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I use computer programs to try and predict individual genes in parasite cells that they absolutely need to live. Then I try and remove those genes from real living parasites and see if I’m right.
If I do find a gene that parasites need to survive, then I go on to make the protein that normally comes from that gene and I try and find chemicals that stop the protein doing it’s job. Whenever we find a chemical that can stop one of these proteins working, or even sometimes chemicals that kill the parasites without us knowing how, then we’ve got the beginnings of a drug that could eventually be used to treat fatal diseases.
The work I just described can take a couple of years or more, so I usually work on several genes at once – each at different stages of the process – some still on computer, some at the stage of removing the gene and some at the protein stage. Some projects drop off half way through  just because the parasites find a way round the problem we’ve given them and even if we do find a chemical that works, it often also kills humans cells – not very useful! When we find something successful though it can still take 5-10 years for it to become an actual treatment for use in Africa or Latin America for example.
The diseases me and my colleagues work on all affect poorer areas of the world like sub-saharan Africa. This is great area for universities to take the lead in because most similar work is done in drug companies, and at the end of the day they’re businesses – they need to make a profit to survive. Universities can get funding for doing good science that benefits the world – we don’t have to be able to make money out of what we do.

Walk into work… make tea and try and remember what I work on… feed parasites in a containment lab – checking they’re still alive under the microscope…add some chemicals to parasites to see if they’re still alive 3 days later… drink more tea… go to a meeting – listen to someone from the lab or a visitor talking about their work to see if it will help me in one of my projects, or if I have suggestions for their work…make coffee… read some scientific papers online to see data published from around the world – sometimes to learn how to do a particular experiment, sometimes to find a single number that I need in my own experiments…spend an hour with Excel planning calculations for experiments or interpretting results, maybe building up a database of numbers from some of the papers I’ve been reading… have tea with the rest of the team… start growing bacteria so I can purify some protein from them tomorrow… setup a test with some radioactive chemical (very carefully!) to see if a protein I purified works… chat to one of the chemists I work with about a project (while drinking tea)… desperately try to understand the chemistry he’s talking about… fail… clean up lots of equipment I’ve been using… go home and put the kettle on.