Salome Murinello PhD student

PhD student

Hi, I'm Salome Murinello and I studied PhD student within Centre for Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton.

In the summer before my final year I took up a vacation studentship with the CNS Inflammation group, under Dr. Jessica Teeling’s supervision. This type of studentship, will allow you to discover whether scientific research is really something you want to pursue and even if in the end you decide it is not for you it will greatly help you perform well in your final year

After completing my Baccalaureate at the European School of Luxembourg I moved to the UK where I started studying medicine at the University of Southampton due to its excellent reputation. However, I quickly realised that my interest lay in research and changed course to a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. I have finished with a first class degree

In the summer before my final year I took up a vacation studentship with the CNS Inflammation group, under Dr. Jessica Teeling’s supervision. Throughout the eight weeks in the laboratory I was given the opportunity to become familiar with general laboratory practice, more specific protocols and equipment and then to plan my own experiments. In addition, I learned how to present my results, and produced a short report and a poster at the end of the studentship. Other than reinforcing my interest for research, this studentship, kindly sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation, greatly helped me both in succeeding in my final year research project and in the pursuing a career in research. I started my third year lab project with ease and quickly as I was already familiar with all the techniques and equipment to be used and, also importantly, with the staff. Consequently, I was able to perform very well in my research project, which provided me with the experience to successfully apply for a PhD.

I am currently doing a PhD jointly with the School of Biology and School of Medicine, looking at inflammatory processes in macular degeneration. I would strongly advise any students considering a career in research to do a vacation studentship in the University. This type of studentship, often sponsored, will allow you to discover whether scientific research is really something you want to pursue and even if in the end you decide it is not for you it will greatly help you perform well in your final year.