Your support in action: Dr Melanie McDowall
Dr Melanie McDowall has focused her research聽on developing new diagnostics to help choose聽the healthiest embryos to transfer to increase聽pregnancy success rates following IVF.
Her embryo research uses a technique called聽autofluorescence, which takes advantage of聽a cell鈥檚 natural emission of fluorescent light聽under UV illumination to identify the best quality聽embryos, which are not always recognised using聽the current morphology testing.
鈥淎utofluorescence is non-invasive, takes five聽minutes, uses technology which currently exists聽in most labs, and embryos continue to grow聽with no negative effects on development.鈥
Having access to the Barr Smith Library鈥檚聽resources has been instrumental in helping Dr聽McDowall to develop this non-invasive technique聽to increase the chance of successful pregnancies.
鈥淚t is integral to the success of my research that聽I stay on top of the latest data and findings of聽other groups around the world. I access scientific聽databases and journal articles through the online聽Barr Smith Library, allowing me to access high聽quality journals on my laptop, without having to聽leave my office.鈥
Melanie鈥檚 story is an example of how donations to the Barr Smith Library can make a real qualitative difference to the student and the researcher.
Find out how you can be part of the next chapter on the聽Barr Smith Library Appeal听辫补驳别.