments I will do that day. I feed the cells that I’m growing. I then check how different genes and proteins are working in these cells. We put the cells on different materials and check how well they function afterwards. I sometimes have to travel to the hospital to collect disc samples from patients to analyse. I usually finish around 6pm everyday.