Flexible Funding Reports

I’m Diyanath, I’m a final year student at the University of Newcastle.   My project combines cancer biology and genomics with bioinformatics and data science to investigate the genetic associations of Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. I use large clinical and genomic datasets to examine how genomic variants (changes in DNA) are linked to disease risk and progression in patients with these blood cancers. Developing tools to predict how early-stage chroni

I’m Esme and I’m a third year student at the University of York.  All cells in the human body are coated in a layer of sugar molecules. These sugars are important indicators of ‘self’ to the immune system so it can identify ‘normal’ cells. However, cancer cells are often covered in these sugar ‘self’ signals, allowing them to hide from the immune system. My work is interested in exploiting this. To do this, I use genetic manipulation to trick cancer cells into coating themsel

Greetings! My name is Krishna, and I am a third year student at the University of Sheffield. My PhD project involves the mechanistics of how viruses known as bacteriophages interact with the cell surface of Enterococcal bacteria. These bacteriophages specifically target bacteria living in the digestive systems of humans and animals.  We particularly focus on how these viruses use a complex sugar structure on the bacterial surface called Enterococcal Polysaccharide Antigen (EP

Generation Research is an organisation that aims to inspire the next generation researchers by providing paid summer research placements to undergraduate students. Positions are across disciplines in a range of technical and research projects. PhD students act as supervisors to these undergraduate students. They propose, write and submit a summer research project. If this is selected they help recruit their undergraduate student and then supervise them to carry out the proj

Thanks to DiMeN flexible funding, I was able to attend the Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Interactions and Virulence in Human Fungal Pathogens Advanced Lecture Course (HFP) in La Colle sur Loup, France, in May 2024. This is a week long lecture course which aims to disseminate the latest fungal research and provide early career researchers with a platform to interact with leaders in the field, gain feedback on their research and form new networks.  The lecture course co

In the third year of my PhD I undertook a 3-month industrial placement at the Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) which was supported by DiMeN's flexible funding. I was given my own project to work on which was to investigate the binding mechanism of drugs that target the adenosine A3 receptor. To do this, I used industry level molecular modelling software to computationally predict the noncovalent interactions that the drug compounds make with the receptor. Many of these drug

Thanks to the flexible funding I’ve received from DIMEN, I was able to complete  a five day online scRNA-seq analysis using R course run by EMBL-EBI in October 2022. It was an extremely informative course and I was able to gain valuable bioinformatic skills. I am excited to now apply these skills to the scRNA-seq dataset I have generated and hopefully answer some important questions about the interferon response to SARS-CoV-2 in the nasal epithelium.  The course contained bot

DiMeN Flexible funding allowed me to take part in University of Nottingham’s Transcranial Magnetic Simulation (TMS) Workshop. The workshop started with seminars on TMS history, delivered by the researchers who invented TMS, and discussed the strengths of limitations of TMS. After these seminars, we were then invited to take part in practical sessions working with neuronavigation, TMS neurostimulation, motor cortex target findings, and learning how to optimize TMS to work with

The Flexible Funding Award made it possible for me to undertake a 3-month internship as a Parliamentary Policy Researcher within the Senedd/Welsh Parliament in Cardiff, as part of the prestigious UKRI Policy Internships scheme. As part of the Health and Social Policy Team, I conducted in-depth research on intricate policy matters. I produced accessible research briefs and articles, translating intricate policy details into lay summaries for Members of the Senedd. These docume

My flexible funding award enabled me to attend the ‘Generation and Application of Organoid Disease Models’ course organised by Wellcome Connecting Science at the Sanger Institute, Cambridgeshire, in Autumn 2023. This residential course offered full immersion into organoid derivation, expansion, and downstream applications. Each day was a mixed timetable of theoretical lectures, wet-laboratory sessions, and seminars from established academics. The course brought together scien

3D printing and biofabrication summer school course, 15-19th July 2024, Utrecht University Recently I attended the 11th annual biofabrication and 3D printing course offered by Utrecht University, the Netherlands, as part of their summer school, which is the largest in Europe. The course aimed to explore all aspects of 3D printing and biofabrication, from concept to final product, enabling students to gain an understanding of the design and fabrication process as well as the c

Thanks to DiMeN flexible funding, I was able to do a 3-month placement at Azotic Technologies, Dunnington, York. Azotic technologies is a biotech/agro-tech company, with close links to the universities of York and Durham, which produces Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus – a bacterium which colonises the plant to fix nitrogen from the air, reducing reliance on fertilisers, and increasing yield. I was part of the R&D team, which studies G. diazotrophicus to improve product prope

Thanks to flexible funding, we were able to enter the YES21 competition as the Sheffield/Newcastle YES team. Flexible funding covered our entry fees, and also allowed us to travel for the competition – Becky came to Sheffield for the 3-day workshop, and Jess and Holly travelled to Newcastle for the competition final. Despite the competition itself being online, our team were able to meet up and book a room to work together – which hugely aided teamwork and made the experienc

I was recently awarded flexible funding to attend the “7th Annual Summer Institute in Statistics for Big Data (SISBID)” offered by the University of Washington. The course covered the main steps for analysis and visualisation of big datasets. My PhD project involves the utilisation of various -omic techniques, and receiving advanced training in bioinformatic skills is of pivotal importance for my current and future work. The course was divided in 4 modules, which very well co

Thanks to Flexible Funding I was able to go on a 4 month internship with IGNIFI, a healthcare and medical marketing agency. Whilst there I was able to gage what a career in medical copywriting could be like in a marketing environment. The team at IGNIFI allowed me to experience not only the copywriting side of the job, but also the account management, finance, creative, distribution and proof-reading sectors within the company. I was able to work on marketing campaigns for bi