The Foreword
Reading has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. Getting lost in a good story felt like a way to escape everyday life and step into a completely different world. Over time, that love of reading sparked my curiosity for learning how the world works, and as I grew older this shifted towards human biology and disease. Looking back, it’s clear that reading helped to shape the career path I’m on now.
I’m Caitlin, and in this blog, I open the book of my life to take you on a literary journey through the steps that led me to become the newest Medical Communications Specialist at RubyDuke.
_______________________________
Chapter One: The early pages
The Roald Dahl books were some of my favourites to read when I was little, in particular ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’.
Inspired by George’s weird and wonderful creations, I spent hours in the garden making all kinds of potions with whatever I could get my hands on! When I got to secondary school, biology quickly became my favourite subject, and I loved all the experiments I got to do!
George’s Marvellous Medicine – Roald Dahl.
As a teenager, I spent time at the Royal Brompton Hospital on a work experience trip, wandering the labs and watching the staff in their everyday routines. As I stepped into the immunology lab, I was transfixed as I saw them mix and run each assay with such precision. It reminded me of my childhood spent in the garden, brewing different potions, and I longed for each time I could step into the lab. From that day, immunology became a passion of mine. I was fascinated by the fact that antibodies could do so much good as well as bad in the body, causing things like allergies and autoimmune diseases.
Suffering with Crohn’s disease myself, I wanted to better understand how these mechanisms worked as I know first-hand how hard autoimmune diseases can be. This got me thinking whether I could pursue a career that could allow me to help other people struggling with similar conditions.
_______________________________
Chapter Two: Tests, triumphs, and tenacity
When I was looking through university courses and trying to figure out the right path for me, I discovered Biomedical Science. It interested me because it combined human biology and disease with a deeper cellular and genetic level understanding. The more I learned, the clearer it became that immunology and histology were areas that I was really passionate about and thrived in.
These interests carried on throughout my degree, and this led me to write my dissertation on the cellular pathogenesis of African sleeping sickness. It’s a parasitic disease that can affect the brain and nervous system and be fatal without treatment. Working within the parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, I performed a series of gene knockdowns to explore the effect on the cell structure and life cycle. Under the microscope, it was clear to see how the cell’s structure had been disrupted in a way that impacted its ability to divide, move and maintain its shape. This can lead to loss of function and altered motility, which within wider research provide potential therapeutic targets as these factors affect the parasite’s ability to invade and survive in a host.
My time at university was not without its challenges. I was in my first year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and subsequent lockdowns happened. This meant I, like so many others, had to work from home. So I hit the books to finish my first year online as well as the whole of my second year. While this was not how I had imagined my university experience, it forced me to be adaptable and is where I realised my self-driven motivation – all skills that are great for working from home.
Having always thought that I would work in a lab after university, the pandemic meant lab work couldn’t happen and instead moved towards research and literature tasks. This showed me a different experience of how I could use my degree within the medical field which led to me discovering my next career move.
Chapter Three: Where the story is now
My career in medical communications started as a Junior Medical Writer for a company working within the pharmaceutical industry. Here I worked across a wide range of therapy areas that required in-depth knowledge to produce highly scientific content. These included rheumatology, oncology, women’s health, and rare disease, to name a few. I was keen to learn more about different types of work from across the industry – promotional, non-promotional and educational materials. I tried to learn every trick in the book!
I had the opportunity to combine two of my interests, immunology, and histology, working within autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. I created engaging Med Ed for patients and healthcare professionals to better understand the pathogenesis of disease, its impact on the body, and the wide range of treatment options available.
I’m naturally data-driven – especially in the context of medical research – where evidence has real-life consequences. One of my favourite projects within my career was an insight analysis where I helped to design a questionnaire sent to healthcare professionals, and then analysed and presented the data in a way that was both accessible and captivating.
When it comes to data, a book that has stuck with me is ‘Invisible Women’ as it combines data with storytelling to demonstrate how the world we live in was not designed with women in mind. Using case studies, research and women’s experiences, this book highlights how women are excluded and the impact this has on their physical and mental wellbeing, including healthcare inequalities. This further drove my passion for statistics – bridging analysis and communication – to understand the meaning behind the data.
Seeking a change of pace and new opportunities, I put pen to paper and applied for a job at RubyDuke – and here I am! I am excited to continue to develop my skillset in a fresh environment surrounded by a wealth of experience and knowledge.
Invisible Women: Exposing data bias in a world designed for men – Caroline Criado Perez.
_______________________________
Epilogue: Chapters yet to come
These chapters aren’t written yet – which can be scary. But ‘Adult Assembly Required’ taught me that life has a funny habit of not going the way you had planned, and that’s okay! Between chronic illness and COVID reshaping my story, I may not have ended up where I first imagined when I started university, but I’ve found myself somewhere even better!
As I continue to spill the ink of my life, I hope I can continue to share scientific knowledge and research, particularly within chronic or autoimmune conditions for people to gain a better understanding of these conditions and their impact.
_______________________________
Adult Assembly Required – Abbi Waxman.
_______________________________
Get in touch
If you’d like to work with Caitlin on your next Med Comms project, get in touch with our Operations Manager, Kelly.
_______________________________
