Susan Aldridge studied chemistry at the University of Cambridge and has Masters’ degrees in chemistry from the University of East Anglia and in biotechnology from the University of Hertfordshire. Her PhD work at the University of London helped found photodynamic therapy for cancer. After several years of synthesising peptides – including sequences of gut hormones – at the Medical Research Council’s Clinical Research Centre, she became a freelance medical and science writer. She has authored several textbooks and popular science books, including The Thread of Life: from genes to genetic engineering (Cambridge University Press). Between 1993 and 2010, she was the European Correspondent for the US publication Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. And from 2012 to 2020, she was Editor of Diabetes Update – where she learned the language of diabetes – and still does some freelance work for Diabetes UK. She has been Transcript Editor for the EASD’s e-Learning platform since 2019.