Ellie is currently doing her A levels and is about to enter her final year of college. In 2019, her younger sister Hattie was diagnosed with a type of cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma. After going through tough chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments, Hattie is now doing well and is about to turn 11. Her family set up Hattie’s Rainbow of Hope Appeal, a CCLG Special Named Fund raising money for childhood rhabdomyosarcoma research. With such a personal interest in childhood cancer research, Ellie wanted to find out what it was like to work as a researcher. Last week, I caught up with her to see how her work experience went…
Ellie Brattan
Thank you for joining me! It’s great that you were able to do your work experience in a childhood cancer research lab. Have you always been interested in science or was Hattie's experience your inspiration?
I've always been interested in science and maths. I wanted to be a scientist, but I never knew exactly where. When Hattie got diagnosed and I saw all the things that people were doing to help her, and all the research that her Fund’s money enabled, I realised that this was the area that I wanted to go into.
Can you tell me a little bit about your work experience?
I went to a lab at University College London with my friend, which is run by Professor David Michod. His group works on a rare brain tumour that's more common in children, called diffuse midline glioma. As not many children are diagnosed with this each year, there's not a lot of research going into it. David’s group has recently found a drug that he’s working on at the moment. It’s amazing because they're at the start of something that could actually help patients.
Professor David Michod
Over the week, I shadowed people in his labs, like PhD students and lab assistants, and spoke with lots of them. I thought it was brilliant!
What was your favourite part of the work experience?
On the last day, a researcher called Dr Reem Al-Saadi showed me around her pathology lab - the research that she does is very cool. The pathology lab is where they look at tumour samples to help diagnose cancer types, give second opinions and things like that. They also look at blood samples, so they do a lot of the diagnostics.
Reem also showed me the pathology centre, which was really interesting. It's where they look at tumours under the microscope for research rather than diagnostics. That was definitely my favourite part! I got to ask as many questions as I wanted and get all of the answers, which was great.
Did you do any of your own experiments?
We spent almost a full day doing a test called gel electrophoresis. It's like a gel, but where the DNA runs down it. This took almost a whole day. It's just a lot of fiddly pipetting tiny bits of liquid, but it was quite useful to get those skills. We both loved it at the end when we got to see the actual DNA we'd separated on the gel.
Cancer researchers use gel electrophoresis to separate DNA, helping them find cancer-related mutations and check for the presence of specific pieces of DNA.
We also watched everyone a lot and saw things like people culturing cancer cells. That was very cool!
Was there anything you didn't like about research?
There was, but it’s not something that I can see changing. It's the system - the money that goes into it and the way researchers have to compete for it.
I was able to sit in one of the researcher’s meetings, and the team was talking about applying for another grant because they were running low on money. It’s a bit like a competition between different research groups for who gets the money for their research.
I understand that there's not enough funding for everyone, but it's just a shame - it'd be brilliant if all of those groups could get the money they need to continue their research.
I think a lot of researchers feel like that! What else did you learn about research as a career?
I think the thing that surprised me most was that it's not all lab work. It makes sense when you think about it, but researchers also spend a lot of time sitting in an office at a computer looking at the data or planning what they're going to do in the lab. And there are also a lot of meetings, where they do things like presenting and talking about their data.
I had thought it was all being in the lab and doing experiments. So, I learned there’s a lot more to it, and saw what goes on behind the scenes.
Is that something you're happy about, or were you hoping for more lab work?
I do love the lab, and I think it would be my favourite part of a research career. But I did actually find the meetings really interesting, hearing everyone talking about their work. I also understand why you need to present your results and collaborate – it does make sense.
I still like the lab the most – it’s where the most exciting cutting-edge breakthroughs are happening.
Has this helped you make any decisions about your future?
It definitely has! Firstly, it's confirmed research is what I want to do.
I already had quite a good idea that I wanted to get into cancer research you can never know until you actually see it for yourself. This was definitely confirmation that it is what I want to do.
I'm not one hundred percent sure yet, but I also think working with David’s lab has swayed me towards working with universities and in academia, rather than in a big industry company. I know they can be quite different.
Would you recommend this type of work experience to other people who are curious about research?
Yes, I definitely would. I thought it was really interesting. It was good to see the work that goes behind research, not just the bits that everyone talks about. It was also just really fun!
I think if you're interested in research, then doing work experience like this won’t feel like ‘urgh, I have to go to work experience today’. It feels amazing. I had a lot of fun and I got to ask loads of questions and meet some great people.
That’s another thing I liked about it - the people I met were from all across the world, which I don't normally meet in my everyday life. I loved all of it!
Ellie and Hattie out for pizza.
You can support research into rhabdomyosarcoma by donating to Hattie’s Rainbow of Hope Appeal, the CCLG Special Named Fund set up by Ellie’s family.
Ellie Ellicott is CCLG’s Research Communication Executive.
She is using her lifelong fascination with science to share the world of childhood cancer research with CCLG’s fantastic supporters.
You can find Ellie on X: @EllieW_CCLG