The adventure begins

After a long wait, I’m off on my Churchill Fellowship and currently sitting in Dubai Airport. 

This photo was taken almost a year ago at the Churchill Fellows presentation ceremony at Government House. It was a very memorable night for me, I had my four day old son with me after his very dramatic arrival into the world in our bathroom! It is also the night that Malcom Turnbull became Prime Minister.

While the wait has been frustrating, the delay has been very helpful enabling me to make the most of the Fellowship. Initially I was planning to use my fellowship to visit a lab in the US to develop new nitric oxide binding elements for my breath sensor for asthmatics.  In December 2015, I met Prof Abhik Ghosh from Tromsø, Norway. His research interests into diatomic gases (such as nitric oxide) binding to metal macrocycles fitted in beautifully with my Fellowship project. A further advantage of collaborating with Prof Ghosh is that he already has a whole library of compounds. This means that I can focus on testing the compounds rather than synthesising them.

Although I can’t wait to get to Norway, along the way I am stopping off in Budapest for a conference and then visiting some other researchers in England. I’ll be posting more updates explaining what and why I am visiting these other spots as well.

The ultimate goal of my Churchill Fellowship

 In many ways, this photo I took in a pharmacy at Dubai Airport summarizes the goal of my Churchill Fellowship. The photo shows one of the many glucose meter that are now available. These devices have revolutionized the lives of diabetics allowing them to keep track of their own blood glucose levels.

My goal is to produce a similar simple, portable device that can be used by asthmatics every day in their homes to monitor the state of their lungs. This knowledge will hopefully allow them to determine when they will be more susceptible to an asthma attack and take the appropriate action.

What you probably don't realize is that these blood glucose meters use a protein called glucose oxidase. This protein converts glucose in the blood sample to gluconic acid allowing the meter to determine the glucose levels.

I have developed an artificial protein which can be used to detect nitric oxide in gaseous samples. Through this fellowship, I will move one step close to my goal by improving the nitric oxide binding element. It is my dream that one day, my engineered protein will be on the shelves of pharmacies just as these glucose meters.