Profile

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Prabs Dehal

    • About Me:

      I live with my husband and teenage kids in Dundee. I’ve worked as a researcher in universities and industry. I love sci fi.

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      I love all things science, and have specialised in immunology. I like immunology because there is no right or wrong to it, everyone (and every living thing!) has a unique immune system which changes all the time.

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      I engineer antibodies by taking certain parts of them (the parts that recognises different shapes, for example proteins on cancer cells) and copy/pasting them onto other molecules.

    • My Typical Day:

      At the moment, I am coordinating the creation of a new engineering department at the University of St Andrews. This department will involve every type of engineer including people that engineer atoms, chemicals, molecules, light, materials for energy, and cells.

      Most of this is working from home so I talk to people on Teams for a lot of the day. The rest of the time I find places where people can get money for their projects or other people who may be interested in working with them on their grand ideas.

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      My typical day will be waking at 6AM, watching TV while having breakfast, getting chores done, waking and feeding my kids and getting them to school and starting for 9AM.

      I help people write grants, chat with them about what they would like to do and find other people for them to work with with, organise meetings and summaries of what people have said. I usually finish around 5 or 6.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      Pay an animator to create a descriptive animation of this work.

    My CV

    • Education:

      School: Cranford Community in Hounslow

      Uni: University of Dundee

      Masters: Abertay University

      PhD: University of Manchester (but it started at the University of Bristol. My lab moved)

    • Qualifications:

      GCSEs: 3 B’s 6 C’s.

      A’ Levels: B Biology, C Physics, E Chemistry

      BSc Biochemistry

      Masters Biotechnology

      PhD Cancer immunology

    • Work History:

      I have had a lot of jobs!

      Voluntary work at school for Barnardo’s and local hospitals.

      Playleader (working for Hounslow council looking after 5-12 years olds during the summer holidays)

      British Telecom Operator

      McDonalds

      Working in a cheese factory

      Working in offices filing

      Teaching lab work to students

      Working in a uni lab engineering antibodies

      Working in industry labs inventing technologies for diagnostics

      Running a lab engineering antibodies

      Planting strawberries

      Working in a lab to make viruses that kill bacteria that damage potatoes

      Working in an office in a university to promote researchers inventions

      Working in an office in a university helping researchers get grants and legal teams

      Working from home to create a new engineering department at a university

      Working part time in a lab to find ways to store enzymes

    • Current Job:

      Coordinating creation of anew engineering department

      Part time in a lab discovering ways to store enzymes for a new, greener way of making chemicals.

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        imaginative antibody engineer

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        yes

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