• Question: What's the bloodiest experiment you've ever done?

    Asked by maddieduffy to Sinead on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Hi Maddie,
      I was doing experiments to look for drugs to treat Parkinsons disease, which is a illness that affects the brain. I was using rat brain and liver so I had to take out the cells I needed which involved mixing those organs with a special chemical, spinning them around in a really fast machine (called a centrifuge) and then I could get the cells I needed!
      I hope thats not too gruesome for you!

Comments

  • Photo: miriamocal

    miriamocal commented on :

    @sinead It won’t let me post a question so i’ll ask it here.. Why do some blood clots never dissolve even after the patient has been given thrombosis injects and has been on warfin for over 2 years?

  • Photo: Sinead

    Sinead commented on :

    Hi Miriam,

    So some people are at a much higher risk of getting blood clots, so say someone is on Warfin which is used to prevent blood clots may not be treating the patients specifically enough. So it may have a really good effect, even life saving effects on some people but not on others and this is why the developments of new tests and new personalised medicine is so important, so we can treat each patient more specifically.

    Hope this helps
    If you need more info ask another question 🙂