Where I grew up in Doncaster, not that many people went to university - I’m the only one in my family to have gone. They're always bigging me up, which can feel bizarre, but it's definitely a nice thing. It’s a different sort of pride to when people in the science community talk about the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), but in both scenarios I'm incredibly proud to be part of it.
I was always interested in science, but when I was really young I wanted to be a beauty therapist. After my GCSEs, I went straight into beauty school. It started with makeup, then nails, and eventually more holistic areas like massage and aromatherapy. I was always on the more creative side with it, designing concepts from scratch.
I was entered in various UK and world beauty competitions, and earned placings at both. They were quite fun, actually; you get a theme and a model, and have to come up with a look to fit. I’ve placed first, second and third in the UK, and ninth in the world - in fact, I was second in the UK when I was 16, after only six weeks in the industry!
I enjoyed my beauty career for a while, but by the end it was really dragging. I’d started to feel it wasn’t challenging enough. I knew I was more interested in science, and I’d been thinking about that for quite a while. I'd recently become a single parent, and thought to myself "it’s now or never". I decided I was going to take the plunge.
Thinking about a career change, my first idea had been "maybe I could work in a hospital?". I went to college and did an Access to Higher Education course in health-related sciences. That got me to the University of Leeds, where I thought I'd study microbiology - I remembered doing something similar at school, and being really into it.
It was at a university open day that I first spotted a neuroscience stand. I’d never in a million years imagined I could end up going down that route, but it turned out I was wrong. I went over to ask some questions, and came away thinking "Ok, so Laura from Doncaster can do brains...I need to investigate this further!"
Laura Ellis
PhD Neuroscience, SITraN
I'd been interested in MND research ever since seeing a programme on it 15 or 20 years ago. It followed a day in the life of a woman living with this disease I’d never heard of before, and I was completely taken aback by how utterly devastating and aggressive it was. It had a huge effect on me, and has stuck around on some level ever since.
I realised this was a path that I could actually go down - I could become an MND researcher. At that point it all came together really. My mind was made up: I was going to university to study neuroscience. So I did! I completed my degree, took a short maternity gap, then came to Sheffield for my masters in translational neuropathology at SITraN.
When I first got to SITraN, I’d walk around the offices thinking "one day I could have a desk in here." It was immediately obvious that SITraN was where I'd always wanted to be. A couple of months later, I got my first job here as a research assistant with Professor Heather Mortiboys, which still blows my mind. I'm now in the second year of my PhD, with Professor Pam Shaw as my primary supervisor and Heather as my secondary.
The aim of my PhD is to try to recover any dysfunctions in the mitochondria. Mitochondria generate the metabolic activity the cell needs, and they’ve been found to be dysfunctional in MND. I'm here to work out what's going wrong with them in different types of MND, and whether we can recover their function with drug screening.
Laura Ellis
PhD Neuroscience, SITraN
My PhD was co-funded by the MND Association and the Mel Evans Foundation. It's a huge boost to know you've got people like that behind you. Lynn Pritchatt from the Mel Evans Foundation came to SITraN recently for her husband Mel’s plaque unveiling. It was a touching thing to be part of, seeing all the work she and her team are putting into fundraising for MND awareness and research. It's humbling, and really grounds what I do.
My days now start with the school run, then straight into fibroblast or astrocyte tissue culture. I'll spend some time growing cells to work on later, then perhaps run an assay experiment and do some data analysis, before going back for the second school run. I'll usually work again late in the evening or at weekends, making back some of those weekday hours where I’m doing mum things!
Even today, I often find myself heading into work and being amazed that I'm driving to SITraN. It’s been a long and complicated journey to get here, but I’ve really found the right path for myself. I never thought I’d get to work here at this point in my career. I hoped maybe it could be me in the distant future if I was lucky, but I certainly never expected it - I was just Laura from Donny who did good nails.
Could you help to support MND research at SITraN, and bring forward life-changing treatments for people living with this devastating condition? Make your gift today, and be part of a brighter future forged in right here in Sheffield.