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Guidance from last year's Third Year Biochemistry students on how to secure practical laboratory experience during the summer recess
On Tuesday 16th of November, the Biochemistry & Biotechnology society held a summer placement information seminar.
Current fourth year biochemistry students gave a highly informative presentation of the application process and daily tasks they each undertook during their placement. Their experiences ranged from research placement, as a Medical Laboratory Aide, to placement in industry.
Róisín Kelly participated in the iENGAGE internship with The Welcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine in Queen’s University, Belfast. This was the first year the institute ran this internship, and it took place remotely. The internship consisted of seminars, group projects and roundtables with people from around the globe. Roisín took part in a group project with students from China and Dubai, in which they looked at cardiovascular research and its link to diabetes. Roisín also spoke about the pros of partaking in placement and why this internship is a benefit if you had an interest in research and the theoretics of scientific research.
Shaun Hartigan discussed his research project entitled “Regulation of Long, Non-Coding RNAs in Ovarian Cancer by the Tumour Suppressor Protein, P53” which Shaun conducted under the supervision of Dr Kellie Dean, School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, UCC. Shaun’s project was funded by Breakthrough Cancer Research, and he spoke about the process of applying for this funding. Shaun discussed how he gained a lot of experience in many laboratory skills and how this was beneficial preparation for his fourth-year project.
Sophie O’Sullivan completed a summer research placement under the supervision of Dr Gerard O’Keeffe in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience in the Biosciences Institute in UCC. Sophie researched different mechanisms that dictate the development, degeneration and regeneration in Parkinson's disease. Sophie spoke on how she developed her laboratory skills, the importance of sterility in the lab and how she has a good insight into what modern day research entails.
Shauna O'Driscoll secured placement as a Medical Laboratory Aide in the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork. Shauna worked in the specimen reception department, but she also spoke about how she worked a lot with microbiology and many other departments of the laboratory. Shauna discussed the different departments of the lab and the general tests each carried out. Shauna also mentioned how this placement helped her to decide which department of the lab she hopes to work with in the future and the benefit of completing placement.
Donna Coleman completed her summer placement on the Business Excellence (BEX) Team with Janssen Ireland. Donna partook in many projects including developing new key performance indicators (KPIs), implementing Lean capabilities, and attending a value stream mapping event to decrease time consuming actions. Donna also spoke on what placement has taught her and the importance of putting yourself forward for things you are not particularly familiar with.
Emily Butler discussed her placement spent with Eurofins BioPharm Product Testing Ireland Ltd. Emily was based in the water microbiology laboratory and the sub-culturing laboratory, where she completed tasks including logging samples, ensuring aseptic environments, prepping samples, and sub-culturing samples to be tested for specific bacteria. Through this experience, it allowed Emily to experience complying with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements, training for pharmaceutical laboratories and the opportunity to network with fellow colleagues.
Jessie Hourigan Perez completed a summer internship as a Co-Op student with Janssen Ireland. Jessie discussed the many projects she had the opportunity to work on including a student innovation project, a tiger team material profile and an inclusion employee resource group. From Jessie’s placement she was able to complete several training courses including lean yellow belt training, A3 training, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training and DISC training. Jessie finished her talk by speaking about the challenges, the takeaway points, and the achievements she has gained from completing placement.