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When we cut ourselves, we often bleed a little bit before the bleeding stops. The bleeding starts because we have injured a blood vessel, such as an artery or vein, so the blood can escape from the vessel. The bleeding stops because the blood inside our arteries and veins forms what we call a ‘clot’ in response to the vessel being injured. We can think of this clot as a plug in the artery or vein which stops the blood from escaping while the vessel wall heals. This means that when we injure ourselves, we don’t lose too much blood, which can be very dangerous.

I look at how this blood clot forms, and some of the changes we see in the formation of blood clots different people, such as people with diabetes or heart disease.

One thing I enjoy about my work is the variety. I get to work in a lot of different laboratories with a lot of different people.

Typically I have a cup of tea over catching up on my emails in the morning and then get on with whichever experiment I have planned for that day. This could be a wide variety of things, from simple experiments in the lab  next to my office, or in other parts of the university using specialist pieces of equipment.

When I am not doing experiments, I am planning my next experiment, speaking to colleagues about working with them, in meetings, writing up my work for publication or presenting my work to others. Another great part of the job is international conferences abroad where I can talk about my work while also having a holiday; I’m off to Amsterdam at the end of June to do exactly that.

I am lucky enough to walk half an hour to and from work, which is at the main University of Leeds campus, and work 8.30am-4.30pm Monday to Friday, so I can disspell the myths about the horrible working hours of scientists!