Maria O'Hanlon: Parkinson's disease, fruit flies, and blogging
This week we have a new 'Meet a Scientist', and it's a good one! I first discovered Maria on Instagram. The day I discovered her she was telling her followers that she wanted to bleach the front of her hair. She does a poll, and gets 87% of people saying she should do it. So she does, with great emotional turmoil. She documents it all; the lows of realising she made a mistake, to a few moments later deciding she likes it. From then on, I was hooked and am now a full-time Maria fan. (She saved the saga to her page so you can go and relive it with her!)
Maria O'Hanlon is an honest, charismatic, intelligent young scientist who is contributing to the body of work that is understanding Parkinson's disease. In our interview we discuss her current PhD research, her strategies for managing the rollercoaster which is academia, and her love for science communication. Let's jump right in.
What’s your origin story? What inspired you to choose molecular biology and ultimately, mitochondria?
I knew I wanted to study Biology at University when I was studying at college, but I wasn’t sure exactly what area I was interested in. Due to exam anxiety, I didn’t perform well in my A-levels, and ended up going through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) clearing to study Biological Sciences at Nottingham Trent University.
During my first year, I became more interested in the medical/healthcare side of the course, and successfully transferred to the BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science degree at the end of my first year. I absolutely loved this course and ended up doing an industrial placement year in an NHS pathology laboratory as well as a final year research project which was researching the effects of hypoxia on placental cells. I absolutely loved the project and working in research, so decided to continue in research and apply for a Master of Research (MRes) degree in Medical and Molecular Biology.
I completed my MRes at Newcastle University, spending 6 months completing a research project looking at mitochondrial DNA replication during mouse embryo development. This project was heavily molecular biology-based which I really loved because I realised that it is a hugely powerful tool that can be applied to many disciplines. But, during this project, I also became interested in mitochondrial biology. I researched it more, and I was amazed by how much destruction can be caused by one small organelle going wrong.
I began applying for PhDs at this point, looking for something related to mitochondrial biology, and I was lucky enough to be accepted for a PhD at the National Horizons Centre at Teesside University. I look at the role of mitochondria (the part of our bodies that convert the food we eat into energy) in Parkinson’s disease, a progressive illness that damages the brain.
Tell us about your PhD! What are you researching and why is it important?
I am researching the roles of mitochondrial proteins in Parkinson’s disease. The underlying mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease are poorly understood, and this means that it’s hard to develop therapeutics that treat the cause as opposed to the symptoms.
There are lots of theories behind what causes the disease, but since the discovery of poisons that cause mitochondrial dysfunction which results in Parkinson’s disease symptoms, mitochondria have been believed to be closely linked to disease development and progression.
I am researching the disease in fruit flies because they have a Parkinson’s disease gene. I am taking these flies and introducing various mitochondrial gene mutations to see if they alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. This research is important because understanding what causes Parkinson’s disease will allow us to develop better treatments.
What has your PhD experience been like so far?
My PhD experience has definitely been filled with many highs and lows so far! The first few months were filled with learning new techniques - mainly how to look after fruit flies! I had never worked with flies before, so it’s been a steep learning curve, but I absolutely love it. I feel like a proper fly Mother now!!
My biggest highlight has definitely been working with the flies. They’re a fascinating organism and have so much potential for use in scientific studies. I feel really lucky to be working with such an amazing model. In terms of lows, I have just started my second year but had to take 6-months out due to a Covid-19 national lockdown. This was really hard as my project is 100% wet lab-based, so I could only read papers and write at home, which soon got very tedious and it was very stressful not knowing when I’d be able to do lab work again.
Now that I’m back in the lab, I feel pressured to catch up on time lost. 2020 overall has been quite a tough year to be doing a PhD. But, these are the cards I’ve been dealt so I am just trying to embrace it and get on with it! I work with amazing people, and the rest of my PhD cohort are all so friendly and passionate about what they do, so even though it is tough, I feel really privileged to be doing a PhD right now.
What’s your favourite book to recommend to people interested in science?
This is such a hard question!! The Pathologic Basis of Disease by Robbins & Cotran was one that I read during my undergraduate degree that got me really interested in diseases. I found it insane that the body can respond to stress and toxins through so many different pathways which can lead to biological processes such as tissue inflammation, renewal, repair, regeneration and development of various disorders.
To be honest, I really love any books to do with general human biology – the human body is WILD! So I’d also recommend something like ‘The Mysterious World of the Human Genome’ by Frank Ryan and ‘Adventures in Human Being’ by Gavin Francis.
Tell us about your blog! How do you choose what to write about and what do you hope to achieve with your writing?
I started my blog during the second year of my undergraduate degree, back in 2015. I noticed that there was a gap between scientific research being relayed to the general public, which seemed to result in general misunderstanding and consequently, pseudoscience.
I wanted to try and reduce that gap by informally writing about any scientific research that interests me in a simple, approachable way. In terms of choosing what to write about, I tend to just go with whatever I personally find interesting which tends to be focused heavily on healthcare and medical bioscience, but with some world affairs, ecology and environmental studies thrown in there too.
I try to promote my writing on my social media like Twitter and Instagram, both of which seem to attract different audiences so is great to try and diversify the people my blog reaches. It can be hard to engage people in science, so I try to mix my writing up into blog posts, short tweets and Instagram posts/stories, so that I can reach as many people as possible in some form.
What has being a scientist taught you about how to live your life?
The biggest thing I’ve learnt through being a scientist is that perseverance is key. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve succeeded in my experiments, but I’d need my hands, feet and a group of friends’ as well to count how many failures I’ve had. At school it is emphasised that you have to get everything right; you have to get the best grades and the best work, so taking that mindset into science didn’t work out as planned.
I’ve failed exams during my degrees, I’ve screwed up experiments, and I have wanted to give up over 1000 times. Eventually, I figured out that, to be a good scientist, you need to fail, because you can learn a lot from your failures, and that means that perseverance is key.
It’s been a bit of a brutal lesson to learn, with many periods of stress and tears, but I think I’m able to live my life more happily now because I know that I can always learn from things going wrong.
What advice would you give to a younger self?
It’s ok to be different. It sounds cliché, but I struggled a lot at school with people making fun of me for liking work and being quite bubbly and passionate. For a long time, I was worried about showing these parts of my personality through my work and science communication but now, I realise that it’s those things that make me good at what I do.
"Eventually, I figured out that, to be a good scientist, you need to fail. You can learn a lot from your failures, and that means that perseverance is key."
Hopefully, showing that I’m passionate about science will help me get a job at the end of the PhD! There’s nothing wrong with being different, and if anything, that will make you stand out from the crowd. I’m proud that I’m a huge geek who loves science!
Why do you think it is important to educate young people about science, and what is the best way to inspire them?
It is so important to educate young people about science, especially in the current climate. When I was at primary school (between 5 and 11 years old), I really didn’t like science. I found it quite boring, and I think part of that was because it wasn’t very 'hands-on'. It wasn’t until I had a really passionate science teacher who spoke about diseases I’d never heard of and the way that genetics determines who we are that an interest in science was sparked in me that I didn’t know I had.
For me, I think I would have been much more interested and inspired by science from a young age if I had been given more opportunities to do experiments and speak to real-life scientists. It’s because of this that now, I try to do a lot of engagement with schools through various outreach programmes to give young people the experiences that I never had.
I would have loved to speak to a scientist, ask them questions about what it is like, and see their labs. It makes science so much more interesting and accessible because they can see that scientists are normal people too. I especially love doing this in the area that I grew up, to show young people that someone local can go on to be a scientist and research really amazing things.
What’s on the horizon for Maria?!
At the minute, I’m not sure what the next step will be. I think going into my PhD, the dream was to carry on in academia, and I think like most PhD students, I would love to one day be a Professor. I really love working in research, so continuing onto Post-Doctoral studies would be fantastic.
However, I know that this is incredibly competitive and potentially unlikely, so I’ve been exploring other options to keep in mind, like working in industry, scientific editing or science communication.
I am so passionate about science communication and absolutely love writing about science, so if I could make a career out of it, that would be incredible. But, I think I’d also really miss research. Basically, the short answer is that I don’t know what to do next, but I do know that I’m excited about it!
To become a full-time Maria fan like me you can find her blog here, her Instagram here, and her Twitter here!