Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2021

Biophysicist in Profile

Louise Hughes Areas of Research

Institution Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis

Biological electron microscopy with particular emphasis on 3D imaging methods, energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry, analytical correlative microscopy, and data analysis

At-a-Glance

Louise Hughes grew up in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. None of her family worked in the scientific field, though her grandfather was an amateur scientist. He died when Hughes was very young so she did not get to know him, but she now has his antique brass light microscope. “No one else in my family was involved in science while I was growing up, but my youngest sister is in her final year of a physics degree, so we have a second scientist in the family,” she shares.

Louise Hughes

Louise Hughes’ love of science started when she was young. “I went to a rather weird and wonderful school that had some amazing and inspiring science teachers. We often pushed our classroom experiments and several times had to evacuate as a result,” she recalls. “My biology teachers inspired me to do a degree in biology and I had the option to do several physics modules during my undergrad degree, which have provided me with a good physics foundation.” She attended Aberystwyth University in Wales for all three of her degrees, beginning with her undergraduate studies in biology, then her master’s in biological electron microsco- py, and finally her PhD. “The master’s degree was partially completed in the AO Research Institute in Davos, Switzerland doing some research into cell adhesion on different implant surfaces. Iolo ap Gwynn supervised my master’s and PhD and Geoff Richards co-supervised my master’s. Both are inspira- tional electron microscopists,” Hughes says. Gwynn got her started in the field of biological electron mi- croscopy (EM). “His enthusiasm and expertise, combined with the expertise of... the technicians who ran the EM facility at Aberystwyth...provided me with a solid foundation in all areas of electron microscopy. They inspired me, challenged me, coached me, took me to casualty when I had one of my more serious sharp-blade incidents when learning ultramicrotomy, and provided me with an immense thirst for exploring every- thing to do with biological electron microscopy,” she recounts. “This was further enhanced when I joined Prof. Geoff Richards at the AO Research Institute for the thesis part of my mas- ter’s degree, so much so that I pursued a PhD.” Following her PhD, she took her first postdoc position at Aberystwyth University, then moved to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she held two postdoc- toral positions. “My time at UCLA focused on using electron microscopy to study cilia in photoreceptor cells, with partic- ular attention on Usher’s syndrome, and studying the cilium/ flagellum of the eukaryotic parasite Trypanosoma brucei . Most of my time at UCLA was spent working with Prof. Hong Zhou ,

who taught me a great deal. I was a rare biologist in a large team of physicists and computer scientists who were pushing the resolution limits of electron microscopy. Following my postdocs, I took up a position of Facility Manager at Oxford Brookes University where I had the fortune to work with Prof. Chris Hawes for several years, specializing in 3D electron mi- croscopy techniques and applying it to a range of organisms but with an emphasis on plants and trypanosomes.” Hughes now works as a product manager for life science at Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis. The subject areas she is focused on are applying energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to biological samples and developing correlative mi- croscopy software for analytical microscopy techniques. “The job is varied and very interesting, going from research-spe- cific applications work with collaborators, to helping develop techniques and achieve research goals for customers, to more business-orientated work producing reports and marketing material. I also get to be involved in developing future prod- ucts and translating the needs of researchers to our tech- nology and development teams,” she explains. “One of the interesting projects I am involved with at present is looking at tissue and biomaterial interactions, using EDS to investigate compositional changes in biomaterials during biodegrada- tion, but also elemental changes in the surrounding cells and extracellular matrix.” Being in an interdisciplinary field has kept the work engaging. “There is so much to learn in the crossover between scientific disciplines that it is an exciting subject to be involved in and I find it fascinating,” Hughes shares. “EDS is an established technique in physics and materials science, yet relatively unknown in biology. Being able to bring physics and biolo- gy together opens many research opportunities and being involved in that is a privilege.” The biggest challenge in her career has been dealing with workplace bullying. “I came very close to leaving science completely because of extensive bullying, and several of my colleagues did leave. I do not think academia has addressed

June 2021

4

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E B I O P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y