Question: Hi Gemma i am Chloe my question is what made you interested about the human body and when did you first start getting interested? {e.g school, work, online} also do you mess with any real bodys like dead animals or people that have gave there body for childen and scientests to find out information?

Gemma Sharp answered on 21 Jun 2011:

Hi Chloe,

I’m interested in the human body because I think it’s fascinatingly complicated! When you think about all the things that have to happen for it to work, it’s a wonder it ever does!

I guess I first started getting interested when I was doing my Masters degree at Bristol Uni. I had some really good lecturers there who were really enthusiastic about the research they did.

I don’t experiment with dead animals or people. I use cells that were in a person once, but haven’t been for a long time! They grow on their own in a plastic dish. I didn’t ever meet the person they came from.

Also at Bristol they did once show us a dead human woman so we could see how big the uterus and ovaries were and stuff. That woman must have agreed that when she died her body could be used for medical research. I think that’s a really admirable thing to do because it really helps scientists understand the body.