Ploi Yibmantasiri
Ploi first came to New Zealand from Thailand to learn some conversational English. She is now fluent, and enjoying being a PhD student in one of Victoria’s high-tech research programmes.
“The work we do in the Chemical Genetics Lab is based on the yeast genome. Yeast is easy to work with and grows quickly, so we can get results in a really short time. Surprisingly, it also has many of the same genes as humans so we can apply what we learn in yeast quite readily to mammalian work, she said.
“I’m studying cell pumping. Cells have in-built ‘pumps’ to move macro molecules in and out across their membranes. Some cells have very fast pumps which gives them good protection from toxins, but it can be a problem if you’re trying to get a drug into a cell to treat it or kill it.
“Cancer cells are pretty messed up but often have really effective pumps, which makes them hard to treat because they can push a drug out really quickly. On the plus side, they don't have much of a back-up plan to repair themselves after damage, so if we can get the drug to stay in, it should be effective at killing the tumour cells.
Ploi is using the yeast genome to find out which genes are involved in cell pumping. This is useful for drug therapy because if the pumping genes can be disabled at the same time as a drug is dispensed, more of it will remain active in the cell. That makes the drug a lot more effective and also lowers the dose required.
“The work can be pretty time-consuming and it can take a whole year just to get the conditions right for one experiment. My lab group is like a family to me - we just clicked straight away and are really close. People in the group go out of their way to help each other - but we have a love-hate relationship and the boys always tell me if I'm doing something wrong!
“Our supervisors are really, really good - I couldn't think of better ones. They will develop you if you work hard and if they think you aren't putting in enough effort, they will be on your case too.
“When I was deciding where to study science, I looked around but in the end chose Victoria because I wanted to stay in Wellington. I think it's really important to study at a good university, but also to be happy in life outside study. I love the culture here – the theatre and the shows - and I didn't want to miss out on that.”