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 »