I have started my project now, cutting and staining lung tissue. This will then be used to work out the total surface area of the lung, the thickness of the airway and alveolar walls and the thickness of the smooth muscle which surrounds the airways. I am looking to see if there are any changes in the lungs following the COPD model when compared with a normal section of lung tissue. To work this out I have to use a grid which looks like an image of the sea with wavy lines across it. It took ages to work out the way to measure the basic tile, or square on the grid with a single section of wave in it, correctly. I am due to go on a course in France later this month which will teach me how to go about the analysis properly.

Work in my main lab has not started yet as we are waiting of a clamp to be fitted to a filter hood so that the RNA and DNA extractions can begin. I am also going to be going on a course here at Southampton University to learn the basics of Western blotting. This technique is used frequently to look at protein levels and I will be using it later on in this project.

I have just started my three year project which means that I passed my MRes. I am going to be looking at the effects of maternal diet on the development of lungs. The structure of the lungs will be looked at to find any difference in alveolar (small air sacs) size and wall thickness, as well as the size, wall thickness and the thickness of the surrounding smooth muscle of these airways. I am going to be doing this in one if the labs that I visited during my three ten week rotations over my first year.

The first few weeks have been mainly looking at the way in which we are going to do these measurements. This is essential as it has to follow methods that have already been used in this field to ensure that the work will not be criticised for this if we manage to get any publications from it, which hopefully we will.

I have come back to the human genetics lab that I did my first rotation in and will have the same supervisor, Dr John Holloway. I have two other supervisors, Dr Susan Wilson and Dr Chris Torrens. I am very pleased with my supervisors as they all seem very approachable and prepared to spend time explaining the things that I need to know for this project.

Hopefully I will be able to give a bit more detail about the project when do my next entry in a month or so. Regards Shelley

So I have just finished my lab work for my 3rd and final rotation this year and it has gone very well, but now I have to spend two weeks writing the report.
I have been working with two post-doctoral research fellows, Ben Nicholas and Karl Staples. It has been a very different working environment in this lab as both of my supervisors are heavily involved in lab work, which has been great because it means I have more people around to learn from. I have been using completely new techniques for this project, which has not only been useful for my future career in research but also very interesting.
We have been working together on the same research area - seeing if it is possible to make epithelial cells (these are the ones that you can see if you look inside your cheek and a layer of these cells continues down from your mouth into your lungs) which line the lungs into more structural cells (which are found deeper inside the tissue) called mesenchymal cells. This is something that has previously been seen in cancerous tumours and we were keen to know if this is also something that happens in the lung due to disease (in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease you see an increase in these mesenchymal cells but it is not clear where they come from). We are hoping that some of this work will be published, which I am really looking forward to.
I have found this project and this year as a whole very interesting and we are now in the process of deciding what we will do for our full PhD projects. We will be more involved in the planning of our PhD than most students as we are going to spend August writing up our proposal for what we would like to do. I will tell you more about my PhD project in my next post,

Gem x

Having finished my last rotation with Dr John Holloway, I have now started a new one with Dr Donna Davies, Dr Hans Micheal and Dr Susan Wilson. My last project was based a lot on data base searches to find information on my gene of interest. This project is looking at structural changes. This means that I am staining slides. I am working mainly in Dr Susan Wilson's lab with her team. This includes John, Helen, Ron and Jenny. I am really enjoying my time in this new lab and I also have a bit of office space in the Brooke Lab upstairs where I am siting next to Gemma. This is an added bonus as before I did not get a lot of chances to meet up with her as we were both so busy.

Dr John Holloway has recently been promoted to 'reader'. He took all the lab out for lunch and sent me an invitation to join them. We had a lovely time and it was good to meet up with the people in the lab again.

We have begun our next set of journal clubs on the topic of respiratory diseases. I have found these extremely interesting and feel that I now have a better understanding of how patients can be affected by the condition that they have. I am looking forward to learning more in this field and getting a better all round understanding.

I hope everyone has a good easter, I know Gemma will as she is going on holiday, lucky her!

 

Well Christmas was good, it was nice to have some time off and now that I have come back my PCR is working and I can get on and finish my project. There isn’t a lot time left for this project it has gone so fast. I have really enjoyed it although am not too sure if I will feel the same about the 5,000 write up!

The lab is fairly quite at the moment. Matt, another PhD student, has spent most of his christmas writing up the work he has done since September. Nikki has recently moved into the lab. She looks after the DNA bank that is stored here at the uni. Most of the four year medical students are out doing some work experience with local GPs.

My supervisor, John, is busy as always. He is helping me with the plan for my write up at the moment. I should know where I am going to be for my next rotation soon, I am hoping to work on a project that uses the microscopes, but we will see. There is a team building day coming up in February. All four of us will be going as well as the other 4 year students on the Cancer pathway and some of the supervisors are also coming. I am looking forward to it as I have never been on a day like this before.

Hello! The past week has been a busy one in the Brooke lab, where I am doing my first four month project rotation. We have had three people are move out of the office, two parties and a conference in London, which most of the lab attended! Two of our post-doctoral fellows (postdocs), Ilaria and Jude, have sadly left us. Ilaria (a medical doctor who specialises in allergy) moved back to Italy, and Jude (a PhD doctor) has moved offices as she has just been given a promotion. Jude will still be in collaboration with many of the staff in the lab, and will soon have her own post-doc to look after (with the help of Professor Donna Davies) who will work within our lab. Mark, a doctor who graduated from med school a year and a half ago, has been doing an academic medicine rotation for the past 4 months so that he could find out about doing work in a lab with some “hard-core” scientists, has also moved on to a new rotation in cardiology. The lab is not empty now though! There are still around 15 people working here and it is sure to increase again soon. To say farewell we had a party in the main office last Tuesday during our lunch break, which was a lot of fun, and gave me an opportunity to get to know some of the people I am working with a little better. For the last half of last week however it was quite lonely in the lab as there were only a couple of us around. This was because everyone else had travelled to London for the BTS - the British Thoracic Society conference. This is an event where all the scientists working in the field (everything in general about lungs) from all over the country get together and tell each other what they have discovered through their research. Most of the people within our lab gave presentations (something I am very scared about doing in the future!). These conferences are really important as they help us to easily find out what other people are doing and how this may link to our research. As I am new and have only just started my research it is too early for me to go to these conferences but hopefully I will be able to attend one during my second year. This week has finished off in the way that I am sure many of yours have too - a Christmas Party! Everyone from the Brooke lab attended as well as many other people who work in the South Academic block of the hospital, which covers many different fields of research. The party was a great success and Sue Martin, our lab manager, really did a fantastic job of organising everything, including buying the crackers! For now though it is back to the grindstone as we are all desperately trying to get our experiments finished before the Christmas holidays. Happy Holidays! Gem x   more »

Hi, I am Shelley. I’m 23 and have just completed my undergraduate degree in biochemistry and genetics from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. I live near Southampton which is one of the reasons that I chose to apply for this 4 year studentship.

One of the main things that attracted me to this university was its facilities. The opportunity to work within a hospital, for an institution that has such a good reputation in the area of respiratory medicine is ideal. I am extremely pleased that I managed to win one if the places on this studentship which offers a unique opportunity of a first year which includes rotations within three different labs. As I have no previous experience of the staff or the areas of research that are available this first year will enable me to make an informed decision as to where I will spend the next three years on my PhD. Having to choose a supervisor without getting to know them first would have been a bit daunting. There are four main areas within the studentship, one for each of us. I am hoping to do my PhD around the area of genetics as I find it very interesting.

I would like to thank everyone who supports the AAIR charity and hope that you feel you can get to know us a bit better and discover more about what we are doing, maybe become as interested it in as we are.

 

HI!

 

My name is Victor Paky Bondanese and I was born in Venezuela in 1979 where my mother’s family moved when she was young, but both my parents are Italian. So soon before I was born they wanted to move in Venezuela where we lived until I was 4, then we moved back to Italy. I am from  a city by the Adriatic sea called Termoli where my family still lives. I attended the so called “Liceo Classico” where subjects as Latin, ancient Greek and Philosophy are taught and now and then I used to work as a waiter in weddings (don’t know is you’ve ever been at any Italian wedding… we tend to exaggerate there!), go around the city by rollerskates, swimming and playing volleyball (unfortunately my career in the latter was quite short… just as me ;-)). After high school I decided I had enough of the subjects studied so far and was instead very attracted by Physics, Chemistry and Biology. That’s why now I am a biologist… uhm… really? Still can’t call me that way! I wanted to do the PhD in UK because I’ve always thought it’s an interesting place here and generally because I reckon that things here work better, with a good organization and that universities are widely competitive in the biomedical research. So I left Italy and the university where I was and flew to London after having applied for several PhDs. While in London I tried to improve my English attending a school (but I am still a goat at it, as you can read), worked in a pub and attended a couple of interviews. I am very happy and proud that Southampton University offered me this place. When I came here for the interview, the environment and everybody were great, and it is a very good and renowned research-based University.

Now I am a totally healthy guy, but in fact until the age of 10 I suffered from asthma, which magically disappeared as I grew up, but I still remember those days, and more than me does my mother.

I still don’t have a specific interest in the general molecular biology area. Actually, according to me you need a good burden of knowledge and experience before you could state something like that… I am still an enthusiastic student of everything tickles my curiosity. But it might sound as a strange coincidence that I got involved here, and I am very glad indeed and even more would be me as a child who used to say “I wanna work against asthma”.

 

Hi! I’m Gem. I am from London originally, but have just finished my degree (BSc Biochemistry and Pharmacology) at Southampton University. I decided to stay on at Southampton and do a PhD here as it is one of the best departments in the world for asthma research which is the subject I am interested in. I was very keen to apply for this four year course as I was not sure which specific area I wanted to focus my PhD on and this course allows me to try out three different areas before I have to decide on one this summer. Outside of the lab, I am involved in the Spitfires, which is the inline and ice hockey team for the university. I am not very good, but since joining the club I have improved my ability to skate (so I no longer fall over every 5 seconds!), and may one day be able to play on the team. I am also a keen traveller, and before starting university I lived and worked in Canada (which is where my family are from) for a year and travelled around America. I have also visited Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain and Russia within the last few years (all of which I funded through part-time jobs whilst I was studying). I think that this is a really great opportunity that AAIR have provided us with, and I look forward to writing to you all again soon. Gem x   more »

Hi, I'm Claire,

I'm currently studying for my PhD at Southampton University, where I am based at the General Hospital site. I am part of the respiratory group within the IIR  (infection, inflammation and repair) division. My current project is investigating different organisms that cause infections in the lungs.
I am originally from Wolverhampton, near Birmingham, in the West Midlands.
My first degree is in Infection and Immunity from Aston University, and after all that work, I thought I should probably put it to good use and try to do something that would help people in the 'real-world'.

So, here I am!!!

The blog team are Gemma Campbell, Shelly Davies, Claire Heath and Victor Bondanese. All four have won prestigious studentships in Respiratory Medicine funded jointly by AAIR and the Medical Research Council.   more »