̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - biotechnology

Imperceptible sensors made from ‘electronic spider silk’ can be printed directly on human skin

sc604 — Fri, 24 May 2024 09:23:44 +0000

̽��ֱ��method, developed by researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, takes its inspiration from spider silk, which can conform and stick to a range of surfaces. These ‘spider silks’ also incorporate bioelectronics, so that different sensing capabilities can be added to the ‘web’.

̽��ֱ��fibres, at least 50 times smaller than a human hair, are so lightweight that the researchers printed them directly onto the fluffy seedhead of a dandelion without collapsing its structure. When printed on human skin, the fibre sensors conform to the skin and expose the sweat pores, so the wearer doesn’t detect their presence. Tests of the fibres printed onto a human finger suggest they could be used as continuous health monitors.

This low-waste and low-emission method for augmenting living structures could be used in a range of fields, from healthcare and virtual reality, to electronic textiles and environmental monitoring. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Nature Electronics.

Although human skin is remarkably sensitive, augmenting it with electronic sensors could fundamentally change how we interact with the world around us. For example, sensors printed directly onto the skin could be used for continuous health monitoring, for understanding skin sensations, or could improve the sensation of ‘reality’ in gaming or virtual reality application.

While wearable technologies with embedded sensors, such as smartwatches, are widely available, these devices can be uncomfortable, obtrusive and can inhibit the skin’s intrinsic sensations.

“If you want to accurately sense anything on a biological surface like skin or a leaf, the interface between the device and the surface is vital,” said Professor Yan Yan Shery Huang from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “We also want bioelectronics that are completely imperceptible to the user, so they don’t in any way interfere with how the user interacts with the world, and we want them to be sustainable and low waste.”

There are multiple methods for making wearable sensors, but these all have drawbacks. Flexible electronics, for example, are normally printed on plastic films that don’t allow gas or moisture to pass through, so it would be like wrapping your skin in cling film. Other researchers have recently developed flexible electronics that are gas-permeable, like artificial skins, but these still interfere with normal sensation, and rely on energy- and waste-intensive manufacturing techniques.

3D printing is another potential route for bioelectronics since it is less wasteful than other production methods, but leads to thicker devices that can interfere with normal behaviour. Spinning electronic fibres results in devices that are imperceptible to the user, but don't have a high degree of sensitivity or sophistication, and they’re difficult to transfer onto the object in question.

Now, the Cambridge-led team has developed a new way of making high-performance bioelectronics that can be customised to a wide range of biological surfaces, from a fingertip to the fluffy seedhead of a dandelion, by printing them directly onto that surface. Their technique takes its inspiration in part from spiders, who create sophisticated and strong web structures adapted to their environment, using minimal material.

̽��ֱ��researchers spun their bioelectronic ‘spider silk’ from PEDOT:PSS (a biocompatible conducting polymer), hyaluronic acid and polyethylene oxide. ̽��ֱ��high-performance fibres were produced from water-based solution at room temperature, which enabled the researchers to control the ‘spinnability’ of the fibres. ̽��ֱ��researchers then designed an orbital spinning approach to allow the fibres to morph to living surfaces, even down to microstructures such as fingerprints.

Tests of the bioelectronic fibres, on surfaces including human fingers and dandelion seedheads, showed that they provided high-quality sensor performance while being imperceptible to the host.

“Our spinning approach allows the bioelectronic fibres to follow the anatomy of different shapes, at both the micro and macro scale, without the need for any image recognition,” said Andy Wang, the first author of the paper. “It opens up a whole different angle in terms of how sustainable electronics and sensors can be made. It’s a much easier way to produce large area sensors.”

Most high-resolution sensors are made in an industrial cleanroom and require the use of toxic chemicals in a multi-step and energy-intensive fabrication process. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge-developed sensors can be made anywhere and use a tiny fraction of the energy that regular sensors require.

̽��ֱ��bioelectronic fibres, which are repairable, can be simply washed away when they have reached the end of their useful lifetime, and generate less than a single milligram of waste: by comparison, a typical single load of laundry produces between 600 and 1500 milligrams of fibre waste.

“Using our simple fabrication technique, we can put sensors almost anywhere and repair them where and when they need it, without needing a big printing machine or a centralised manufacturing facility,” said Huang. “These sensors can be made on-demand, right where they’re needed, and produce minimal waste and emissions.”

̽��ֱ��researchers say their devices could be used in applications from health monitoring and virtual reality, to precision agriculture and environmental monitoring. In future, other functional materials could be incorporated into this fibre printing method, to build integrated fibre sensors for augmenting the living systems with display, computation, and energy conversion functions. ̽��ֱ��research is being commercialised with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm.

̽��ֱ��research was supported in part by the European Research Council, Wellcome, the Royal Society, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reference:
Wenyu Wang et al. ‘Sustainable and imperceptible augmentation of living structures with organic bioelectronic fibres.’ Nature Electronics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-024-01174-4

Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces, whether that’s a finger or a flower petal.

Huang Lab, Cambridge

Sensors printed on human fingers

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Inclusion, innovation... and cocktail curation

skbf2 — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 10:45:19 +0000

Co-founder and CEO of Start Codon, Jason Mellad on helping healthcare start-ups thrive and why inclusion and diversity will change the world.

New book highlights how small biotech companies are outperforming big pharma

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 12:33:43 +0000

From Breakthrough to Blockbuster: ̽��ֱ��Business of Biotechnology, published today, shows how the small, inexperienced entrepreneurial companies making up the biotech industry have created more life-changing medicines than all of the large pharmaceutical companies combined.

̽��ֱ��book, published by Oxford ̽��ֱ�� Press, was written by Cambridge Judge Business School Associate Professor Nektarios Oraiopoulos, biotechnology entrepreneur Dr Lisa Drakeman, and Cambridge Judge Fellow Donald Drakeman.

From Breakthrough to Blockbuster describes how academic researchers and investors have worked together over the past half-century to create an industry consisting of thousands of small entrepreneurial companies, most with fewer than 50 employees.

̽��ֱ��book’s surprising discovery is that despite the high cost of drug development and the complex regulatory environment, the biotech industry’s ability to tolerate and manage risk outweighs the pharmaceutical industry’s advantages of scale, scope, experience, and massive resources.

̽��ֱ��story of how these small entrepreneurial companies have discovered most of the important new medicines while spending less than the highly experienced pharmaceutical industry can provide valuable insights for any industry seeking to innovate in uncertain and ambiguous conditions, the authors say.

̽��ֱ��book also provides practical insights such as how entrepreneurs should describe their companies to investors.

As Oraiopoulos explains: “ ̽��ֱ��driving force was to bring together the complex reality of running a biotech company with the insights offered by the academic literature.”

̽��ֱ��book is designed for a wide range of audiences including students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers. Stefan Scholtes, also from Cambridge Judge Business School, wrote about the book: “How is it possible that a few thousand small companies, many of them short-lived, can out-compete the mighty pharma majors at their own game? Understanding this puzzle is of fundamental importance for industry leaders and policymakers alike.”

Originally published on the Cambridge Judge Business School website.

Biotech firms have developed nearly 40% more of key treatments for unmet medical needs, says a new book co-authored by Cambridge researchers.

Morsa Images

Scientist working in lab

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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From sick-care to health-care

skbf2 — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 18:23:18 +0000

Meet the young biotech entrepreneur with two companies to her name and a plan to revolutionise the way we manage our health.

"A very Cambridge story"

lw355 — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:00:48 +0000

We spoke with Cambridge’s most recent Nobel Laureate about decades of research, spin-outs, pharma giants and the booming life sciences cluster in Greater Cambridge.

3D ‘organ on a chip’ could accelerate search for new disease treatments

sc604 — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 18:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��device, which incorporates cells inside a 3D transistor made from a soft sponge-like material inspired by native tissue structure, gives scientists the ability to study cells and tissues in new ways. By enabling cells to grow in three dimensions, the device more accurately mimics the way that cells grow in the body.

̽��ֱ��researchers, led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, say their device could be modified to generate multiple types of organs - a liver on a chip or a heart on a chip, for example – ultimately leading to a body on a chip which would simulate how various treatments affect the body as whole. Their results are reported in the journal Science Advances.

Traditionally, biological studies were (and still are) done in petri dishes, where specific types of cells are grown on a flat surface. While many of the medical advances made since the 1950s, including the polio vaccine, have originated in petri dishes, these two-dimensional environments do not accurately represent the native three-dimensional environments of human cells, and can, in fact, lead to misleading information and failures of drugs in clinical trials.

“Two-dimensional cell models have served the scientific community well, but we now need to move to three-dimensional cell models in order to develop the next generation of therapies,” said Dr Róisín Owens from Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and the study’s senior author.

“Three-dimensional cell cultures can help us identify new treatments and know which ones to avoid if we can accurately monitor them,” said Dr Charalampos Pitsalidis, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, and the study’s first author.

Now, 3D cell and tissue cultures are an emerging field of biomedical research, enabling scientists to study the physiology of human organs and tissues in ways that have not been possible before. However, while these 3D cultures can be generated, technology that accurately assesses their functionality in real time has not been well-developed.

“ ̽��ֱ��majority of the cells in our body communicate with each other by electrical signals, so in order to monitor cell cultures in the lab, we need to attach electrodes to them,” said Dr Owens. “However, electrodes are pretty clunky and difficult to attach to cell cultures, so we decided to turn the whole thing on its head and put the cells inside the electrode.”

̽��ֱ��device which Dr Owens and her colleagues developed is based on a ‘scaffold’ of a conducting polymer sponge, configured into an electrochemical transistor. ̽��ֱ��cells are grown within the scaffold and the entire device is then placed inside a plastic tube through which the necessary nutrients for the cells can flow. ̽��ֱ��use of the soft, sponge electrode instead of a traditional rigid metal electrode provides a more natural environment for cells and is key to the success of organ on chip technology in predicting the response of an organ to different stimuli.

Other organ on a chip devices need to be completely taken apart in order to monitor the function of the cells, but since the Cambridge-led design allows for real-time continuous monitoring, it is possible to carry out longer-term experiments on the effects of various diseases and potential treatments.

“With this system, we can monitor the growth of the tissue, and its health in response to external drugs or toxins,” said Pitsalidis. “Apart from toxicology testing, we can also induce a particular disease in the tissue, and study the key mechanisms involved in that disease or discover the right treatments.”

̽��ֱ��researchers plan to use their device to develop a ‘gut on a chip’ and attach it to a ‘brain on a chip’ in order to study the relationship between the gut microbiome and brain function as part of the IMBIBE project, funded by the European Research Council.

̽��ֱ��researchers have filed a patent for the device in France.

Reference:
C. Pitsalidis et al. ‘Transistor in a tube: a route to three-dimensional bioelectronics.’ Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4253

Researcher profile: Dr Charalampos Pitsalidis

Dr Charalampos Pitsalidis is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, where he develops prototypes of miniaturised platforms that can be integrated with advanced cell cultures for drug screening. A physicist with materials science background, he collaborates with biologists and chemists, in the UK and around the world, in order to develop and test drug screening platforms to help reduce the number of animals used in research.

“Animal studies remain the major means of drug screening in the later stages of drug development however they are increasingly questioned due to ethics, cost and relevance concerns. ̽��ֱ��reduction of animals in research is what motivates my work.

“I hope that one day I will have managed to make a small contribution in accelerating the drug discovery pipeline and towards the replacement reduction and refinement of animal research,” he said. “I believe that in 2018, we have everything in our hands, huge technological advancements, and all we need is to develop better and more predictive tools for assessing various therapies. It is not impossible; it just requires a systematic and highly collaborative approach across multiple disciplines.”

He calls Cambridge a truly inspiring place to work. “ ̽��ֱ��state-of-the-art facilities and world-class infrastructure with cutting-edge equipment allow us to conduct high-quality research,” he said. “On top of that, the highly collaborative environment among the various groups and the various departments support multidisciplinary research endeavours and well-balanced research. ̽��ֱ��strong university and entrepreneurial ecosystem in both high tech and biological science makes Cambridge an ideal place for innovative research in my field.”

Researchers have developed a three-dimensional ‘organ on a chip’ which enables real-time continuous monitoring of cells, and could be used to develop new treatments for disease while reducing the number of animals used in research.

Two-dimensional cell models have served the scientific community well, but we now need to move to three-dimensional cell models in order to develop the next generation of therapies

Róisín Owens

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Tubistor device

Yes

Electronic device implanted in the brain could stop seizures

sc604 — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 18:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines and INSERM in France, implanted the device into the brains of mice, and when the first signals of a seizure were detected, delivered a native brain chemical which stopped the seizure from progressing. ̽��ֱ��results, reported in the journal Science Advances, could also be applied to other conditions including brain tumours and Parkinson’s disease.

̽��ֱ��work represents another advance in the development of soft, flexible electronics that interface well with human tissue. “These thin, organic films do minimal damage in the brain, and their electrical properties are well-suited for these types of applications,” said Professor George Malliaras, the Prince Philip Professor of Technology in Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research.

While there are many different types of seizures, in most patients with epilepsy, neurons in the brain start firing and signal to neighbouring neurons to fire as well, in a snowball effect that can affect consciousness or motor control. Epilepsy is most commonly treated with anti-epileptic drugs, but these drugs often have serious side effects and they do not prevent seizures in three out of 10 patients.

In the current work, the researchers used a neurotransmitter which acts as the ‘brake’ at the source of the seizure, essentially signalling to the neurons to stop firing and end the seizure. ̽��ֱ��drug is delivered to the affected region of the brain by a neural probe incorporating a tiny ion pump and electrodes to monitor neural activity.

When the neural signal of a seizure is detected by the electrodes, the ion pump is activated, creating an electric field that moves the drug across an ion exchange membrane and out of the device, a process known as electrophoresis. ̽��ֱ��amount of drug can be controlled by tuning the strength of the electric field.

“In addition to being able to control exactly when and how much drug is delivered, what is special about this approach is that the drugs come out of the device without any solvent,” said lead author Dr Christopher Proctor, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Engineering. “This prevents damage to the surrounding tissue and allows the drugs to interact with the cells immediately outside the device.”

̽��ֱ��researchers found that seizures could be prevented with relatively small doses of drug representing less than 1% of the total amount of drug loaded into the device. This means the device should be able to operate for extended periods without needing to be refilled. They also found evidence that the delivered drug, which was in fact a neurotransmitter that is native to the body, was taken up by natural processes in the brain within minutes which, the researchers say, should help reduce side effects from the treatment.

Although early results are promising, the potential treatment would not be available for humans for several years. ̽��ֱ��researchers next plan to study the longer-term effects of the device in mice.

Malliaras is establishing a new facility at Cambridge which will be able to prototype these specialised devices, which could be used for a range of conditions. Although the device was tested in an animal model of epilepsy, the same technology could potentially be used for other neurological conditions, including the treatment of brain tumours and Parkinson’s disease.

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the European Union.

Reference:
Christopher M. Proctor et al. ‘Electrophoretic drug delivery for seizure control.’ Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau1291

Researchers have successfully demonstrated how an electronic device implanted directly into the brain can detect, stop and even prevent epileptic seizures.

These thin, organic films do minimal damage in the brain, and their electrical properties are well-suited for these types of applications.

George Malliaras

Christopher Proctor

Green arrow points to the implant in the hippocampus of a mouse brain

Researcher profile: Dr Christopher Proctor

Dr Christopher Proctor is one of the first nine recipients of the Borysiewicz Biomedical Sciences Fellowship programme.

My research sets out to develop medical devices to treat and diagnose various health problems that have been difficult to address with conventional approaches such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and brain tumours. As an engineer with expertise in electronics and materials, I work closely with biologists and clinicians in all stages of device development from early stage designing to late-stage testing.

̽��ֱ��most exciting day I’ve had in research so far was when a concept that I took from a drawing on paper to a real device that I could hold in my hand, prevented a seizure for the third time. I say the third time because I am forever a sceptic, so I was hesitant to believe our initial results until we repeated it a couple times. Having seen that it was a repeatable result was very exciting because that is when you know you may really be on to something special.

I hope my research will ultimately lead to a better quality of life for people with health problems. I believe we are only scraping the surface of what is possible when we pair electronic devices with biology. It is difficult to project where early-stage research will go, but I suspect the way we address some of the most difficult to treat diseases may be radically different in the coming decades.

Cambridge is a great place to research and develop medical devices because this type of work is truly a team effort that requires expertise in everything from engineering to chemistry to medicine up to government regulations, finance and marketing. There is an ecosystem in and around the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge that can bring all these experts together and that is exactly what is needed to take an early stage technology all the way to the patients that we are trying to help.

Yes

Low-cost plastic sensors could monitor a range of health conditions

sc604 — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 18:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��sensor can measure the amount of critical metabolites, such as lactate or glucose, that are present in sweat, tears, saliva or blood, and, when incorporated into a diagnostic device, could allow health conditions to be monitored quickly, cheaply and accurately. ̽��ֱ��new device has a far simpler design than existing sensors, and opens up a wide range of new possibilities for health monitoring down to the cellular level. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Science Advances.

̽��ֱ��device was developed by a team led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and King Abdullah ̽��ֱ�� of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. Semiconducting plastics such as those used in the current work are being developed for use in solar cells and flexible electronics, but have not yet seen widespread use in biological applications.

“In our work, we’ve overcome many of the limitations of conventional electrochemical biosensors that incorporate enzymes as the sensing material,” said lead author Dr Anna-Maria Pappa, a postdoctoral researcher in Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. “In conventional biosensors, the communication between the sensor’s electrode and the sensing material is not very efficient, so it’s been necessary to add molecular wires to facilitate and ‘boost’ the signal.”

To build their sensor, Pappa and her colleagues used a newly-synthesised polymer developed at Imperial College that acts as a molecular wire, directly accepting the electrons produced during electrochemical reactions. When the material comes into contact with a liquid such as sweat, tears or blood, it absorbs ions and swells, becoming merged with the liquid. This leads to significantly higher sensitivity compared to traditional sensors made of metal electrodes.

Additionally, when the sensors are incorporated into more complex circuits, such as transistors, the signal can be amplified and respond to tiny fluctuations in metabolite concentration, despite the tiny size of the devices.

Initial tests of the sensors were used to measure levels of lactate, which is useful in fitness applications or to monitor patients following surgery. However, according to the researchers, the sensor can be easily modified to detect other metabolites, such as glucose or cholesterol by incorporating the appropriate enzyme, and the concentration range that the sensor can detect can be adjusted by changing the device’s geometry.

“This is the first time that it’s been possible to use an electron accepting polymer that can be tailored to improve communication with the enzymes, which allows for the direct detection of a metabolite: this hasn’t been straightforward until now,” said Pappa. “It opens up new directions in biosensing, where materials can be designed to interact with a specific metabolite, resulting in far more sensitive and selective sensors.”

Since the sensor does not consist of metals such as gold or platinum, it can be manufactured at a lower cost and can be easily incorporated in flexible and stretchable substrates, enabling their implementation in wearable or implantable sensing applications.

“An implantable device could allow us to monitor the metabolic activity of the brain in real time under stress conditions, such as during or immediately before a seizure and could be used to predict seizures or to assess treatment,” said Pappa.

̽��ֱ��researchers now plan to develop the sensor to monitor metabolic activity of human cells in real time outside the body. ̽��ֱ��Bioelectronic Systems and Technologies group where Pappa is based is focused on developing models that can closely mimic our organs, along with technologies that can accurately assess them in real-time. ̽��ֱ��developed sensor technology can be used with these models to test the potency or toxicity of drugs.

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the Marie Curie Foundation, the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Reference:
A.M. Pappa et al. ‘Direct metabolite detection with an n-type accumulation mode organic electrochemical transistor.’ Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat0911

An international team of researchers have developed a low-cost sensor made from semiconducting plastic that can be used to diagnose or monitor a wide range of health conditions, such as surgical complications or neurodegenerative diseases.

This work opens up new directions in biosensing, where materials can be designed to interact with a specific metabolite, resulting in far more sensitive and selective sensors.

Anna-Maria Pappa

KAUST

Polymer biosensor

Researcher profile: Anna Maria Pappa

I strongly believe that through diversity comes creativity, comes progress. I qualified as an engineer, and later earned my Master’s degree at Aristotle ̽��ֱ�� of Thessaloniki in Greece. My PhD is in Bioelectronics from École des Mines de Saint-Étienne in France and leaving my comfort zone to study abroad proved to be an invaluable experience. I met people from different cultures and mindsets from all over the world, stretched my mind and expanded my horizons.

Now, I always look for those with different views. I travel frequently for conferences and visit other laboratories across Europe, the United States and Saudi Arabia. When you work in a multidisciplinary field it is essential to establish and keep good collaborations: this is the only way to achieve the desired outcome.

Being part of a ̽��ֱ�� where some of the world's most brilliant scientists studied and worked is a great privilege. Cambridge combines a historic and traditional atmosphere with cutting-edge research in an open, multicultural society. ̽��ֱ��state-of-the-art facilities, the openness in innovation and strong collaborations provide a unique combination that can only lead to excellence.

As an engineer, creating solutions to important yet unresolved issues for healthcare is what truly motivates me. I’m working on a drug discovery platform using bioelectronics, and my work sets out to improve and accelerate drug discovery by providing novel technological solutions for drug screening and disease management. I hope my research will lead to a product that will impact healthcare. In the future, I imagine a healthcare system where the standard one-size-fits-all approach shifts to a more personalised and tailored model.

I’m a strong advocate for Women in STEMM, and in October 2017 I was awarded a L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship, an award that honours the contributions of women in science. For me, the award not only represents a scientific distinction but also gives me the unique opportunity, as an ambassador of science, to inspire and motivate young girls to follow the career they desire.

I think it’s absolutely vital, at every opportunity, for all of us to honour and promote girls and women in science. Unfortunately, women still struggle when it comes to joining male-dominated fields, and even to establish themselves later at senior roles. We still face stereotypes and social restrictions, even if it is not as obvious today as it was in the past. A question I always ask girls during my outreach activities at schools, is, ‘do I look like a scientist?’, and the answer I most often get is no! I think this misperception of what STEMM professionals look like, or of what they actually do on a daily basis is what discourages girls early on to follow STEMM careers. This needs to change.

Yes