Meet our Early Career Scientist Grant Winner Bryony Kennedy
It’s time to meet another of our Early Career Scientist Grant winners!
Bryony Kennedy of Queen’s University, Belfast, is the latest recipient of our monthly $500 grant awarded to a life science PhD or postdoc to help support their career.
Bryony is a PhD student working in Lisa Crawford’s lab researching potential treatments for blood cancer. She plans to use the grant to help fund a trip to the Keystone Symposia in Vancouver, Canada, where she will present her PhD research: 'Novel inhibitors of the E3 Ligase HUWE1 Re-sensitise Resistant Myeloma to Proteasome Inhibitors’.
When we asked how she felt about receiving the grant, she told us:
I am over the moon to be receiving the Early Career Scientist Grant from Hello Bio and to have the opportunity to present my research at the Keystone Symposia in Vancouver this year, thank you! Bryony Kennedy, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Hello Bio Early Career Scientist Grant winner
Congratulations Bryony! First, can you tell us a bit more about what you're working on at the moment?
Multiple myeloma is blood cancer which, despite many advances in treatment, still remains incurable due to acquired resistance to current standard of care therapies which include the first in line proteasome inhibitors. My research is focused on an E3 ligase called HUWE1 which regulates key oncogenic proteins namely c-Myc, p53, and Mcl-1. Our lab has shown previously that knockdown of HUWE1 significantly reduces tumour burden in vivo and now we have developed effective inhibitors of HUWE1 which have shown to reduce cell viability as well as act synergistically with current standard of care therapies including cells which are resistant to proteasome inhibitors.
What is it about your field of research that gets you most excited?
I love that every day is different and that cancer research is forever changing and improving. Although this can be frustrating at times as my research has taken several different turns, it is what makes it so interesting and I hope it has a larger impact in the future of myeloma.
Which scientists working today do you most admire, and why?
It is actually impossible for me to mention all the scientists I admire as there are far too many. I follow so many on Twitter and admire them all for their individual contributions from funny videos about Western blots to sharing papers, thoughts, and feedback.
What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing life scientists and their work?
For us right now I think it’s the accessibility to high throughput NGS methods and analysis that are cost-effective for large samples.
And finally… what’s your favourite science joke?
Why did the acid go to the gym?
To become a buffer solution!
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Thank you so much Bryony! We hope you have a fantastic time at the Keystone Symposia.
Connect with Bryony:
- Twitter: @BryonyKennedy
- LinkedIn: Bryony Kennedy
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