Real
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New Scientist
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From Nano to the Macro
Upulie Divisekera
Researcher
University of Auckland (New Zealand)
Co-founder of Real Scientists
Please explain your research in simple words
My doctoral work was in looking for new ways to deliver drugs to specific cells. Basically, I was trying to make clever, tiny tablets made of gold
I'll be talking about my research career and my doctoral work, how I ended up in science, science communication, why I do both and and what I'm doing now.
What can the followers expect in your curation week?
How did you end up in your current research field?
I'd spent a lot of time in cancer research at the most basic level. I worked on an immunotherapy and decided that if I did a PhD I'd work in therapies - so I ended up working on using nanodelivery mechanisms fo anti-cancer agents
My doctoral work is in drug delivery mechanisms. I work on generating particles, primarily from gold nanoparticles, to deliver gene therapies. I'm also currently working on endometriosis, and thinking about at possible ways to treat it using nanotech
How and where does your research fall in the domain of materials/nano science?
Which research project are you most proud of and could you explain it in simple words in the section we call #InOtherwords?
The research projects I've been involved with have been in cancer genetics or cancer immunology. I'm most proud of working on an anti-CD73 immunotherapy. I watched it shrink tumours in mice and it's now in clinical trials.
Mentorship, longer research grants!
If you had 3 wishes to improve your research experience, what would you ask for (not promising anything here!)?
What are you most looking forward to in the next 3 months?
I'm looking forward to writing more of my thesis and on finishing a paper on endometriosis
Not so much challenges as issues I think really matter 1. Safety around the use and disposal of nanoparticles 2. teaching graduate students to be good graduates and scientists with good practice