Question: What's classed as "interesting cell and material behaviour" and how would you be able to tell?

Anne Canning answered on 16 Jun 2015:

Hi Tang,

That’s a great question. It really depends on what your looking for. For example in my work I’m looking into designing polymers that undergo a change when they interact with enzymes. The change will most likely be a change in shape, the polymer may break down into monomers, or many polymers may join together. So I would see that as interesting behaviour as the materials can then be used in applications.
In terms of interesting cell behaviour, I would firstly look into survival, see how many cells survive on the materials, how many die, then their growth rate, if they multiply quickly or slowly, I would also look into their shape as when cells are happy in their environment they take on a different form then when under stress. Cells also make proteins and toxins which they would secrete into the growth solution. So I could also take samples of the solution to see what the cells are making which would give a good indication as to how happy they are.