Dr Susan Campbell shares how her research can lead to novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for disease
It’s another Spotlight edition!
Our Spotlight articles aim to shine a light on the people that make up the Industry and Innovation Research Institute (I2Ri). Alongside the BreakThru Research podcasts on Spotify hosted by Márjory Da Costa-Abreu, we hope this will be a great way to celebrate our successes and get to know our researchers more.
This edition, we caught up with Dr Susan Campbell to find out a bit more about her and her work in I2Ri.
“Within my research I am interested in how cells activate signalling pathways in response to stress and how these pathways become dysregulated or altered during chronic stress or disease. “
Please can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m originally from Dublin, Ireland and after completing my undergraduate degree in Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin I stayed on in the lab of Prof Ursula Bond to complete my PhD where I studied the 3’end processing of histone mRNAs in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
I then completed a short postdoc in the Bond lab before moving to Manchester to carry out post-doctoral research in Prof Mark Ashe’s lab first at UMIST and then as part of The University of Manchester.
Here I started to focus my research interests on the regulation of protein synthesis during stress and I’ve continued this interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling the regulation of protein synthesis during stress and disease since establishing my own research lab in the BMRC at SHU.
What path led to your current work and working at SHU?
While at Manchester I completed a course in leadership and management. I then applied for a position to join the technical staff as a senior technical officer within the Biosciences & Chemistry Department at SHU as I thought I could put my L&M skills into practice in that role!
I really enjoyed my time within the technical team and learnt lots about running labs and managing staff.
During this time I was still working with my old PI in Manchester completing research and writing papers so in 2013 when an opportunity to be seconded to an academic position to cover maternity leave came up- I jumped at the chance, and never looked back!
What is the most exciting thing about your work? What are some of the challenges?
I think the most exciting thing about my work is that I am always learning.
Within my research I am interested in how cells activate signalling pathways in response to stress and how these pathways become dysregulated or altered during chronic stress or disease.
I absolutely love the feeling you get when you’ve put a hypothesis in place and set up experiments to prove it and it works!!
The main challenge is time…there is never enough hours in the day to do everything and the challenge is ensuring I can prioritize everything in the time I have!
Who or what inspired you to pursue your career?
I don’t think there was a single person who inspired me to pursue this career. I think it was a mixture of really enjoying lab work during my degree and reading research articles and realising that I want to contribute to enhancing our knowledge of how things work in cells.
Can you share a turning point or defining moment in your work as a researcher?
Watch my first PhD student graduate!
What advice would you give to someone who was looking to embark on a career in research?
It’s hard work but it’s the best work! My main advice would be to talk to people and collaborate, research waits for no one and you need to make your own opportunities.
What do you most enjoy about teaching? What are the challenges?
The best thing about teaching is interacting with the students. I absolutely love the look on students’ faces when they get the concept I’m teaching- whether that’s in a lab or in a lecture.
I also love sharing and applying the research we are doing in the lab. I want to make research accessible to all so bringing it into my teaching and telling them it is research carried out at SHU I hope inspires students that they too can carry out research!
What are your ambitions and the next steps for the research?
I was recently promoted to Associate Professor, and this has given me the opportunity to really develop my research.
I’m currently involved in a number of exciting collaborations both with colleagues at SHU and at other UK institutions and I’m looking forward to seeing how these progress and what funding we can secure to enable the research to develop.
Is there an opportunity for colleagues to collaborate with you on your research?
Absolutely, my research has only succeeded due to collaborations. I always have time for research chats.
What real-world impact do you hope your research will make?
This is an area I sometimes find challenging as my research is quite mechanistic.
However, through knowing how signalling pathways work in cells or are dysregulated during stress or disease we can adapt and apply this knowledge to many different diseases and this can lead to possible novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for disease.
What do you like to do when you’re not working on your research? And when you are not working?
Outside of work I’m a dancemum!
My daughter dances in competitions and so weekends are usually driving her around to different competition venues or training.
While its chaotic it’s a completely different world to my working life so I love the change – and watching her do something she loves.