Biological research

Hi,
Im in year 12 and am aspirational to study biomedicine at uni. I love the subjects but im not keen on working as a biomedical scientist in the NHs, for example. My passion is to be a researcher. How common is this after an undergraduate degree, and if you want to pursue this , do you have to be a ‘supergeniius’ or do many go down this path

Hi @Fermat42647

Going into research is extremely common after studying a biomed subject at an undergraduate level! I definitely wouldn't say you have to be a genius to g onto further research, you just need to work hard and have a passion for the subject area. It's not necessary but I'd also recommend looking for internships/placements while you're at university, as you can learn some new techniques and getting hands on lab experience outside of practicals is really useful.

Some Biomedical Science degrees are IBMS accredited, and contain a selection of modules chosen to meet IBMS (Institute of Biomedical Science) standards. Getting an IBMS accredited is part of one pathway in becoming a Biomedical Scientist for the NHS. However, many people study these accredited degrees and don't go on to work in the NHS and choose to go into research - something else entirely. Also, there are a huge number of Biomedical Science and Biomedicine courses that are not accredited, and so may offer a bit more flexibility in optional modules as well.

At Lancaster we have both a Biomedical Science degree (IBMS accredited) and a Biomedicine degree. These courses actually share a common first year - I've linked the course pages below so you can see the differences in modules. Both of these degrees could easily lead to a career in research.
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/biomedical-science-bsc-hons-b990/2024/
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/biomedicine-bsc-hons-c701/2024/

I hope I could help, I actually study biochemistry so let me know if you have any questions about studying a bioscience at university!
Rebecca (Lancaster Student Ambassador)

Thank you so much for the reply. I am not really that keen on the NHS option, but the prospect of research sounds very appealing to me. Is this research done via the university? Also is this ‘research’ mostly sort of just lab experience, or if I were to go into that research field would it be likely that the work that is done is new research that is innovative and that has the potential to be used in the real world

Hi @Fermat42647

It's difficult to really sum up biological research, as there's so many different areas and it'll be slightly different everywhere. I'm not an expert so I'd recommend doing your own research online and definitely reach out to the careers team once you are at university.

A lot of people early on think that working in research is all ground-breaking findings and about making huge discoveries. Obviously this might happen in some situations, but a lot of working in research is being part of the bigger picture and expanding on knowledge in a certain area working towards a larger goal. A lot of things go wrong in research, because a lot of the time you are doing something that there isn't necessarily a full documented method on, so it's a lot of researching similar experiments and troubleshooting.

To work in research it is very common to go on and do postgraduate study after your degree (from what I have heard this is pretty much a requirement in academic research, but you can get roles in industrial research without further study). So for example they might do a Bachelors, then go on and do some sort of postgraduate study like a PhD (might be important to note that, at least in the biosciences, that you don't need a Masters degree to do a PhD) where, depending on where you applied, you'd be doing a mix of reviewing literature in the area, planning experiments, working in the lab, data analysis, and writing up your research.

There are lots of different pathways into research in academia, all of which will have different responsibilities (from a quick google this webpage seems to list some of the key academic roles https://career-advice.jobs.ac.uk/academic/what-kind-of-academic-do-you-want-to-be/#:~:text=A%20postdoctoral%20research%20post%20is,published%20and%20networking%20at%20conferences.) One option would be to apply to become a postdoctoral researcher - I'm definitely not an expert so other people will have put more accurate information online. From what I've seen, research in academia tends to be more focused on discovery or expanding previous knowledge, publishing papers, and teaching.

You could also do research in industry, I'm actually on a placement year at a biotechnology company in industry right now - working in drug discovery, specifically against genetic diseases! In industry, research is more focused developing new products or techniques for immediate real world applications. Your work is maybe less independent of other people and you'll be working with other scientists in the company to build a bigger picture using your specialist skills. There's no space to research things outside of the companies goal for the product, although you'll need to be flexible and innovative to find new solutions when things don't work.

I hope I could help a little!
Rebecca (Lancaster Student Ambassador)