It felt very rewarding to apply what you learnt in the classroom to a practical research project.

Hannah began her MSc Translational Neuroscience in September 2017 and already loved Sheffield as a city, making her keen to live and study here. She explains, “I chose to study at Sheffield because the University's Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) is a leading centre for neuroscience research, so it seemed like the place to go to do a masters in translational neuroscience. 

“Neuroscience is a fascinating subject to me, so I loved studying for my masters. I studied for my undergraduate degree in psychology before coming to Sheffield and I had absolutely no experience in the lab, so the practical side was definitely a challenge, but all the staff and students at SITraN were more than happy to help and I always had the support I needed to succeed. 

I loved learning about the different disease areas within neuroscience and hearing about the work being done to tackle them at SITraN. I also really enjoyed completing my own lab project.

Hannah Berntsson

MSc Translational Neuroscience graduate

“I learnt a lot about the underlying mechanisms of diseases within neuroscience and the key techniques researchers use to understand the diseases and to test and develop treatments. SITraNs focus on translational research has definitely helped me in pursuing a career in clinical research.”

After her masters, Hannah went on to work as a research administrator for the Directorate of Neurosciences at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, where she assisted in the set-up of clinical trials within neurosciences. Hannah has now joined the University of Sheffield's Clinical Trial Research Unit (CTRU) as a research assistant, providing support to clinical trial managers in the set-up, ongoing conduct and close-down of clinical trials. 

She explains, “I hope to pursue a career in trial management and I'd love to move into the management of early phase clinical trials. 

“The University of Sheffield is a wonderful place to study. My own course was engaging, challenging and rewarding. There is plenty of support available to help with your studies and to assist in securing work experience, further study or employment after your course, which is how I was able to secure my first job after completing my masters.”