Nash Matinyarare BSc Biomedical Sciences, 2014
A lot of people ask me why even though I lived in Southampton originally, I still decided to come to the University of Southampton. The decision was simple; Southampton offers a Biomedical Science course that explores highly relevant areas of science, such as Neuroscience, Immunology, Pharmacology, and Physiology- of which the courses are taught by some of the best researchers in their field. This link between research and teaching is such an advantage, as it allows us, the students, to always be taught current, cutting edge information. Another beneficial aspect of the course is that as an undergraduate, you can mix and match the modules according to what you are interested in. As such, while I have a BSc Biomedical Sciences degree, I also have a solid grounding in Pharmacology and Neuroscience -which of course are degrees in their own right.
The University's laboratory summer internships are an invaluable source of skills and information. I did such an internship on inflammation and it’s influence to neurodegenerative disease, which gave me a very good insight into the scientific side of research.
All third year students get a chance to embark on novel research in a laboratory of their interest. However, “wet-bench” research, i.e. actually experimenting in a laboratory, is not for everyone, as such, to help individuals decide which research projects to do, the University runs laboratory summer internships. These internships are 8 weeks long and are an invaluable source of skills and information. I did such an internship: it was on Inflammation and it’s influence to neurodegenerative disease. The internship gave me very good insight into the scientific side of research. Needless to say, I enjoyed the internship so much, that I decided to continue doing it as my third year project. The third year project was intense, as I was actually carrying out novel experiments that if done well, could be used in publications. That was a tremendous responsibility to have! I value the skills I learnt from my time doing the project, as most of the skills are transferrable to a host of other areas. More specifically however, the time I spent doing my third year project made me realise my appreciation and passion for science. As such, now I am doing a PhD, not in immunology, but now just in Neuroscience. Whilst challenging, I am still enjoying my project, and hope that something novel will come out of it.