• Question: why did you do the study of blood

    Asked by jjdj2 to Chris, Emily, Martin, Natalie, Tamsin on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Martin Coath

      Martin Coath answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      I think this question is for Chris – I am not an expert in blood!

    • Photo: Chris Cooper

      Chris Cooper answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      It basically started by looking at the red protein in blood – haemoglobin. I was part of team looking how changes in its colour could be used to monitor the brain’s function. So this was looking at blood inside the body by shining light on people’s head.

      Later I started looking at blood I had taken out of people. The chemistry was similar to other proteins I had been working on, but seemed to have practical benefit. This related to diseases such as heart attacks and stroke. So I could look at the same chemistry I was interested in, but because it was important for health people paid me to do it!

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