Profile

Photo:

Ash Winter

    • About Me:

      Hi, I’m Ash.

       

      I live with my partner in Bristol. I’m a chemistry research scientist in the day and a dad in the evenings. I love listening to music, cooking and watching football!

    • Read more

      I was always interested in biology and chemistry in secondary school and eventually turned that into a full time job as a research scientist. I support southampton FC and like to unwind by cooking, watching live music.

    • How I use Science in my work:

      I look at how bacteria make antibiotics. We know the final structure of the antibiotic, but often we don’t know how these are made – through a series of mini chemical reactions. One of my jobs is to work out the pattern of reactions and find out what goes where. Kinda like building a puzzle from knowing what it’s supposed to look like.

    • My Work:

      I’m a Scientist working in Chemical Biology at the University of Bristol. My main topic at the moment is looking at how bacteria can make antibiotics!
      By studying how antibiotics (and antimicrobials) are made, we can design and develop new antibiotics.

      During my PhD I was looking at protein crystals to work out what shape they were!

    • Read more

      I look at how bacteria make antibiotics. We know the final structure of the antibiotics, but often we don’t know how these are made – through a series of mini chemical reactions. One of my jobs is to work out the pattern of reactions and find out what goes where. Kinda like building a puzzle from knowing what it’s supposed to look like. We are always looking for the missing puzzle piece!

      We find that proteins are often responsible for these mini chemical reactions and I work on understanding what does what.

      If we can work this out, we can hopefully make new antibiotics and help treat more people in the future.

    • My Typical Day:

      I always have cereal and toast for breakfast, I get a coffee on the way into work and start my day.

      I normally have  students working with me who I need to teach, so I spend my day teaching people and doing experiments in the lab or replying to emails. I always have an afternoon coffee and try to finish before 5 so I can get home while it’s still light. We get a lot of wind and rain in Bristol, so I try to avoid getting wet where I can.

    CV

    • Education:

      Secondary School was Wildern – few A’s, some B’s and a few C’s. I liked Science and decided to do A levels.

      College – I did Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Grades were BBB

      University:  I did a Bsc at Southampton in Biochemistry, I liked biology and chemistry at college, but I was more interested in the biochemistry side of things like amino acids so I picked biochemistry as I thought I could mix and match what I liked. I was the first in my family to go to University at this point so this was strange. A lot of my friends from School were the same too.

      PhD: This was in Chemistry at Bristol working on structural biochemistry. I wanted to get better at lab experiments that I tried in Southampton and so I chose to do this. The PhD was great in learning how to be an independent researcher. I worked out the structures of protein complexes involved in a disease responsible for a lot of deaths in South East Asia

      Research Scientist: Since 2019 I’ve been working at Bristol as a research scientist. I took what I learned in my PhD and started working on different topics – how antibiotics are made. I’ve been here since and worked on a load of different projects ranging from chemical synthesis to looking at Alzheimers disease.

      Having someone tell me to just go for it at every stage so far really helped, I wouldn’t have thought in secondary school I would be here now

    • Qualifications:

      GCSE’s mix of C’s, B’s and A’s.

      A level: Biology, Chemistry, Physics (B,B,B)

      Bsc: 1st class honors in Biochemistry

      PhD in Chemistry

    • Work History:

      I did some tutoring in schools at University for maths and science GCSEs at the time. Since gaining the PhD my full time job has always been in an academic setting.

    • Current Job:

      Research Scientist at Bristol: Project title is ‘New tools to work out natural product construction’

    • Employer:

      University of Bristol

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Always growing bacteria

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but I hate needles

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Sometimes, I often questioned instructions from teachers

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        Something related to music or management

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        I have a soft spot for Biffy Clyro

        What's your favourite food?

        Pasta or lasagna

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        To have a big house for free, To go travelling around the world, To live a long life