Profile

I was born in Sri Lanka, I went to several schools because of having to move, and have been in the UK since I was about 9 years old. I work in Cambridge, and live 1 hour away, with my husband and our very busy 1 year old son. We love watching him grow and develop his curiosity about the world. We also love relaxing once the cheeky bean has gone to sleep. Our favourite programmes to watch when relaxing are Blue Planet, Brooklyn Nine Nine, and Star Trek: Discovery! I try to do a bit of compassion meditation whenever I get the chance as this is the best thing to help clear my mind.

My current work is mainly computer-based. I am trying to understand the different signs that patients may have as a result of a spelling mistake in the code (DNA) that helps make up the batteries (known as mitochondria) in their cells. These batteries or ‘mitochondria’ are the energy-generating packs of cells that make up the body, they are particularly concentrated in areas that need lots of energy such as in muscles/heart/brain/kidneys. These batteries also have their own code that helps them function – known as mitochondrial DNA, which is separate from the cell’s code (DNA in the cell nucleus). There are patients who have spelling mistakes in the mitochondrial DNA which cause problems with how the mitochondria work, which leads to less energy  in that area of the body. I am trying to work out how to predict which patients with which spelling mistakes in their mitochondrial DNA have which problems!

At the same time I will be helping the team to look at a different part of the problem of disease caused by problems with the mitochondria, by doing a procedure called ‘muscle biopsy’ on patients who have consented for research. A muscle biopsy is where you take a little piece of muscle through a needle and fix this piece of muscle in something like wax in order for researchers to study the muscle. This is a picture of muscle tissue stained to look for healthy muscle fibres with happy mitochondria (brown fibres = healthy mitochondria, blue fibres = unhappy mitochondria due to a problem with their code).

Wake early, hopefully before 1 year old wakes up. Morning offerings to the Buddha and 10-15 mins of prayers. Off to work (1.5 hour commute). Spreadsheet work, learn how to use code, attend a clinic to see patients or spend time teaching medical students on how to examine children, attend lab meetings. Back home for about 5.30-6pm in order to have some play time with son! After son goes to sleep, we have dinner and try to fit in some work before our own bedtime.