Meet our Early Career Scientist Grant Winner Aaron Scott
Aaron Scott is a researcher at the University of Bristol, UK, and the latest winner of our $500 Early Career Scientist Grant. The funding will be used to cover Aaron’s attendance at the EMBO Events workshop ‘Long-distance cell-cell signalling in development and disease’ at The Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter.
This award gives me the opportunity to attend a conference I would have otherwise been unable to attend. A conference that allows me to present my PhD work to a new audience and network with those scientists, and I hope this will present opportunities for new working relationships. Aaron Scott, University of Bristol, UK, Hello Bio Early Career Scientist Grant winner
Congratulations Aaron! First, can you tell us a bit more about what you're working on at the moment?
I have been working on establishing an in vivo model to study endogenous extracellular vesicles, small lipid membrane bound vesicles produced and taken up by most cells as a means of cell-cell communication. By combining high spatiotemporal resolution microscopy and the transparent zebrafish, we can visualise subcellular activities within the living zebrafish. Then with genetic modification of these fish, we can fluorescently label the extracellular vesicles produced by specific cell types, giving an unparalleled look at the behaviour of cell-type specific endogenous extracellular vesicles in vivo. Since establishing this model, I am now in the process of using it to investigate the question, do extracellular vesicles play a role in heart repair and regeneration? This is another reason we chose the zebrafish, because of its ability to regenerate a damaged heart, something adult mammals are incapable of. So, as two of the main cell types that form the heart, we are focussed on cardiomyocyte and endothelial cell derived extracellular vesicles and are beginning to characterise the changes we see post ischaemic cardiac injury. More broadly, our newly developed model presents stimulating opportunities to disentangle the true complexity of EV function in vivo in a vertebrate model of human disease.
What is it about your field of research that gets you most excited?
It’s perhaps a bit cliché, but it’s the finding something new that is the most exciting thing for me. We are some of only a very small group of scientists looking at endogenous extracellular vesicles in vivo, so there are many exciting opportunities to make a solid contribution to the flourishing field of extracellular vesicles.
Which scientists working today do you most admire, and why?
Honestly, the people that immediately spring to mind, are those that have worked through the pandemic whilst also raising young children. Both roles are immense undertakings and under the unique pressures of the past year or so, I think these individuals deserve more recognition and support.
What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing life scientists and their work?
Public relations and public understanding of science. I feel like these challenges are the roots to the more immediate challenge of strategic planning for state funding of science. I think we need a culture change, where we put the onus on ourselves and take seriously our responsibility to report our work to those that ultimately support it. Obviously, we have gone through a difficult time recently, which has exposed holes in the relationship between scientists and the rest of society. On all sides, I would prefer to see compassion, rather than derision… followed by a look inwards to see how we can improve ourselves.
What’s your favourite science quote?
“Am I not a fly like thee? / Or art not thou a man like me?” - William Blake, The Fly (1974)
________________________________
Thank you so much Aaron! We wish you all the best with the conference and your future research.
Connect with Aaron on Twitter: @AaronJonScott
________________________________
If you enjoyed this article, why not check out the other resources available on our blog. We are passionate about supporting life scientists, early career life scientists and PhD students - with really low- priced reagents and biochemicals, early career scientist grants, and resources to help with both personal and professional development. We know how tough it is - so we hope you find these helpful!
Advice & guidance for life scientists
Click below to view our essential guides and articles to support life scientists, PhD students & early career life scientists:
Wellbeing for scientists
Click below for our resources to help improve your wellbeing:
Technical resources
Try our Molarity Calculator: a quick and easy way to calculate the mass, volume or concentration required for making a solution.
Try our Dilution Calculator: an easy way to work out how to dilute stock solutions of known concentrations
And - when you get to the stage of planning your experiments, don't forget that we offer a range of agonists, antagonists, inhibitors, activators, antibodies and fluorescent tools at up to half the price of other suppliers - click below to see how we compare with other suppliers:
