What is work experience like in a childhood cancer research lab? With Tabitha Fuller

Last week I caught up with Tabitha Fuller, who is currently deciding what to study at university. Tabitha had the opportunity to do a week’s work experience on a childhood leukaemia research project that was funded in memory of her sister, Ruby, through the Ruby’s ‘Live Kindly, Live Loudly’ Fund Special Named Fund at CCLG. Here’s what she learned…

Could you first introduce yourself?

Hi, I am Tabitha! I’m 17 years old, so about to go into Year 13, and I'm doing the International Baccalaureate at the moment. In June, I did a week of work experience at a lab that is working on a CCLG-funded childhood cancer research project.

Why did you want to do work experience in a cancer research lab? 

I'm really interested in cancer research. This year I’m applying to university, possibly for biomedical sciences, medicine, or another course like biosciences. So, I really wanted to get an idea of the actual day to day lives of people working in those industries.

It was just a great opportunity to get an insight into how research works and what you can do going into this industry.

Can you tell me a little bit about the work experience? 

I was at Newcastle University in the childhood cancer research department in Dr Lisa Russell’s lab group. There were a few different researchers, and I was mostly shadowing them. I got to see what they were doing and what their research involved, which was fascinating.

The lab team are looking at genetic mutations which they think cause certain types of childhood blood cancers.  One of the things they’re working on is an area of DNA called a ‘super enhancer’ which they think affects lots of different parts of the genetic code, so they are trying to understand how it impacts the development of childhood cancer. 

I was working with Phoebe Snow, one of the research assistants, who's about to start her PhD, and also Leti Marchetti,  who is a molecular biologist. I was mostly shadowing them and looking at them and seeing the lab processes that they do. There were a lot of different things, like how to get drugs into the cancer cells or to grow cells, how to extract DNA and other genetic material from cells, the best way to grow cultures to extract DNA and RNA, and how to check for contamination. They also showed me the bioinformatics, which is basically the processing of the data to form conclusions and make graphs to present the research.  

What was it like having the opportunity to work on a Ruby's Live Kindly Live Loudly funded project?

It was really lovely, because for me, the science is always a way that I can connect and interact with it - the best way for me. So that was just really nice because I've seen all the fundraising that my parents and I have been a part of. It was so interesting to see where that fundraising is going and what they're doing with it – and how all of the researchers are so fantastic.

I remember seeing some of your fundraising, when you went to every tube station in one day – as a non-Londoner it sounds terrifying!

Oh yes that was me and my mum, Emma. We couldn’t believe that it worked! It was the craziest thing, but we actually did it. 

There was a lot of going to the end of the line and having to run to the next line. There would be points in the day where we’d hear that a line was temporarily shut down, but then we’d get there and it would be working again. We went to 272 stations that day, starting at 4am and finishing at midnight. 

That’s amazing! To have done all that and then be able to see day-to-day where your fundraising has gone sounds really rewarding. What was a day like at Lisa’s lab?

I'd usually get there around 9am, and then I'd go down to the lab, where Leti or Phoebe  would be. Then, there'd normally be a team meeting, where the team would show each other what they'd been doing, how they'd been getting on with the research, if they had any conclusions, and they'd discuss any conferences they wanted to attend. In the afternoons, it would usually be finishing whatever tasks had been set processing in the morning, getting the data from that and analysing it.

What was your favourite part of the work experience?

There wasn't really a specific part, but my favourite thing was that the people I met were all so lovely!

In terms of the actual lab stuff, there was one point where I got to do a successful RNA extraction with Leti - I tried to do it earlier in the week with Phoebe but it hadn't worked because the sample had been contaminated somewhere. 

It’s frustrating - you're working with clear liquids for hours or sometimes even weeks and months and then it doesn't work, and you don't know where it went wrong.  But when we did it again it did work which was pretty rewarding.

Well done! I can imagine that is frustrating though, when things don’t work. Was that your least favourite thing about working in research?

I think my least favourite thing is that there's a lot of setbacks and you just have to keep trying. When you have a project that you know is going to take a really long time, and you don't even know if it's going to work or then what that’s going to mean - it's a lot of tiny incremental progress. 

Researchers do have to be very patient. What else did you learn about research as a career?

Overall, I just got a better sense of what it can be like.

I got to see them working on research papers, which was fascinating. I have to do this project for school that's called an extended essay. I'm doing mine in biology and it needs to be about 4,000 words long. You even have to include citations - it's meant to be like a proper paper. So, I've been reading a lot of research papers recently for this essay, and they are hard to understand! So, seeing how those papers are actually written and how the researchers work together on them was really cool.

It was also really encouraging to meet Phoebe, who's about to start her PhD. She is 23 and finished her master's about a year ago. Obviously, that's a lot of years at university but it's not like you have to have decades of experience to actually work in a lab. It really made it seem way more possible.

Time for the big question… has this helped you make any decisions about your future career?

It has definitely given me a lot of food for thought! Right now, I'm studying for the UCAT, which is the exam you do if you want to study medicine. I'm going to apply for medicine this year, and if I don't get any offers, I think I'll take a gap year and rethink. I might reapply for medicine or do biomedical sciences, which would give me the option to change into medicine or go into research. 

It’s quite an unusual work experience – what did your friends think about it?

Most of them thought it was pretty cool. I think my friends who aren't into STEM were like, why would you want to do that?

But then I have a friend who wants to go into biology and she thought it was really cool and was happy to hear about how lovely everyone is. She was quite concerned about work life balance, so it was reassuring that the people I worked with did have a work life balance.

Would you recommend this type of work experience to other people curious about research?

Definitely.  It was so interesting getting to seethe lab techniques you learn about in school for biology, like gel electrophoresis to separate DNA. Obviously, you never get to see that in school because schools don’t have that equipment, and then I got to see them doing it in real life.

It was so great - getting to actually see that what you are learning is real. I would definitely recommend it!