{"id":624,"date":"2021-02-12T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/?p=624"},"modified":"2021-02-09T07:18:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T18:18:22","slug":"alumni-series-bryony-leeke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/alumni-series-bryony-leeke\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Series: Bryony Leeke"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A resident colony of South American opossums is not what you\u2019d expect to find in the imposing-sounding Francis Crick Institute in the heart of London.<\/p>\n

Yet the institute (named after the Nobel Prize-winning co-discoverer of DNA\u2019s double helix) is also home to Otago genetics graduate Bryony Leeke, who reckons \u201cthe Crick\u201d is nothing like most people\u2019s image of a genetics laboratory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Illustration by Poppy Ollerenshaw Whittle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Bryony, it\u2019s full of an amazing array of international researchers, working on an incredible range of projects. (And this, of course, includes a typical down-to-earth friendly Kiwi like Bryony herself!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As for the opossums: Bryony\u2019s just completed her PhD investigating the embryonic development of these South American marsupials (a distant relative of New Zealand\u2019s own introduced possums). While it\u2019s been mainly pure research\u2014\u201cfinding out how nature works\u201d\u2014studies like this do have important practical spin-offs, Bryony says.<\/p>\n

For example, as many diseases are now thought to be the result of the wrong genes being turned on or off, she explains, a greater understanding \u201cof how genes are being controlled in development\u201d has crucial implications for human health.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Bryony\u2019s next position will be as a postdoctoral researcher at the London Institute of Medical Science, investigating how early development is genetically controlled and, in particular, how an embryo \u2018knows\u2019 when and how to turn on specific genes.<\/p>\n

However, working in a prestigious international genetics lab was not really on Bryony\u2019s radar when she first enrolled for a zoology and genetics degree at Otago. Indeed, tracing the route Bryony followed to the Crick is almost a metaphorical mirror of the developmental pathways she\u2019s ended up studying.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There were, for instance, clear genetic and environmental influences in her early life. Originally from Porirua, Bryony obviously inherited her parents\u2019 love of the great outdoors, including annual family tramps up the Orongorongo Valley near Wellington at Christmas. This early exposure to nature\u2014plus an inspirational biology teacher at high school\u2014naturally led her towards the life sciences at university.<\/p>\n

At this stage, though, she didn\u2019t yet have a specific career goal in mind. \u201cI was curiosity-driven, studying science simply for the sake of it,\u201d she says. (Metaphorically, you might say she was still at the \u2018pluripotent\u2019 stage, capable of heading in any number of directions.)<\/p>\n

But her next major inspiration came when she chose to focus on genetics for her Honours year. \u201cThe awesome thing was the researchers from different disciplines and the cross-specialism exposure\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s what made me want to go on with genetics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A research project working on gene expression in zebrafish quickly followed, in a lab overseen by Professor Julia Horsfield. The next pivotal moment came during a \u2018coffee with the boss\u2019, Julia\u2019s regular informal get-togethers with individual junior researchers. With Bryony toying with the idea of becoming a teacher, Julia encouraged her instead to carry on with genetics and then make a decision. It proved good advice (again, like a metaphorical intervention in early development).<\/p>\n

After \u201cloads more lab work\u201d, Bryony started seriously thinking about a PhD overseas\u2014\u201cpartly for the adventure, and partly to expand experiences and opportunities,\u201d she says<\/p>\n

Already aware of \u201cthe then-being-built\u201d Francis Crick Institute (this was in 2015), she applied for a position\u2014and, after an \u201cintense but fun selection process\u201d in London, was accepted. And the rest, as they say, is history. Well, not really: who knows what new pathways may open in Bryony\u2019s developing genetics career.<\/p>\n

Yet while it\u2019s already taken her in unimagined directions\u2014\u201cI thought I\u2019d be doing something more outdoorsy, but I\u2019ve found molecular biology so fascinating\u201d\u2014Bryony does have one eventual goal in mind: \u201cI\u2019d love to end up back in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good on ya, mate!<\/p>\n

Watch Bryony in Action<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Written by Mick Whittle<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos Supplied by Bryony Leeke<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A resident colony of South American opossums is not what you\u2019d expect to find in the imposing-sounding Francis Crick Institute in the heart of London. Yet the institute (named after the Nobel Prize-winning co-discoverer of DNA\u2019s double helix) is also home to Otago genetics graduate Bryony Leeke, who reckons \u201cthe Crick\u201d is nothing like most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37560,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37560"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}