Emer Clarke - Cell Biologist
Education
Primary degree, Biochemistry, Trinity College Dublin
PhD (Haematology) in cell biology, Trinity
Career snapshot
Dublin-born, her first job was in a laboratory in St. James Hospital in Dublin. She examined how anti-rejection drugs would impact on patients who had undergone bone marrow transplantations. Following her PhD, she moved to Seattle and worked in bone marrow research first at a teaching hospital, then at a biotechnology company.
Next Emer moved to Bristol to the UK’s National Blood Service as a clinical scientist on a bone marrow treatment programme. Her work involved identifying how patients’ bone marrow could be adapted to increase the chances of successful transplants. She took up her current role in 1998.
What’s so brilliant about your job?
“I love the diversity. I enjoy going into the laboratory and doing experiments and finding out what’s new. There’s also the knowledge that the work I do benefits patients. It helps the discovery of new drugs and involves training people in laboratories to treat illnesses.”
How do you spend a typical day?
“I get in at around 7.45, and start the day trying to do some damage control on my emails. I get around 40 emails a day – queries from technical staff, customers. I like to spend four or five hours in the laboratory – I’m a real lab rat. Then I have to report on the experiments, quantitate cells and identify alterations in cell morphology through photographs of colonies.”
“About 20% of my time is spent travelling. It’s anything but glamorous and is quite tiring.”
Are you a science bore?
“No. My husband works in the same company but we don’t talk about work all the time. Our friends are varied -accountants, artists but not geeks. The only time we ever talk about science at home is when there’s a discussion about what’s new or novel on the TV.”
Did science give you a buzz at school?
“Not really. I wasn’t really interested in science. I didn’t even study biology at school. I wanted to pick something in college that would mean that I would be gainfully employed. Back in the 80s there weren’t many jobs.”
“I chose biochemistry at Trinity because I thought it would help me get into pharmacy, where there were jobs, but that didn’t happen. It was only when I went to St. James’ that my love of science began. I could then see how interesting and useful the work is.”
What’s been the high point of your career?
“I’m still waiting!”
Want to find out more?
Read about Emer’s employer Stemcell
