What is your name?
Leire Melgosa Ecenarro
Where are you from?
The Basque Country
To which class you belong to?
MSc Translational Neuroscience, Class of 2019
Where and what did you study before joining Imperial College London?
I did my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of The Basque Country
How did you find your Master experience at the College?
It was quite an intense experience, both academically and personally. The MSc indeed required a lot of my time and effort, but I do consider that it was worth it: I learnt a great deal about various aspects of neuroscience and developed skills which will help me further my career. Apart from the purely academic side, I think that the community at Imperial offers many opportunities for leisure and self-development, which are an excellent choice for when you get a bit of spare time
Which research project did you work on?
I conducted my project in the Barnes Lab, which belongs to the UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI) at Imperial, focusing on age-related changes in homeostatic plasticity mechanisms of the cortex
Where are you now?
I decided to stay in the Barnes lab after finishing my MSc, and I am currently doing my PhD at the College, supervised by Dr Sam Barnes and Dr Johanna Jackson
What is the most important lesson you learnt as a Master student?
Building on the knowledge I acquired during my undergraduate studies, during the Master I learnt how to better integrate information from different disciplines and use my skills to target specific scientific questions
How did the Master programme help you get to where you are now?
In general, it gave a basis in neuroscience and helped me develop many skills I can now apply to my research. Besides, it allowed me to discover the field of brain plasticity and to work alongside excellent researchers within a world-leading institution