Hello! I'm Holly - a third year undergraduate student in the UK studying towards an MSci in Biochemistry. Within the broad realms of my discipline, I have particular interests in cancer biology, omics technologies, structural biology (in particular that related to pathogenicity) and bioinformatics.

Through this site, I aim to provide you all with insights into the world of life sciences - from blog posts on recent news/topics of interest, or based on requests that you send in, to posts that are more information based - aimed at aiding the revision process for A-Level exams and similar qualifications (particularly in biology, chemistry and maths), to posts giving you an insight into the life of a biochemistry student and what I get up to on a daily basis!

My interest in biochemistry developed as a result of questioning how and why things happen. Biochemistry at its core enables us to begin to understand life at the molecular and cellular level, thus aiding us in understanding processes - from respiration, to cycles in metabolism, to signalling pathways and much more. One of my favourite things to do is problem solving - using a variety of skills to work through a challenging scenario and eventually come up with an answer or hypothesis to test (etc.) - nothing else is quite so satisfying to me than getting to that point after a lot of work! This can involve technical knowledge, as well as data handling (using R, Python, Excel etc.) and molecular graphics (using ChimeraX); it leads to you thinking in a multi-disciplinary manner, bringing together lots of fields in order to reach a solution - something which I'll talk about a lot throughout the site!

A set of four images. The first (on the left) is a graph of steady state rate plotted against substrate concentration in R showing non-linear regression. The second image was made in ChimeraX and is showing an inhibitor, APF, binding to the active site of chymotrypsin with key residues (Ser189, Asp102, His57 and Ser195) labelled. The third is a graph showing skin cell lines that are particularly sensitive or resistant to vemurafenib (a chemotherapeutic drug) highlighting a particularly sensitive line, WM115. The final picture (right hand side) is a figure sketched by hand of a platelet showing key factors that could be targeted during drug development including von-Willebrand Factor, integrins and GPCRs.

Aside from science (biochemistry), I am an avid amateur musician. I play the cello, piano and sing (chorally) very regularly and believe in promoting access to classical music and the arts, like with science. These areas can work together, but should also be accessible to all.

If not studying or practising, you can probably find me on a good walk, cooking/baking (experimenting with food), or learning languages. I love to travel and learning languages so that I can communicate with more people and access more cultures.