Biological Sciences

Melanie Smith

Qualifications: (Hons) Molecular Biology, PhD Molecular Biology
Current position: Scientist, Sareum

I chose to study Molecular Biology at the University Portsmouth because the course was very varied and incorporated many modules ranging from biochemistry and biophysics to genetics and cell biology. I settled into student life very quickly and enjoyed the fact that the campus was close knit and that you could easily walk between lectures, the library, the student union, the shops and the seafront. I found the course very stimulating and during my third year I undertook my research project in protein-DNA interactions and realised that I wanted to continue working in this field after finishing my degree. I graduated with a 2:1 and was very lucky to be offered a PhD position to characterise a bacterial methylase and its interaction with DNA. During the course of my PhD I was able to put into practice many of the techniques that I had learned during my undergraduate degree such as cloning, protein purification and crystallography.

After successfully completing my PhD, I took up a post-doctoral position at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where I investigated proteins involved in mitosis in yeast. This project interested me because many cell cycle proteins in yeast have human homologues and so yeast is used as a model to study cell division in humans. This work involved using more cell biology techniques but a large area of the work still required molecular biology methods that I had learned at Portsmouth.

In 2003, I started working for a biotech company called Solexa (now acquired by Illumina) which was developing a new type of DNA sequencing technology which promised to sequence a person’s genome in a day! I found the technology intriguing and began working in the protein-engineering department with the aim of engineering a DNA polymerase such that it would incorporate modified DNA nucleotides.

Last year, I noticed an advert for an exciting position at a structure-based drug discovery company called Sareum and I leapt at the chance to work for this company. Sareum was recently founded in order to develop drugs for the treatment of cancer. At Sareum, biologists work very closely with chemists in order to achieve this aim and we have a great team of people who are very enthusiastic about their work and the company goals. I now use the molecular biology and biochemistry knowledge and techniques that I learned during my degree and PhD at Portsmouth to study many important proteins involved in cancer. I find my work extremely interesting, enjoyable and rewarding – not everyone can say that about his or her job!