Author: Sofia Sancho
Artist: Yasmin Yong
Editor: Anita Allikmets
When Carolina Borrelli decided to do science in high school, rather than economics or literature, her friends looked at her with surprise. As she describes it, she didn’t have that natural talent for science or maths. “I was really, really bad!” she laughs. But she liked it, and she stuck to it, and it paid off. Today she’s doing a PhD in biophysics and microbiology, split between UCL and Imperial.
Borrelli’s project is part of research that will be vital for the future of healthcare. She is examining the mechanism of action of the antibiotic type polymyxins on gram negative bacteria. That is, the way the antibiotic works to produce an effect on the bacteria. Killing it, if you prefer to be crude. Gram negative bacteria are a massive threat to public health, as they have some of the highest levels of antibiotic resistance. Polymyxins, on the other hand, are what Borrelli describes as the “last-resort antibiotic.” “They are what we use when there is no other solution to treating an infection”.
Polymyxins are so strong, she tells me, that for several decades they were not used in clinical settings because of the damage they can do to your liver. Since the 90’s however, antibiotic resistance has become so widespread that polymyxins have had to be taken back into use. The hope is that when Borrelli and her team understand exactly how these last-resort antibiotics act on the bacteria, how resistance manifests, and how the polymyxins avoid it, they will be able to inspire a new generation of antibiotics.
It is not just the potential findings of Borrelli’s research that are revolutionary, the methods she is using are impressive as well. At the London Institute of Nanotechnology, where the UCL part of her project is based, she is using an atomic force microscope. This device uses physical touch instead of light, and probes the membrane of the bacterial cell to get images at a much smaller scale than a normal microscope can do. It’s a crowd pleaser within the research community. “People will come up to me at conferences, asking whether they can send me their samples to analyse in the microscope “ she beams. But precision takes time. The atomic force microscope can only work on one bacterium at the time. At the Imperial lab Borrelli therefore uses a fluorescence microscope instead, which allows her to view whole populations of bacteria but with less detail.
Borrelli does not have a background in biophysics or infectious diseases. She did her bachelors and masters degree, also at UCL, in biomedical engineering. “I knew I really wanted to do research” she says, and explains that she really missed being in a wet lab, working with chemicals, during her first years at university. But other than that, she wasn’t too sure about what she actually wanted to do. She found her project through the CDT, the Centre for Doctoral Training, something she highly recommends to other aspiring scientists.
Going into a relatively novel field felt like a big leap and a challenge, she explains, but that’s what excited her. Another vital factor in the choice was the supervisors of the project, which she already knew and liked. Borrelli repeatedly emphasises the importance of making sure that you feel like you can get along with your colleagues before taking on a research project. “There’s no point in being shy, four years is a big commitment”.
In a few months’ time, Borrelli will be on her way to San Francisco. There she will spend the summer at biotech company Genentech, working on the molecular aspect of the mechanisms she normally studies. She is looking forward to seeing the commercial side of the field, something that, again, will be a new experience for her. She doesn’t know what her next step will be when she gets back and eventually finishes her PhD. “I wouldn’t mind going into another field, but antimicrobial resistance is quite close to my heart now” she laughs, “so it would be a shame to just leave the whole thing”. Whatever she decides to do, it will probably be a bit of a leap, and cause some surprised faces.
kinesismagazine.com 