My year in industry helped me to discover that a PhD was the right route for me

"I really enjoyed the diversity of the biomedical science course. When I first started, I didn’t know what route I wanted to take but because the course had such an open approach to content in years 1 and 2 I felt I could enjoy the course instead of worrying about what I wanted to study. Also, being able to do human anatomy was a really interesting one-off experience!

"I am now doing a 4-year PhD studentship in Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham. It is funded by Arthritis UK and I am looking at the functional consequences of a particular B cell population in rheumatoid arthritis. I realised I wanted to pursue a PhD whilst out on placement at Hammersmith Medicines Research (HMR) because I was enjoying completing independent projects for the company and wanted to do the same thing in a research environment. When I came back to university for my final year, I decided to do the laboratory research project module and this confirmed my interest in doing independent research.

"Year 1 and 2 was a really good introduction to basic laboratory skills and how to analyse data. My lab confidence and independence improved when I was encouraged to do a year in industry and the skills I gained were consolidated and expanded when I went onto my final year laboratory project. A lot of the skills that I had acquired were attractive to my primary supervisor, such as knowing how to use a flow cytometer (something that is integral to my PhD project) and maintaining tissue culture lines. Overall, the degree helped me become a well-rounded student with multiple skill sets.

Laboratory skills that I acquired on my course set me out from other students. The course had a really good focus on reading into the literature and keeping up to date with the current science, which is extremely important in my PhD project as I need to be able to support the reasonings for why my work is needed.

Kate Barney

BSc Biomedical Science with a Year in Industry

"As mentioned previously, laboratory skills that I acquired on my course set me out from other students. Also, the course had a really good focus on reading into the literature and keeping up to date with the current science, which is extremely important in my project as I need to be able to support the reasonings for why my work is needed. Additionally, the course championed public speaking and provided plenty of opportunities to present to a large group of peers. This will become really important because not only am I part of a research group in Birmingham but also a group called RACE, which is a collaboration between 4 universities in the UK. I have to present to these yearly so having that experience already has really improved handling my nerves and presenting skills.

"I am enjoying being part of cutting-edge research and having my independence when conducting experiments. It’s going to be exciting over the next 4 years to potentially discover something that could be important for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis."