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What is your name? Where are you from? To which class do you belong? Where and what did you study before joining Imperial College London? How did you find your Master\u2019s experience at the College? Which research project did you work on? Where are you now? What are you working on? What is the most important lesson you learnt as a Master\u2019s student? How did the Master\u2019s programme help you get to where you are now? What is your name? Felix Varenne Where are you from? Paris To which class do you belong? MSc Translational Neuroscience, Class of 2026 Where and what did you study before joining Imperial College London? I studied a BSc in biochemistry at UCL How did you find your Master\u2019s experience at the College? I thoroughly enjoyed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1219,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/alumni-brains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Felix Varenne<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Paris<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>MSc Translational Neuroscience, Class of 2026<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I studied a BSc in biochemistry at UCL<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I thoroughly enjoyed it. The fast pace of the first few modules was challenging, less because of the complexity of the material than its sheer density. That\u2019s perhaps to be expected when you\u2019re studying the brain, one of the most complex objects in the known universe, if not the most complex. Once I\u2019d adjusted to the pace, I loved the range of modules, from the neuropsychiatry of addiction to machine learning models in healthcare. I was also lucky to be part of a very diverse and fun cohort and to have brilliant and supportive professors and tutors along the way<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I worked in the Centre for Psychedelic Research (CPR), part of the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial, under the supervision of Dr. David Erritz\u00f8e and Dr. Claudio Agnorelli. <\/strong>My project used existing clinical trial data to investigate whether participants\u2019 baseline psychological traits measurably shape the nature of the acute psychedelic experience. The initial results support this idea, and I\u2019m hoping to incorporate data from further studies to test it more robustly<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m taking a short break after a demanding but deeply rewarding year. I had been training for the Lisbon Marathon, which I\u2019ve now completed!<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Following my break, I\u2019ll be staying on at the CPR to develop my thesis into a paper for publication next year. I\u2019m also applying for the President\u2019s PhD Scholarship to investigate how psychedelics interact with neuronal mitochondria, with supervision from the Centre for Psychedelic Research and the Department of Brain Sciences, including Dr Kambiz Alavian.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Curiosity is essential in any discipline, and even more so in science. It\u2019s what led me to this course. But once I was in it, the intensity and depth of the material meant curiosity alone wasn\u2019t enough, and that\u2019s where consistency came in. When friends and family asked how the course was going, I described it as a speedboat picking up speed. At first the ride is bumpy and uncomfortable, but once you\u2019re up to speed you glide over water that used to feel choppy. Any slowdown, though, drops you straight back into the chop. Consistency has been one of the hardest things for me to maintain, but also one of the most satisfying<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The MSc rekindled my passion for learning and research, and for trying to unravel some of the most fundamental aspects of the human brain and, by extension, how we consciously perceive and understand reality. I never imagined myself as an academic or a researcher, but here I am applying for grants and increasingly excited about adding my own little brick to the foundations of neuroscience and psychedelic research<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"