Barbara Conradt - Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology

How did you arrive at CDB?   

Before joining CDB, I had group leader positions/professorships at a number of other institutions in Europe and the US.  

I was attracted to CDB because of the great science that is done in this department, and the breadth of topics, approaches and models used. You never know what you will be working on tomorrow, so to have lots of different expertise among your colleagues is a good thing.  

I was also attracted by the core facilities here, especially the imaging facility (Centre for Cell and Molecular Dynamics, CCMD). 

And London is an amazing place for science, with many opportunities to collaborate. I also thought that London would be a cool place to live….

What would you advise someone on choosing a career?

Just take one step at a time and don’t be afraid of making mistakes. 

Also, if you don’t enjoy going to work anymore in the morning, you should consider making a change!

What are you mainly focused on now and for the future? 

Since I was a PhD student, I have been fascinated by programmed cell death and by the nematode, C. elegans. 

Programmed cell death is a physiological process, which removes from our body cells that are no longer needed or that are damaged and could potentially become harmful. For this reason, programmed cell death is really important, for example, to prevent tumours from forming. 

And C. elegans, also known as ‘the worm’, is an amazing and very powerful model organism for studying programmed cell death.  During C. elegans development, the same 131 cells reproducibly die, which allows us to study this process at the single cell level. That’s what we do, and we are having lots of fun with it.  Our aim is in future to figure out why all these 131 cells die.

What do you do now to chill and get work-life balance?

I go outside, walk (with or without our dog!), watch birds, run, cycle, etc. And I love water and snow. 

During lockdown, I would go to Richmond Park for an hour early in the morning before checking my inbox. That definitely helped me get through the day. 

And my kids make sure that I have some kind of work-life balance.

Would you recommend joining UCL CDB?

Here in CDB, I really feel I belong. I think it’s because we genuinely respect and support each other, which is not always a given.  So, yes, I would recommend joining CDB!