PhD candidate Federica Casolari is undertaking a PhD project on Developing an enzymatic system for methacrylate intermediates and esters with University of Aberdeen and Ingenza Ltd. In this case study, she talks about coming to a biology focused PhD from a chemistry background, her ambition to become a patent attorney, and her love of baking.

Why did you decide to undertake this project?

I have always been interested in the environment - what impacts it, what changes it and how we can help it. Being from a chemistry background, I have seen in person how the production of waste and by-products of chemical process can affect out surroundings. When I was offered with the option to apply to a PhD looking at greener bio-routes to yield key industrial commodities, I wanted to get on board right away. It has been great so far to be working with bacteria and enzymes looking at industrial biotechnology solutions.

What are your ambitions for the future?

Deciding your plans after a PhD can be quite daunting - you spend 3-4 years on your life working on a sole project that no one will know as well as you. It's scary. Nevertheless, I have always been fascinated by the legal side of science - how for every discovery, findings, research trip et., there has to be IP law and regulations involved. Who makes them? Who decides them? For this reason, I have started looking into the possible career of patent attorney and it's what I'm thinking of pursuing at the moment.

What excites you about your research?

As already mentioned, I am a chemist - an analytical chemist to be precise. Everything I have ever worked with involves replicates and instrumentation and methodologies that are reliable and steady (most of the time). With this PhD, I have had the opportunity to venture in the fields of synthetic and molecular biology, where bugs are never reliable nor steady. They can be unpredictable, but are also so powerful. Learning their behaviour and their power has been one of the most exciting things about my PhD.

Where/what do you think the next innovation in IB will be? 

Hopefully, renewable resources

What is an interesting fact about you / what do you enjoy doing away from your studies? 

Being Italian, I love cooking and baking. In my spare time, I enjoy trying out recipes of all sorts and share them with my friends. Last year, I enrolled into a cake decoration course at college (part-time) and who knows? I might even try to join the Great British Bake-Off in the future!