Hear from Alex, one of our Biology students, who gained invaluable lab experience, new skills, and the confidence to pursue a future in biomedical research during a nine-week placement at The Crick.
Completing work experience has always been a priority for me, and I knew it would be essential to start early. So, around Christmas of my second year, I began researching available placements. That’s when I discovered The Francis Crick Insitute.
It felt as though the more I learned about The Crick, the more I wanted to work there. From the fascinating projects on offer and variety of advanced facilities and equipment, to the opportunity to experience a real lab environment, I was immediately drawn to the programme and I got started on my application.
Around one month later, I was grateful to see the interview invite email sitting in my inbox. There were three rounds of interviews, each as nerve-racking as they were exciting! While the interview did consist of some of the general questions, I was happily surprised that I spent most of the time discussing my interests and what areas of research I was curious about.
Thankfully, a few weeks later I received my acceptance onto the programme and there were several reasons to say yes. The project proposed by my supervisor involved areas which fascinated me, the skills and equipment involved were things that I wanted to learn, and it gave me a chance to be part of an active research environment. Above all, the ability to be part of such a large research institution was something that I wanted to experience for myself, so I put my paperwork through.
At the beginning, I was nervous about starting a new position. Outside of taught laboratory practicals at university, I had not experienced biomedical research, and never at this scale. The prospect of conducting real, impactful experiments that had not been designed for students, made me apprehensive. But in the end, that’s what made it so fulfilling: the chance to pose questions and figure out the answers was incredibly rewarding.
My project involved studying the neuroendocrine system, using mice as model organisms, to determine changes in glial cells throughout hormonal cycles. Initially we dissected brains from select mice, sectioned using a vibratome according to regions of interest, and performed immunofluorescent staining to label and be able to visualise an array of different glial cells. I performed confocal microscopy on each section and used a variety of imaging software platforms to analyse my images and collect cell counts to show fluctuations according to neuroendocrine activity. Aside from my specific project, I also helped to prepare and run qPCRs.
Throughout my time at the Crick, I received training in different laboratory techniques including dissection, sectioning, immunofluorescent staining, confocal microscopy, and qPCR. I was also lucky enough to receive a variety of employability training which I found incredibly helpful!
The nine-week program culminated in The Crick’s annual summer student symposium, where all the undergraduate students on the summer programme presented their research. It was an insightful two days featuring 28 talks with themes ranging from pharmaceutical chemistry, modelling, and developmental biology to public engagement and science communication. I found them fascinating and immensely impressive! Coincidently, my talk was scheduled last. Although a little nerve-racking, the moment I stepped foot on the stage, my anxiety melted away and I got lost in the intricacies of my project as I was excited to share what I had worked so hard on over the past two months. And just like that, it was sadly over.
My time at the Crick was incredibly beneficial. The breadth of skills and experience I have acquired has not only made me feel more confident in a lab but solidified my desire to work in this field. I was very lucky to have a supervisor who provided insight into research and lab-work, as well as making me feel comfortable even when asked the same question continuously as I tried to understand different protocols. Applying the knowledge, I acquired to answer real questions about human health and disease has been incredibly rewarding. Dedicating all my time to understanding one area has been fulfilling and I look forward to continuing this in my future studies.