In this blog post Sarah Knowles, Research Analyst, UK MS Register, shares her inspirational journey into research with us.
What did you do before joining UK MS Register?
I studied Neuroscience and Psychology in Manchester then worked in clinical trials in the NHS. I became interested in MS while working in MS trials at Imperial College London, went on to do an MSc in Neuroimaging and chose a project looking at MS.
What sparked your interest in a career in research?
I always enjoyed understanding how things work and liked the idea of having a job that helped people – my mum is a nurse so maybe that influenced me. I really enjoyed my undergraduate research project and then working with patients in the NHS really fuelled this because I could speak to people directly about the impact research had on their lives.
If any, what challenges have you faced in your journey into research?
I found learning to code incredibly daunting at first but thankfully there are a lot of resources out there to help you learn. Also moving from working with small datasets of less than 100 people to working with big data where we’re looking at more like 20,000 people. It was hard to get my head around the scale of it at first (it still is really!) but the things you can do with big data are amazing – it enables you to answer so many more questions.
What type of research have you worked on?
At the UK MS Register I’ve been involved with a wide variety of projects – from exploring age, ethnicity, pregnancy and comorbidities in MS, to implementing machine learning techniques to better extract information. I recently published my first paper looking at the effects of age of onset on disease course.
What areas of research interest you? What does the future hold?
I’ve really loved recent projects where I’ve worked with neuropathology and neuroimaging data. Hopefully I’ll be working with more MRI scans very soon. We have lots of exciting projects on the horizon!
What advice would you give to someone looking at a career in research?
I think mostly just to choose an area that you are really interested in and care about. The other elements like learning research methods, statistics and coding are important but you have to be passionate. If you’re studying at University I would advise people to speak to their lecturers about summer internships etc. The experience you gain and the people you meet this way is really invaluable.
UK Multiple Sclerosis (UK MS) Register is one of the 12 Centres of Excellence based in Population Data Science at Swansea University. Find out more about their work on their website.
