Henry’s Placement Year Blog

Hello everyone!

My name is Henry and I’m a third year Neuroscience student on placement in the USA! I’m lucky enough to be working in the University of Nevada Reno’s Physiology and Cell Biology department, looking at energy utilisation in a giant synapse called ‘the calyx of held’. So far it’s been an absolutely invaluable (and all-round-incredible) experience and the three months have already transformed me from a bumbling undergraduate into a (mostly) competent lab worker!

 “But what actually happens on placement?” is the question that I think crosses most people’s mind when they sign up for industrial experience. Sure, you know you’ll have to do ‘a project’ which you’ll have to write up to earn those sweet, sweet percentage points towards your final grade. But beyond that is kind of a mystery, right? Now, I won’t pretend that I have all the answers, but I can at least give you a good rundown as to life as a student worker in the lab.

 I arrived in Reno mid to early August, and for the first two weeks was mostly paperwork and general lab safety training while Sean, the head of the placement scheme here, found us supervisors that matched our research interests. As a Neuroscience student, I was delighted to be placed in a synaptic physiology lab. Then as August rolled into September we moved onto more lab-specific training. As it turned out, my lab needed someone to generate fluorescent images for them to demonstrate that they were indeed knocking down their protein of interest and show visually how this changed mitochondrial structure and distribution. Having loved the ‘Dynamic Cell’ module in second year, I was really excited to try the techniques we had learnt about for myself in a real lab environment.

Touristy photo of the iconic Reno Arch upon arrival!

 Since then I have learnt many different techniques, from animal handling to tissue preparation and confocal microscopy. While I still have room to improve, I feel like I’m getting the hang of these and am able to actually contribute to the work done by the lab. I have just started learning the basics of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, which would make for, as my supervisor put it, a ‘sexy’ project. Once I have these foundations down, me and my supervisor will sit down and flesh out a title. Then I can get to work on the project I plan to submit for my placement report!

 Now, as a placement student, you’re expected to work hard. But that shouldn’t stop you from having fun outside of the lab too! And this is where Reno has really shone. Uber has just arrived to the city so getting around has become much easier and affordable. Midtown, Reno’s Northern Quarter equivalent, is one of our favourite haunts. Full of independent coffee shops and bars, there’s something for everyone. As an ice hockey fan it’s been great to be able to go to a sports bar and watch my favourite team play (Go Sharks!) while enjoying a local beer.

 Perhaps even more exciting is Reno’s surroundings. Perched in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s, I’ve rekindled an old passion for the outdoors. With Lake Tahoe and the surrounding mountains only a 40 minute drive away, it’s been really easy to get outdoors. In the first couple of weeks, our faculty took us for a BBQ by the shore of Lake Tahoe. With temperatures in the low 30’s the weather was perfect for swimming. To be honest it was a truly surreal experience. The water was so clear I was convinced it was salt water, so it was a pleasant surprise when it wasn’t (even if it was a little chilly). Tahoe also has some of the world’s best ski slopes, with the local mountain, Mount Rose, even closer than the lake. We’ve just started to get heavy snow and it shows no sign of stopping. The locals are predicting the best ski-season in years and I can’t wait to get back to snowboarding. It’ll be a big step up from Chill Factore (an indoor ski slope in Manchester) I’m sure!

The picnic party in Tahoe!

 Something that I didn’t know about Reno before I arrived was how close to Northern California we are. In September we took a long weekend in San Francisco and I’ve completely fallen in love with the city. We managed to snag an apartment at the top of Market Street overlooking down-town San Francisco, a truly unforgettable view. Having coffee on the balcony watching the sun rise over ‘The City’ is a memory that will stay with me forever. We spent the weekend exploring the city, shopping in the Castro and of course around Union Square. The next day we hired bikes and cycled through Golden Gate Park and up to the bridge itself. It was a tiring day but something I really recommend if you ever get the chance. Since, I’ve been back twice (travel is cheap, $20 for a return bus ticket) and I know we’ll be going again.

Cycling in San Fransisco

 But that can wait. Right now the US is abuzz with Thanksgiving celebrations and I was lucky enough to be invited to my flatmate’s for the event. In preparation, we made pies for the big day, so I introduced our friends across the pond to Banoffee Pie, and they were very grateful for it. After we were finished baking, we made the thirty minute drive down south to his parents place followed by a few beers as a night-cap and an early night ready for the festivities.

 Thanksgiving itself was a very busy day. We were up early for a light breakfast before the Thanksgiving football games began (first up was my newly adopted team, the Detroit Lions. I made sure to brush up on some football beforehand). We then juggled football, beer and cooking for the rest of the day. The rumours of Thanksgiving feasts are no word of a lie. We sat down at around at 5pm to two turkeys (one oven cooked, the other deep fried… You couldn’t make it up) with rivers of gravy and mountains of mashed potatoes. All washed down at the end with a coffee and a nap to ensure we were ready to hit the mall at 8pm for the Black Friday sales. I guess the deals are just too good to hold off until Friday itself.

Apple and cinnamon buns for a light Thanksgiving breakfast!

Thanksgiving Mimosas

Deep fried Turkey!

My first Thanksgiving dinner!

And that’s my adventure so far! Already this has been one of the highlights of university for me and has not only helped me firm up my future plans, but also given me a truly unique experience living abroad. I’ve made some great friends and memories here and I’m certainly looking forward to more!

 Thanks for reading everyone. Best of luck on your placement applications!

Henry xx

Lucy’s third year blog

Hello there!

I’m Lucy and I’m here to tell you about life as a third year on one of the brand spanking new Masters of Science (MSci) programmes in the Faculty of Life Sciences (FLS). I’ll be updating you throughout the year as I venture into the uncharted territory of project proposals and bioinformatics as one of the first ever MSci students. I’ll also be telling you a bit about my (hopefully slightly interesting) life as a student as we go.

First, let me tell you a bit about myself. I moved to Manchester at the age of 19 from the not so glamorous or sunny seaside town of Blackpool. Now, a couple of years on, I’ve somehow made it through to third year and I’ve completely fallen in love with Manchester. I decided I couldn’t bear to leave at the end of this year, so I’m staying for a masters!

I was lucky enough to spend most of my summer travelling this year. It all started off with an FLS field course to Costa Rica, where I conducted my own research on tropical frogs and toads. Following the field course, I and a few of my course friends stayed behind for some adventures of our own involving zip lines, horses, volcanic mud baths, diving and a 3 day pit stop in New York on the way home! The trip gave me the fondest and funniest memories that I’ll be blabbering about for years to come, as well as lots of very “Gap yah” photos! I celebrated my 21^st birthday at home with my family and squeezed in as many hours at work as possible, then continued on to London, Greece and Paris.

The hard life of a Biology student

After a whirlwind summer of excitement and mayhem (which left me with a very sad looking bank account), I’m more than ready to be settling back into a routine at uni. I’m now living in a cosy house with 3 flatmates from first year and our new pet goldfish, Rhubarb. This has quite frankly been a welcome change from the madness of living in an enormous 8 bedroom party house last year. It was so much fun, but it’s time to knuckle down.

Over the years, we’ve discovered some of the unique little gems that Manchester has to offer. One of these is the Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall. I’ve never been much of classical music fan, but the Hallé puts on an incredible show every week and as a student you can get tickets for just £3! It’s really worth giving it a go if you fancy something different and it’s unbelievably cheap!

Pretending to be an adult at the Orchestra #21goingon51

Right about now is my favourite time of year to be in Manchester. There is SO much going on. Warehouse Project is back in full swing until New Year, the Christmas market cabins are popping up in town and last week it was Bonfire night. Platt Fields Park (right across the road from the UoM accommodation) hosts a free fireworks display, bonfire and funfair each year. It’s always a great night! As for the Christmas markets, they’ve just open so I will be there faster than you can say ‘hog roast’, ready to spend more money that I don’t have on delicious food that I don’t need. I’m sure my next blog post will include a picture of me looking very merry indeed with some mulled wine at the markets – YAY!

Now we’re halfway through the semester, so you’ll find me buried under an ever growing pile of work! I’m in the process of planning the first of two research project proposals for my masters, one of which will become my final year project. Both will be based in the field of parasitology (I have a thing for parasites – don’t ask!). The one I’m currently working on will be looking at the immune response against whipworm, a disease which affects many people in developing countries. It’s going to be a lot of work but I’m really excited to finally have the freedom to design a project that is my own and on something I’m really passionate about. Speaking of my project proposal, I really better get on with it as I’m miles behind (shhh – don’t tell my supervisor).

Ciao for now!

Lucy

Ayesha’s second year (International) Blog

Hi all!

Let me introduce myself first! My name is Ayesha and this year I’m going to be writing for the international section of the FLS student blog.  I’m currently a second year student studying Biomedical Sciences here. A little backstory, I was born and raised in India (represent!) and moved to the UK only about a year ago for my studies.

As far as my first year goes, if I had to sum it up in a word, it was amazing. It was such a good learning experience for me from never even having flown before in my life, to coming all the way here to a completely different continent altogether all by myself. It may not seem like a big deal to many, but for me it was huge! I’m so glad I chose to live at Hulme Hall for my first year- the people were so friendly and welcoming, and not to mention diverse (if you haven’t already heard that a million times before). I also went on my first rollercoaster ride ever! This was at Alton Towers- please go, it is so great! As weird as it sounds, it was one of my highlights from last year.

On a ride in Alton Towers. I’m the girl in the middle!

University life was pretty good too! In first year, no matter what Life Science course you were studying, we all had to do a set of compulsory modules so that we had a good overview of key life sciences topics. At first I wished that we could have had a little more flexibility in terms of picking our modules – but this soon changed because if it had been up to me, I would never have chosen the pharmacology module ‘Drugs- from molecules to man’ and this surprisingly became my favorite module of the year and even made me consider switching my course to Pharmacology. But I don’t regret this as now my degree gives me the flexibility to choose any module I want including the Pharmacology ones.

Cut to present time, I moved out of my halls and am currently renting a house with some of my hall-mates from last year. Since I got back here a week earlier than Welcome Week, I figured I would go over to London (only 2 hours away!) for a bit and do all the touristy things I didn’t get the chance to last year. It was a great trip and I highly recommend it to those who haven’t been before.

Alright, back to Manchester! Welcome Week was really busy as you would expect. With the new and returning students swarming through the streets, I felt so nostalgic! I miss being a first year student. I went to the Welcome Fair again this year – it was immensely packed, but I survived. I managed to join the Taekwondo, Kickboxing and Trampolining societies. Don’t be fooled, I’m almost as physically active as a slug but I decided it was time I let go of my sluggish ways and make a new start. So far, it’s been great! I’ve met so many new people and upped my fitness game a bit. Also, trampolining is so much fun, I highly recommend it.

As far as uni goes, obviously in the 2^nd year your workload increases as you would expect BUT, I really enjoy it this year. I was able to choose all of my modules, which I’m so pleased with. It’s great because I actually love what I study now. What I’ve noticed is that everyone around me is also a lot more focused on their studies now compared to last year which I actually find quite inspiring. It motivates me to spend more time studying and that helps me stay on top of my workload.

Something that is new this year is that we need to write a dissertation (a 9 page write up). I got to choose 8 topics from a list of over 380 so I was spoilt for choice! I wanted to combine my new found interest in Pharmacology with my passion for Biomedical Sciences so 6 of my choices are Pharmacology themed, specifically looking at how various drugs affect our system. Topic allocation is due by the end of this week, so I don’t know which one out of these 8 topics I have been allocated yet. However, to be really honest, I don’t mind which one I get allocated because they all interest me.

The careers service is on top of their game right now, promoting work opportunities and providing help to improve our employability skills. I actually had an appointment with the careers service this afternoon, and it was so helpful. They gave me good advice and directed me to all the right people to help me get started with gaining useful work experience.

Speaking of work experience… alongside my studies, I am an International Student Ambassador (paid) and Student Representative for the second year students on my course. It’s quite nice being in the student body as it helps you build a stronger network with other students as well as the staff. Also, it gives valuable transferable skills like leadership, communication and teamwork.

Finally, I have been exploring Manchester a lot more this year. As my halls were catered last year, I didn’t get to dine out a lot. Northern Quarter has a lot of nice little restaurants and cafes which I only discovered this year. The Curry Mile has become my go to place to go grab food. Food there is so cheap and delicious, and also reminds me of home.

It has been a great year so far. I just want to take advantage of all the fun things I can do here while I can before the dreaded exam stress dawns upon me!

‘Til next time,

Ayesha

PS. This is my first time writing a blog post, so please bear with me until I get the hang of it!

PPS. I’m really sorry for not including many pictures! I would love to but I just switched my phones and have lost all of my photos. I will make sure to put them in next time!

Rachel’s First Year Blog

Hi guys!

Just thought I’d introduce myself! My name is Rachel; I’m studying Life Sciences with Industrial Experience and I’m a first year student here at The University of Manchester! I’ve officially been here for a bit over a month now and it’s ridiculous how much it feels like home! As in, I called my flat “home” the other day and experienced genuine guilt… but it really is! I was pretty anxious about making friends at uni but I needn’t have worried. It is physically amazing how fast you get to know people: from using Facebook to track down and talk to flatmates beforehand, meeting a ridiculous number of people on your course and in societies… you’ll always be met with a handshake or hug (or ridicule at the “Geordie language” I use in my case) as everyone is in the same boat!

I’m actually currently writing this blog post on the notes page of my iPhone in Oslo airport!! There’s a bit of a story… sooo my friend and I did a Jailbreak for RAG – the charity fundraising branch of the Student Union! The challenge was to get as far away from the university as possible without spending a penny in 30 hours; so we would have to rely on begging in the street, donations and free stuff. And after four free buses, a lovely conductor who got us on a train to Edinburgh, some very generous Scottish people and living off about three hours sleep over the two nights we slept in two different airports, we made it to Norway!!! … and then realized we had no food, warm clothes or a place to stay. It was a hilarious adventure though! And we managed to fundraise a lot of money for Breast Cancer Care; being the fourth furthest away team out of the nineteen taking part. It’s just one example of the many opportunities The University of Manchester gives you; the chance to be independent and try new things!

Me and my Jailbreak partner before the 30 hours commenced!

We hitch-hiked to Norway!

Living away from home has definitely been a new experience! It was scary at first but you come to love your flat and it really is your second home. We’ve even started planning our Christmas decorations! I was lucky in that I was given my first choice accommodation (we have double beds and en suites so feeling very grateful!!) but the worst thing is the chores… I’ve never been more grateful for the free Nandos and no washing up when my parents came to visit!

But there’s been so much to do around the uni and in Manchester itself; whether it was dressing up for the Neverland Festival for Pangaea, getting chased by zombies during Zombie Takeover or feeling very Harry Potter-like when looking around the beautiful John Ryland’s Library; you always discover new things to see and do! The other week some friends and I did a Café Crawl in the Northern Quarter of Manchester (a lot of cake was consumed and it was awesome). It’s just the quirkiest place. There were café’s with umbrella’s and fairy lights on the ceiling, and one that was simultaneously a bookshop, forest and type-writer-try-out place… so beautiful!

Ready for the Neverland themed Pangaea

Cafe crawl girls in the Northern Quarter

I have also been involved with some of the societies here. There are SO many! So much so that every week you discover new ones: a friend I made when going for my scuba-dive told me ‘Extreme Picnicking’ existed (like wow?!), and the other day we discovered the horrific screams in Whitworth Park were due to many people charging at each other with wooden swords – I think it was the Medieval Re-enactment society?!

Although I’ve enjoyed playing in the Wind Band and learning how to tackle my Quidditch friends (YES – QUIDDITCH EXISTS and it’s full of Harry Potter awesomeness!!) – my favourite society so far has been Mountaineering. One weekend we visited a place in the Peak District that had one of THE best outdoor crags for climbing and bouldering I’d ever seen – so many cliffs and amazing scrambles when you topped out – literal climbing heaven. And everyone is so lovely; it’s so easy to make friends with people who have a common interest in the same thing! We’ve already organised a climbing meal and have gone to the Athletics Union social dressed as bats. I go bouldering at Rockover Bouldering Centre on Mondays and belaying at Manchester Climbing Centre on Wednesdays that is stunning – it’s in an old converted church so you can climb really high routes, and then go bouldering in the cosy alcoves in the rafters.

Dressed at Bats for the AU social!

The Life Sciences course has been awesome so far; the other week was our first Labs session and we got to work with all these micropipettes (honestly, firing the tip from the pipette into a bucket is the most satisfying thing!!) to investigate properties of our blood and saliva. Plus, our ‘Genes, Evolution and Development’ lecture the other day was just UNREAL. We all came in and our lecturer said that if we’d printed out the slides yesterday evening they were wrong, because there’d been a new discovery overnight: in a cave in China, archaeologists had uncovered 47 human teeth that were 100,000 years old, showing that our ancestors left Africa in two waves; earlier than the known movement 60,000 years ago. How cool is that?! It was one of those inspiring moments when you can really see we are getting taught THE most up-to-date scientific research, and also that there are many things we still don’t know.

Well, I now have to say goodbye because we need to establish how we’re getting out of Norway and back to England… thank goodness it’s Reading Week! Until next time!! 😀

Rachel