Stemmed For Success

– Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts,Research Fellow at the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, DCU.

WORDS: LIV MORGAN

There have been many iconic females that have made important contributions to science over the past century such as Marie Curie, the first woman to be awarded a Noble Prize and Rosalind Franklin, who discovered the helical structure of DNA. Now a Research Fellow in Dublin City University's Biomedical Diagnostics Institute is edging closer to making her mark on the world of science. Dr. Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts is the most recent recipient of a L'Oreal UK and Ireland Fellowship For Women In Science.

Originally from Spaion, the 32-year-old will use her fellowship to support her research, which focuses on developing a novel technique to analyse and screen stem cell differentiation. "The longterm idea is that if we have a platform where we can screen the different systems of stem cells we might be able to create some type of commercial product, a research tool, that allows hospitals to look for specific markers secreted by cells. Not everybody necessarily responds in the same way to a therapy, with a screening platform we could analyse the various reactions."

Progress aside, it is the elusiveness and mystery still surrounding the medical practice of stem cell research which intrigues Lourdes: "With stem cells there is so much information in them that we still don't know about and that is what is attractive for me. I want to develop a new tool that is able to detract that information."

Read more about Lourdes Basbe-Desmonts in the Autumn 2010 issue of WMB, on newstands now.