“Imperial’s BSc Medical Bioscience programme focuses on developing students’ experimental skills, which I think is the most special thing about this course.“
Early in the last decade, Craig Venter coined the famous phrase, “If the 20th century was the century of physics, the 21st century will be the century of biology.”
Maybe it was my curiosity about new technology, or maybe it was the hope that I could make a contribution to cure diseases like cancer which gradually led me to enter the field of oncology, as if it was my destiny.
I am grateful that I chose to study Medical Bioscience at Imperial College three years ago. This is a perfect course for me as I want to become an oncologist in the future. My favourite thing about this course is the lab pod session and my current internship at AstraZeneca.
Imperial’s BSc Medical Bioscience (BMB) programme focuses on developing students’ experimental skills which I think is the most special thing about this course.
There are laboratory courses in the first and second year BMB program. In the lab pod session, we can design and conduct our own experiments to ultimately produce academic reports.
This teaching model not only allows you to learn some basic experimental techniques, such as cell culture PCR, Western blot, but also teaches you how to think like a scientist. That is a difficult thing to teach and to learn, but is what can ultimately help distinguish you as a good scientist.
In my third year at BMB, I was very lucky to be accepted into the cell and gene therapy group at AstraZeneca as an intern where I could put to use the knowledge I have learned at Imperial. During this 20-week internship in AstraZeneca’s Cell and Gene Therapy department, the company provided excellent intellectual and personal support throughout the project. At AstraZeneca, you are treated as a scientist rather than as a student, and have access to state-of-the-art facilities and hundreds of machines to facilitate experiments. This environment not only allows you to develop advanced biomedicine and biotechnology, but also keeps you up to date on the latest advances in the field.
In addition to my studies, I really enjoy music. I play the guitar and drums and sing, and I used to play in several bands. Music helps me face academic challenges with renewed vigour and passion.