• Question: Have you ever invented something

    Asked by mazz to Steven, Eleni, Hannah, Jenny, Oli on 8 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by 399drug38, graciepoo, migitgem.
    • Photo: Steven Street

      Steven Street answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      Hi 325drug36,

      Why yes I have! Inventions can be on a molecular scale as well as much larger. That means that whenever I make a new molecule that nobody has made before, that’s an invention! So I have made about 30 or so inventions in my PhD so far.

      You can even get protection for your inventions by ‘patenting’ them. That means that you are credited with inventing something, and are allowed to do what you want with it for 20 years before anyone else can copy you! Most new drugs are patented when they are discovered, so that the people who discovered them can make lots of money (because clinical trials are so expensive they need to make the money back).

      My inventions are new molecules that can bind to G-quadruplex DNA, and they are the most selective ever discovered for the human telomeric G-quadruplex!

      Hopefulyl this answers yoru question?
      Steve

    • Photo: Hannah Bolt

      Hannah Bolt answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      Hi,

      I have also made lots of molecules that no one has ever made before! So these are all classed as inventions 🙂

      Last year, I worked out a new way to make a certain drug type and we ‘patented’ this invention (the method to make the molecules). The patent protects our work, and means no one else can steal the method without paying us some money to use the invention!

      Hannah

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