Claire Powell Full-time PhD in Infection, Inflammation and Immunity, 2010

Studying a Bachelor of Medicine degree course at the University of Southampton

Hi, I'm Claire Powell and I studied Full-time PhD in Infection, Inflammation and Immunity within Medicine at the University of Southampton.

I decided to study at the University of Southampton because I knew it was very strong at research-based learning and when I looked around I was very impressed with the facilities - both academic and social

My original degree was in Applied Human Biology and Genetics and one of the modules was allergy and immunology.  Quite a few members of my family have allergies and I thought it would be interesting to further explore this area for my PhD.

I decided to study at the University of Southampton because I knew it was very strong at research-based learning and when I looked around I was very impressed with the facilities - both academic and social.

I was fortunate to get a sponsored scholarship, funded by the Food Standards Agency, and began my investigations into whether there is any relation between a mother's diet and the later development of allergies in the child.

My research involved interviewing pregnant women and giving them food diaries to keep during their pregnancy.  I also took blood samples from them when the foetus was 12 weeks old, from the cord blood when the baby was born, and from the child at ages one and two.

I was delighted when I collated and compared all this information and it potentially showed which children are more at risk of developing a certain allergy.  There is still some further work to do but my findings could have an impact on child health in the future.  I am also due to publish a paper in the near future detailing my findings.

Whilst at Southampton I was the Chair of the Life Sciences Postgraduate Society (LSPS).   This enabled me to make many friends from different subject areas across the University.  We also invited a variety of speakers from different universities to give talks about their research on a regular basis.  This really opened my eyes to the medical research family within the UK and highlighted the importance of being able to communicate work with your peers.

Now I have completed my PhD, I have enrolled on the University of Southampton's Bachelor of Medicine degree course.  I discovered during my studies that I really enjoyed the interaction with patients and eventually I hope to become a clinical medical researcher spending half my time with patients and the other half continuing my research.