Turning my world upside down
Dr Duncan Sparrow has recently upped sticks and moved his whole family from Sydney to take up a fellowship at our Centre of Research Excellence at the University of Oxford. Here he blogs about setting up a new lab on a new continent.
When I told my friends in Sydney that I was taking up a fellowship to start my own lab in England, they shook their heads in bemusement.
“Why would you want to move to a dreary, damp, cold country like England?”
The almost universal response when I arrived was “Why on earth did you want to leave Australia, the beautiful, sunny land of opportunity?”.
My answer is that opportunities for mid-career scientists are pretty grim in Australia, and I had been given the once-in-a-lifetime chance by the Oxford BHF Centre for Research Excellence to set up my lab at the University of Oxford.
My research
I am trying to understand the causes of congenital heart disease. This means a heart condition or defect that develops in the womb, before a baby is born. It is the most common type of birth defect, affecting up to 1 in 100 babies worldwide. In the UK on average 12 children are born with heart defects every day.
In most cases this occurs because something has gone wrong very early in pregnancy when the embryo has just started to form. This can happen because the embryo has faulty genes or chromosomes, or it can be the result of environmental factors such as if the mother has diabetes or she has taken certain medications while pregnant. I am looking at how these genetic or environmental factors stop the heart from forming properly in the embryo.
The move itself
For the family, my eight year old daughter especially, it was a bit of a wrench. We sold our lovely house located 15 minutes away from Bondi Beach, filled a shipping container with our furniture, books and fluffy toys, and flew off into the unknown.
We were pleasantly surprised by some things. Despite everyone’s grumbling about house prices and living expenses in Oxford, they turn out to be about the same as the Eastern suburbs of Sydney. And having the warmest winter on record made it easier too, except that my daughter was bitterly disappointed because she still has never seen snow.
Because I’ve only been in Oxford for five months, the lab hasn’t really got going yet. My biggest challenge is because my research involves experiments in mice.
Getting a licence
There are huge differences in the law between England and Australia, and my 15 years of experience in Australia essentially counts for nothing. So I first had to go back to school to gain my personal licence for working with animals. The personal licence allows you to perform procedures on animals, but precisely which procedures are performed on what animals for what purpose are tightly regulated by another type of licence, called a project licence.
There was an intensive week of lectures and practical work, followed by a two hour examination. This was held in the University of Oxford Examination Schools, an incredible Grade II-listed Gothic Revival building, much more splendid than the equivalents back in Australia.
I also had to prove my competency in animal handling to the local facility. Everything was checked and checked again — nothing was taken for granted. However, this process was all made much easier by the brilliant course co-ordinator in Oxford.
Next I attended another intensive course before I could even begin to write my project licence application. After the course I wrote a first draft project licence application, followed by formal discussions with a Veterinary Surgeon and an animal care and welfare officer to suggest changes.
After re-drafting my application, it was off to a meeting with the formidable animal welfare and ethical review board. This consisted of about 20 people, including current project and personal licence holders, veterinary surgeons and animal welfare officers, and lay members. Once I had incorporated their suggested changes, my application was sent to the Home Office Inspector for another review. Fingers crossed that it passes this final thorough review, and I can start my investigations.
My new lab
Setting up the equipment and resources in my laboratory space has also been a slow process.
There have been lots of surprises, both good and bad. Scientific equipment and reagents are substantially cheaper than what I was used to in Australia. This certainly helps the donors’ money go further.
On the other hand, my first attempt to recruit a postdoctoral scientist to work in my lab was a bit of a disaster. I agonised for days trying to decide whether to advertise again, or choose one of my first applicants. I asked my mentors for advice, and they all told me not to rush into picking someone. So I decided to re-advertise, and I’m glad I did because the second batch of applicants were brilliant. I was delighted when my first choice accepted.
So the laboratory is ready, my postdoc starts in a few weeks, and my animal licence should be approved soon. Now it’s time to start the real work.
