Question: so, Gemma what kind of methods are you using to investigate?

Gemma Sharp answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Thanks for the good question! 🙂

Well, I’m growing some cells from a uterus (womb) in plastic flasks, and then I’m adding chemicals to them to see what the cells do in response.

The technique for growing the cells is called ‘cell culture’ and it involves keeping everything sterile (to keep bacteria out of the cells). I have to work in a sterile hood and keep spraying everything with ethanol to kill the bacteria.

When I want to see how the cells have responded to the chemicals I’ve added I have to scrape them off the flask and test the levels of different proteins. To do that I use a method called ‘Western blotting’ which is a long procedure that eventually gives me a piece of paper with lines (or bands) on it to show which proteins are present. The thickness of the bands indicates how much of the protein is present.

I’m building the model at the moment, which means I’m entering a list of proteins that I think are important into a special computer program, then I add my results from the lab to my computer model to tell it how fast certain reactions have taken place and the concentrations of different proteins in the cells.

Then I can run simulations on the computer model to show how protein levels change over time in response to different chemicals.

When I know how all the reactions in the part of the cell I’m interested in take place, I’ll be able to understand more about what happens to make women go into labour on time and prematurely.