We are back with our 'spotlight on' interview series, shedding light on inspiring women working in the field of neuroscience and reflecting on their distinct backgrounds and career journeys. The questions posed to these individuals explore the themes of job perks and challenges, developing new skills, inspirations in the neuroscience field, and goals for the future. Stay tuned to see new interviews every few weeks from women in a range of neuroscience-related professions!
This month, we interviewed Eve Corrie, an in vitro neurobiologist working at Medicines Discovery Catapult, an independent, not-for-profit drug discovery innovation centre. Eve discusses her decision to move from academia to industry and the benefits she has experienced so far!
Can you tell us about your background in science, your current area of study, and what interested you about neuroscience initially?
I can probably trace the start of my interest in neuroscience back to a particular day in Year 11. A neuroanatomist had come to do some outreach during a lunchtime session, and she had brought a human brain in a bucket to pass round the whole class to hold. I remember thinking that it was so intense that I was holding the organ that makes a person a person, and how small it seemed.
After reading many popular neuroscience books during my gap year I ended up at UCL for 4 amazing years and got interested in the neuroscience of pain signalling. Having insisted for years that I didn’t want to do a PhD, I then ended up in Sheffield doing a PhD investigating the utility and mechanism of novel, engineered botulinum toxins as pain therapeutics. I got a taste of the drug discovery industry during a six-month placement at Eli Lilly as part of my studentship and realised that this was the sort of role that I wanted when I finished my doctorate.
I have since moved over to industry where I currently work for Medicines Discovery Catapult, part of the Catapult network set up by Innovate UK to enhance and accelerate UK research and industry. I work on drug discovery projects using human stem cell-derived models of the brain and nervous system, mostly in the neurodegenerative disease space.
What made you pursue the position you are currently in?
I managed to find one of the only neuroscience industry jobs that let me stay up North! That’s sort of a joke, but not really. I really did not fancy moving down to London, Oxford, or Cambridge after I had become used to the significantly improved quality of life you can afford when you don’t live in the golden triangle.
It wasn’t just geography though, obviously the organisation and the role also seemed very good otherwise I wouldn’t have ended up here. The way MDC works is unique, being partially publicly funded and non-profit, but with aspects of working for a commercial company – a blend which seemed very appealing. It also allowed me to transition away from animal work and get experience working with human induced pluripotent stem cells, a transition that I think will serve me well as science moves away from the over-reliance on animal, particularly rodent, models.
What are the most enjoyable aspects of your current job?
I interviewed for one other role as I was applying for this one, and I’m now very glad I didn’t get it as it would have been entirely desk-based. Things like moving around the labs, physically doing things, and learning how to use pieces of equipment are quite important to my job satisfaction and I really enjoy that aspect of wet lab science.
It’s also great to be exposed to new projects in different disease areas, through meeting new potential clients and developing new ideas together. It’s very different to academia where you’re digging down into one tiny area of science for many years – rain or shine. Some people love that, but I need variety. We’re constantly developing new assays and learning new techniques in the lab and it’s very satisfying when it pays off.
I also enjoy working for a company with such a broad remit. It’s almost like a blend of the best bits of working for a drug discovery company or a contract research organisation, mixed with some of the freedom to innovate that you get in academia.
What are some of the challenging aspects of your current job?
Science is always challenging, whatever role or sector you’re in! Working with stem-cell derived models is particularly fiddly, as they are very sensitive and take a long time to mature. When you’ve been babying some precious cells for weeks, it can be kind of crushing when something goes wrong. Unfortunately, that’s just the nature of life in the lab.
What are you currently trying to get better at in your neuroscience job?
I’m having to learn how to sell what we do. I’m trying to learn how to network more efficiently, for example when attending and presenting at conferences. I’ve even been involved in a few social media posts and videos to advertise our neuroscience capabilities and conference posters, which has been a learning curve! The hard bit for me is not when you’re in the middle of a project, running the experiments. The hard bit is meeting the right people, building enough rapport, then having good enough ideas that they want to collaborate with you.
Which women in your life inspire you, in neuroscience and beyond?
I went to Lyme Regis last summer, in order to visit where Mary Anning lived and worked along the Jurassic Coast in the 1800s. Mary was one of the best fossil hunters of history, discovering the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton, the first plesiosaurs, and the first pterosaur outside of Germany. She would walk the coastline every tide, especially in stormy weather, as this was when the rock would be eroded and reveal new specimens. She mostly did this to sell her findings to tourists to make a living, but in doing so changed the course of palaeontology, with many of her specimens still exhibited in the Natural History Museum today. Of course, as a working-class woman at that time she was never accepted into the scientific community and is only nowadays credited as the amazing scientist she was, but she’s one of my historical inspirations for her tenacity and diligence to her work.
More personally, I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by inspiring women in science all the way from school, to my integrated masters, through my PhD and in my current role. My current manager is such a kind, supportive, clever person and she’s a joy to work with.
What goals do you have for your career, and where do you see yourself in the next few years professionally?
I’ve never been particularly future-thinking or goal-seeking. I tend to bumble along in my career until the next thing happens to me, and this strategy has served me well so far. I imagine I’ll stay in my current role until I’m either no longer enjoying it or no longer progressing, then will look for the next step as that time approaches. I sometimes feel like there’s so much pressure to have the most impressive career in the room and always be striving for the next best thing, but unfortunately that also can tend to come with a lot of anxiety, stress and unhappiness. As long as I feel fulfilled in what I’m doing, and I’m surrounded by good colleagues around me, then why would I leave?
If I was hard-pushed to have a goal for myself then maybe in the future I’d like to move onto something more directly patient-focused or clinical, but I couldn’t tell you what that would look like.
What advice would you give to women at the early stages of their neuroscience careers?
Don’t panic if something you’ve been aiming for doesn’t pan out. There will always be something else that comes along that will be equally good, if not better. Try and think about the choices you make along the way, make informed decisions and life changes when you need to, but it’s not the end of the world if something goes a bit awry at some point. There are so many examples of scientists whose careers have taken a huge turning point they couldn’t have predicted, whether down to choice or something out of their control – just listen to a few episodes of The Life Scientific and you’ll realise how common it is.
Also, don’t give up immediately if something is tough! Stick it out for a while because, chances are, you will be capable of adapting to it. A bit of grit and tenacity will get you a long way. Obviously, even if after a decent adjustment period you’re still unhappy, or it’s affecting your mental health, then make one of those informed decisions and life changes, but make sure you allow for a decent settling period first.
What aspects of the science/academic industry do you think need addressing, particularly in terms of issues minority groups may face?
Different sectors of STEM have significantly different problems. For example, in bioscience there seems to be a relatively equal split of men to women at all levels, and I’ve never felt any sort of way about being female in this environment. However, move over to the computer science sector and almost everybody is male. Maybe it’s a coincidence that the pay is significantly higher in this sector than bioscience, but maybe it’s not.
Something I think is a broader problem in all of STEM and academia is the noticeable lack of distribution across different “social classes” and representation from deprived areas. This problem can only be addressed at the root, very early on in childhood. It depends on the catchment area you are born in, whether you have guardians with time to read with you, whether your school has any resources to support your individual interests, whether you have to work part-time through university to supplement your Maintenance Loan which doesn’t cover your rent, whether you have the financial ability to relocate to begin a PhD project in a different part of the country… Until there is more support and less reliance on family to fill the gaps that should be provided by the government, this disparity will remain, and so much talent will continue to be wasted.
This article was written by Rebecca Pope and edited by Lauren Wallis, with graphics produced by Lilly Green. If you enjoyed this article, be the first to be notified about new posts by signing up to become a WiNUK member (top right of this page)! Interested in writing for WiNUK yourself? Contact us through the blog page and the editors will be in touch.
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