Anne is a Senior Lecturer and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Aberdeen.

"I like the independence that comes with the job."

After an undergraduate degree and PhD at the University of Cambridge, Anne spent 4 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. She established her own lab, as a Royal Society Research Fellow, at the University of Dundee and was chosen as one of the first Young Investigators of the European Molecular Biology programme in 2001. In 2003 the Donaldson lab moved to the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen where its members continue to investigate the control of DNA replication.

What attracted you to research in molecular biology?

It just interested me! I research the process of DNA replication - one of the basic building blocks of life. Understanding this process and the way a cell replicates is fundamental to the way all organisms exist. As with a lot of work in molecular biology, we use a model organism - a form of yeast - which has very sophisticated genetics and replicates very fast. But it helps us understand the parallel processes in humans. 

On a more practical level, there is funding available for this research and our work could contribute to understanding what goes wrong with cell replication in diseases such as cancer.