Profile – Beryllium Zone

Education:

St Johns School, Beverley, Yorkshire (1966-1971); Longcroft Comprehensive School (1971-1978)
Qualifications:

For my first degree I studied Biochemistry at Kings College in London and I studied for my PhD at University College, London.
Work History:

I worked at the world famous Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge between 1991 and 1994 and then became a lecturer at University of Southampton
Current Job:

Professor of Hepatology

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I am 49 years old (ancient!), married and together with my wife (Jelena who is also a scientist working on liver disease) we have three daughters aged 22, 17 and 15 plus a young son who is 4 years old. My work is exciting and very rewarding as it is aimed at discovering cures for a very serious condition that makes a lot of people of all ages very sick, my team and I have made real progress and are even involved with a clinical trial for a new treatment.
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I have a large research team of around 18 young scientists and most of my day is spent helping them to design ana analyse their experiments, each morning I have a lab meeting with 3-4 scientists where we discuss their work, I then spend the rest of the day looking at data from the lab, writing research papers and research grant applications.
What I'd do with the prize money:

I would use the money to contract visual artists to make an educational cartoon film of how liver disease develops and how we might cure this illness, I would then give lectures that include the film at local schools in Newcastle, in part to educate about the dangers of alcohol and obesity

Derek Mann