Career in science and research

1.

What's it like to work as a scientist, and how has the journey been for you? What is the work-life balance like, and do you find the role fulfilling?

2.

I’d love to hear some more about your research. What exactly do you mean by immune cell dynamics? Do you look at the immune cells within humans or other organisms?

3.

Lastly, do you think the university you go to has a large effect on future career prospects and/or post-grad opportunities? Currently, I'm stuck deciding between an integrated master’s at Warwick or Birmingham. They’re both decent universities, but I'm wondering if I should choose Warwick as it's higher up in the league table.

1.

I think being a scientist certainly has its perks. We get to do very cool experiments and design very clever ways to answer a certain question. To me, being a scientist is definitely for those who have a natural curiosity. You get to ask why, and how all day every day, and then get to actually go into the lab and test that out. You know how people sometimes just ask I wonder what happen if we add this water to a tree, would it change its growth? Or what happens if I mix these drugs together, will it kill bacteria more? Normal people can only ask and rarely get to do the actual experiments to answer. But scientists get to ask and then answer it. And when you get the answer, it's very fulfilling.
Working in a lab can be exhausting. You do often work long hours and late at night or in the weekend, and you don't get paid for those extra hours (this is why scientists are underpaid). But you get to decide what and when to do those experiments. So self-discipline is very important for a work-life balance. You can control it, but I do know scientists can be very bad at this and we just stuck in the lab the whole day because we often feel like we're not doing enough.

2.

Yes, immunodynamics is basically looking at the dynamic of the immune system, in my case, immune cells, and how they move around and respond to the environment. My background is in the field of cell migration, so I try to understand how cells move. I used to work in a cancer metastasis lab, looking at how cancer cells use different proteins to help them move. If you want to see some of these videos, you can search for my TikTok or Instagram of the same name and you know what I mean. I use a lot of microscopy to film cells and analyse their movement both on a dish and inside a living animal. Immunodynamics can also mean the change in gene expression of immune cells over time too but this isn't what I'm working on.

3.

I strongly believe it does! So it turns out that a degree in let say Biochemistry is taught very differently between different universities. Apart from the core modules like pH, enzyme, etc, the extra add-on to these degrees depends on the strength of the university that you went to. I did my BSc in Bristol and they are very strong in cell biology and microscopy. Pretty much most of my lecturers are cell biologists/cancer biologists, so this has shaped my interest towards cell biology, hence my PhD was in Cancer Cell Biology and I used a lot of microscopy for my work.
So to choose which uni to go to, make sure you look at their curriculum, but also check the profiles of the lecturers in the department and see if any align with your interest. For example, I know Birmingham is better known for their immunology/parasitology work, while Warwick is more known for mathematical/mechano/cell biology (which aligns with my research actually).
In terms of whether an uni can help with your post-grad opportunities, as long as you did a good job during your undergrad, and even better if you have good mentors/professors in the field that you want to go into. Usually within the field, people know each other's work. But you can certainly switch between fields too given that you can demonstrate it with your interest/publications later on/ etc.