Profile
Andy Timms
My CV
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Education:
Geoffrey Chaucer School ‘O’ levels (Canterbury, Kent)
Canterbury College of Technology ‘A’ levels (Canterbury, Kent)
University of Sheffield BSc (Sheffield)
Medical Research Council – Cell Mutation Unit PhD (Brighton, E. Sussex) -
Qualifications:
O Levels: Biology, Chemistry, Maths, English, English Literature, Geography, History
A Levels: Botany, Zoology, Chemistry
BSc: Joint – Microbiology and Biochemistry
PhD: Genetics – thesis title; ‘Spontaneous Mutagenesis in Stressed Escherichia coli’ -
Work History:
From past to present –
Assistant biometrician at Pfizer Central Research (Sandwich, Kent)
Medical Research Council working as a scientific officer (research) (Brighton, E. Sussex)
Director of a multimedia and conference production company (Brighton, E. Sussex)
Research Fellow at University of Nottingham (Nottingham)
Microbiologist at Dairy Crest plc (Newport, Shropshire)
Runninng a (very) small plant nursery business (Bourne, Lincolnshire) -
Current Job:
Senior technical officer at University of Hertfordshire (Hatfield, Hertfordshire)
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About Me:
Very curious and I never know what will interest me until I start finding out about it. Love science and always have done. Like to spend time outdoors, in the garden or hiking up a hill somewhere.
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Read more
Work should be fun, if it’s not fun why do we do it?
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Read more
I’m a microbiologist and I work on the bacteria that are found in foods and that can make people ill if we eat them. I also research viruses that attack bacteria, these are called bacteriophage and have a range of possible uses in controlling some types of bacteria.
There are major efforts to make food safer, this invovles collaborations between scientists and business to find ways of removing or reducing the levels of problematic bacteria. Not only do we need to know what the bacteria are, but how they survive in foods and how they make us ill. If we can work out some of these questions, we can then think about ways to stop these bacteria getting into foods and reduce the number of people getting sick. Perhaps by changing the way food is produced or changing how we handle the food as we prepare them.
One of the organisms I work on is called Campylobacter, which is found in chickens and other types of birds. If we become infected by this organism we can have serious diarrhea and it can cause more serious problems and even death for some unfortunate people.
Like animals and plants, bacteria have viruses (called bacteriophage), these can be very specific so that they only infect a limited range of bacteria. So unlike antibiotics, that can be very indiscriminate and kill the good bacteria along with the bad guys, bacteriophage can attack and reduce or eliminate only the bacteria that they have evolved to target.
This specificity makes them useful as biocontrol agents, and there are studies to see if bacteriophage can be used successfully to control organisms such as Campylobacter, Listeria and Salmonella during food production as well as other types of disease causing bacteria in human therapy.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Bacteria are varied in how they look and in colour, can we paint some interesting pictures using bacteria?
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Relaxed, Understanding, Sporadic
What did you want to be after you left school?
A scientist - I know boring right?
Were you ever in trouble at school?
No
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Ting Tings (or they were - if they ever release another album who knows)
What's your favourite food?
Full English breakfast and lots of coffee with cream - possibly accounts for me being the shape I am
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Travel to the planets (and come back to talk about it), Be rich enough to fund my own research and not worry about grant applications, Be 20 again but keeping the knowledge I have now!
Tell us a joke.
What’s round and bad tempered? A vicious circle
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