Class of 2016 - 6 Months On
July 2016 saw the graduation of over 200 students from the School of Life Sciences. But what are they doing now?
Lizzy Willis
I graduated from Warwick this summer with a degree in Medical Microbiology and Virology and since then have been working in a Clinical Research Organisation as a Regulatory Specialist. The company I work for are contracted by pharmaceutical companies to carry out the human stages of drug trials, and my team is responsible for overseeing submissions and approvals of study plans, patient consent forms and other documents to Ethics Councils and Regulatory Authorities all over the world. Legislation and expectations across different countries vary so much, the trials can be at any stage from the start of Phase I to the end of Phase V, and study deviations happen all the time, all of which need to be given ethical approval, so there is always more to learn and understand. The knowledge I gained from my degree comes in useful when looking at the mechanism of the drug, and the effects that have been observed in the patients, additionally it gives me a full appreciation of how amazing some of the drugs currently in testing are. I think the work I do puts the three years worth of knowledge into an exciting real world context!
Georgia Karaoli
I'm at UCL currently doing the prenatal genetics and foetal medicine Master's. The course is quite intense but very interesting, in terms of the content and the people involved. The ages of the other students range from 20 to 30, and we are a mixture of scientists and clinicians, so we get a broader view of the material taught, which makes the course more appealing as well. It is a nice change but I still miss the morning walk up to Gibbet Hill!
Zachary Gold
I am a Biomedical Science graduate from the University of Warwick. Whilst studying at Warwick I enjoyed rowing for the University’s Boat Club, working as a student engagement intern in the university, and pursuing my interest in startups and disruptive technologies. During my studies I founded my own company Say As You Go, an opinion discovery tool which provides live quantification of public engagement - "Making engagement simple and arise naturally is a win win and gives us all the power to see what we collectively think in real time”.
This company won the SMART award in 2015, a highly competitive £142,000 grant awarded to companies producing significant technological advancement and solving problems with high technical challenges through the use of their own IP. It has also been selected for Growth pipeline and Start Global programmes supported by Scottish Enterprise. Recently I submitted US and EU patent applications in 2016 on innovative approaches towards addressing the underlying challenges of the polling industry and public engagement.
In November 2016, Say As You Go was invited to give a talk on 'Big Data for Media and Local Governments’ organised by SICSA (Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance). Say As You Go is now in collaboration with CogBiD lab and is the only SME collaborator alongside organisations such as Harvard Medical School, MIT, and NHS.
I will be presenting on the international stage of EIE17 alongside other selected innovative companies from the UK and EU in May 2017.
Rose Hodgson
Having graduated from the University of Warwick with a Master's in Biological sciences, I joined the Cornall lab at the University of Oxford in October to study a DPhil in immunology. During my DPhil, I will be researching the genetic basis of immunodeficiency and in particular, the stages of early lymphocyte development and the induction and maintenance of B cell anergy.
Lottie Curnow
After graduating this summer from The University of Warwick with a degree in Medical Microbiology and Virology, I applied for a position with the company Springer Nature. Following the application process and an interview, I got the job I really wanted and I now work for the Nature Publishing Group: a global, scientific publishing organisation formed of thousands of journals producing research in all aspects of science.
The journal I specifically work for focuses on a wide range of natural and clinical sciences. My job is to aid in the production and publication of manuscripts which are submitted from research facilities across the world. My role involves communicating with authors; taking the months or often years of research they have undertaken and ensuring it meets particular standards before publication. There is also the process of ensuring each paper has ethical approval for practices involving animals or humans. Additionally, certain criteria must be met when a clinical trial is carried out or a biological hazard is used. Following this, the peer-review process can begin.
I have been in this position for several months now and I enjoy it even more than I thought I would. I get to see innovative, unpublished research first hand, and each day is different. I used Nature research greatly for work throughout my degree, and my three years at University had fully prepared me for this role.
