A day in the life of a Senior Lecturer in Diagnostics for Infectious Disease, who is leading LSTM’s research in the development of a rapid-testing for Covid-19. Dr Emily Adams...
Role
I am a senior lecturer at LSTM, deputy head of the department of tropical disease biology, and co-director of the centre for drugs and diagnostics. I lead the diagnostics group here at LSTM, and we focus on the development and evaluation of novel diagnostics for infectious diseases. In 2020 we have had a huge focus on COVID-19, but normally we also work on TB, malaria, CCHF, Leishmania, Trypanosomiasis, Dengue… the list goes on!
How I got where I am
I am a biologist, with an undergrad at Imperial College, MSc at Nottingham and PhD in Bristol. I really stepped into the work of translational diagnostics during my post-doc years at the KIT in Amsterdam. KIT is the Royal Tropical Institute, with a focus on diagnostic development, evaluation and implementation. I learnt so much there, and loved living in the Netherlands. I travelled all around the world, working and learning in different laboratories and settings. From malaria microscopy labs on border crossings between Sudan and Ethiopia, to high-throughput HIV molecular labs in Kenya, and health posts in rural Colombia. I was hooked on working out which tests were best in which settings and the complexities of implementation in all settings.
What does a typical day look like?
I run a lab group in Liverpool, and as a mum of two my typical day starts with a nursery and school drop-off. Often a zoom in the car on the way to work, yesterday talking to the AGILE clinical trial team about laboratory plans and expanding enrolment to South Africa. At work I catch up with my lab team who have been working extremely hard on COVID-19 diagnostics since the start of the outbreak. We run through results from our diagnostic trial FASTER which enrols at the Royal, and our community study COVID-LIV, and make sure they all get reported accurately and on time. We touch base on our links with industry, protocols, results, follow-ups. Working in translational research I often have a meeting with our industrial partners to discuss results, most fruitfully with our Mologic consortium, results are exciting and progress is rapid.
I supervise 3 PhD students and we have weekly meetings to support progress. There is often a committee meeting of some variety and I am proud to be the staff member on our senior management committee.
At this time of year, there is a focus on teaching, which is a whole new world with the move to online teaching due to the pandemic. I co-ordinate an undergraduate module at UOL, and currently spending a lot of time in our recording studio to ensure everyone can access resources. We hope to teach face to face eventually, so students will feel connected to the course, but it is a tough year for everyone involved. As you can see, it is a varied and busy day!
What work are you currently working on?
Currently we are working on the evaluation of antigen rapid diagnostic tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19. We hear a lot about the delay and complexity of accessing swab/molecular tests for COVID, and we are looking to see if the antigen tests can help upscale accessibility to testing. These lateral flow tests take just 15 minutes from sample to result and so will be extremely useful to quickly test symptomatic patients and triage them to see who requires a molecular test. We are the FIND evaluation site in the UK, so our work is part of an international multi-site collaboration, and results go to WHO and aid procurement of the best tests with independent and transparent data.
What I love about what I do
Working with my team and industrial partners to improve tests, and produce data that enables international procurement. Companies that believe in producing quality products at an affordable price to ensure everyone can access diagnostics is hugely important.
A moment I’ll always remember
A Friday ‘Surprise ELISA’! My team has been so committed over the pandemic, and somehow quick results are always needed on a Friday.
One thing I wish I’d known when I started out
I’ve always known this but the pandemic has brought it home, good collaboration, trust and communication is the key to success.
Finally, in one sentence, what challenges do you see
We have so many amazing scientists and we need to ensure we have stable jobs to retain talent, science funding is so competitive and finite so this is an enormous challenge.
Click here to learn about LSTM's role in the fight against COVID-19...