My name is Linda and we are in my office at Georgia Tech. I'm a research scientist.
I'm looking at the immune system and specifically immune cells in normal healthy people and
how they differ. So you could compare healthy people and someone with a specific disease,
and see what has changed.
I'm from Sweden, originally. I was really into reading, and animals,and watching nature
shows on TV.
Do you know who David Attenborough is?
So he does these nature shows, and when I was a kid they were on once a week on TV and
I would just watch them. And he would wear khakis, and he would be like in Africa going
"we're looking for the rarest animal in the world! And here it is!"
And I wanted to be him. I wanted to wear khakis. I wanted to go to Africa. I wanted to study
lions. So when the time came to go to college, I went into biology and then about 3 years
in, I realized he still had his job and he wasn't about to give it up. And there weren't
really that many high paying jobs studying lions in Africa. So I was at a bit of a loss,
but then I took a course in immunology and I just found my thing and it's so interesting!
My research focuses on analysis of single cells in populations.
So not just one cell, but say, a million cells. Because we have these cool, new techniques
now where not only can you see what a type of cell is doing, but you can go even further
down and see what each individual cell looks like. You can look at what genes one cell
is using, for example. And, what proteins one cell is making.
So if you go into our lab, first of all, what you would see would be that it doesn't look
like a TV series where it's all stainless steal, and shiny surfaces, and people in pristine
white lab coats, who look really good and have a lot of make up on.
You'll probably see a lot of people pipetting things and looking in microscopes, and you'll
see shelves full of test tubes and bottles of strange liquids.
Sadly, you won't see things boiling and bubbling that are green and look like the Halloween
witches things.
That's a bit disappointing.
Most of our things are small, and a few drops, and in tiny tiny test tubes.
I'm the one who orders all of the materials, and handles all of the equipment so that they're
up and running, and make sure that everything is where it's supposed to be. I'm also the
research scientist, which means I do research on projects that aren't necessarily mine.
We collaborate with other labs, because they need my help to do a specific type of analysis.
I might grow cells because another lab needs a certain type of cell that we have and they
don't.
What I'm hoping is that eventually when I put together my results and the new knowledge
I have acquired is that it will be useful for other people. Someone else can take that
and say "Oh we have these people with a certain type of cancer. Maybe we can look at this
in them and see what's different and maybe that can be something we can use to develop
ways to treat them."
Every now and then, you'll find something. You'll find a clue. Or you\'92ll look at your
entire data set, you'll analyze it, and you\'92ll see a pattern. You'll be like "I've discovered
something! I've discovered something that's out there, that I didn't know, that no one
knew before!" And, that feeling, that feeling is why we do science.
Don't think at age 18, that what you decide to do now will define what you're going to
do for the rest of your life. You can always change your mind, especially if you go to
college and get a degree in science. I get to go to work everyday and do something that
I'm really interested in. I get to spend my entire life doing something that makes me
happy to go to work on Monday morning, and that is worth all the effort. If you are interested
in it, go for it!