Introduction
Hi, my name is Negin Kamyar and I am a 2nd
year PhD student at University of Manchester. I am doing my PhD in Biomedical
materials and I am a part of Bio-Active Materials group headed by Dr. Jonny
Blaker.
So, about my background - I did my bachelor’s
in biomedical engineering in Azad Tehran University. During my bachelor’s, I
worked on fabrication of skin patches for wound healing. As I was getting to
know my research interest more and more in the biomedical field, I became more passionate
to discover new things in my field. To further progress and improve in my field,
I decided to apply to University of Manchester to study my Master’s. I
successfully got accepted to study Biomaterials at University of Manchester and
I graduated with distinction. During my master’s project I worked on the fabrication
of three-dimensional (3-D) materials composed of polymers and two-dimensional
(2-D) materials for bone regeneration. Since I was very excited about my master’s
project, I decided to start my PhD in Biomedical Material and continue my
research with more passion and time. My research is focused on the fabrication
of 3-D bone implants which can be degraded over time so that the body’s new
tissue can replace the degraded implant. These materials can be used for bone
fractures and patients with osteoporosis.
So far, my PhD has been great. I published
one paper in the ACS applied nanomaterials journal and I also presented my work
to one of the biggest world conferences “Material Research Society (MRS)” in
Boston. Participation in this conference gave me the chance to meet a lot of
researchers around the world and learn new things in my field and share my
research with them. I am looking forward to new achievements and opportunities
during my PhD research.
In Depth…
When I was a child, I was always very keen on
studying medicine in the future due to having a strong feeling and passion for
helping people’s lives. My main inspiration in my life was my family who have always
supported me to follow my dreams, since I was a child, and still support me
today. While studying at school I was very enthusiastic about biomedical science
and my parents bought me many science related books which helped me to be sure that
it was what I wanted to do. I remember, when I was in the final year of high
school, I met one of our family friends, who was doing research on heart stents
and I had very long conversation with her about this field. After that day, I
started reading more about the different applications of biomedical devices and
I became more and more interested in inventing biomedical devices to improve
humans’ lives. So, my dream towards medicine always stayed in my mind, but its direction changed to a more
interesting and challenging field for me as biomedical engineer. During my
bachelor’s, I worked on the fabrication of skin patches for wound healing and I
presented my work in an international conference in Poland. One year after
getting my bachelor’s degree, I successfully collaborated in publishing an
academic book in Persian called “Nanomaterial in Biomedical Engineering” with
my supervisor. During my master’s at Manchester University, I found I was more
interested in the topic of bone implants because of current challenges in this
field. In my master’s project, I worked on the fabrication of a 3-D fibre-based
scaffold for potential bone regeneration which could be degraded over time.
Since I was fascinated by my Master’s project,
I decided to continue the topic for my PhD. So, I am currently a second year
PhD student and absolutely love my research with all its challenges and
adventures. My project is a multidisciplinary topic which focuses on the fabrication
of tissue scaffolds with different techniques. These scaffolds are 3-D structures
which are composed of polymers and two-dimensional materials which can mimic
the natural bone’s tissue. These 3-D scaffolds are integrated with biological
factors and cells to mimic the physiological environment. In the physiological
environment, these scaffolds can degrade over time and stimulate the formation
of new tissue. The main aim of this research is finding a new way to help
patients who are suffering from bone fractures and osteoporosis.
Now, I am almost midway through my PhD and I
still absolutely love my research. I find every day challenging and adventurous
for myself. I definitely can say that research is an unlimited area, that every
day I learn and discover new things in my field. Beside doing my research, I
also help other bachelor’s and master’s students in the lab with their projects
which makes me feel more excited about continuing my own research in my field to
a higher level. I have to say that that I am very thankful to all my parents’
support that gave me lots of opportunity to experience an amazing adventure in
my life.
Figure 1 3-D scaffold for bone
regeneration.Going Further…
If you are interested in reading my
paper, please visit the website: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsanm.8b00938?af=R
If you are interest in finding more
information about the biomaterial and our group, please visit the websites: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/jonny.blaker.html and https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/david.lewis-4.html
If you are interested in perusing
Materials sciences, please visit the website: http://www.materials.manchester.ac.uk/
We also have a school blog which
details life as a materials student and interviews a range of students and
lecturers: http://www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/uommaterialsblog/
Introduction
‘Brexit means Brexit!’. The words of the
former Prime Minister, Theresa May, in June 2016, on the steps of the UK
Parliament. But what does Brexit mean?
Hello, my name is Adam. I’m a first year
History PhD student here at The University of Manchester and my research aims
to understand the historical origins of euro-scepticism in the UK. The
2016 referendum produced a political crisis. The Vote Leave campaign narrowly
‘won’ 51.9 to 49.1 on a turnout of 72%. Questions of what it means to be a
member of the EU, a member of The Conservatives, and much more broadly the
British democratic system have been thrown into focus.
For me, my interest in political history was
sparked at a young age. I grew up with the backdrop of the Iraq War — campaigning
as a part of the ‘Stop the War’ coalition. I was able to see how Politics has
the ability to reshape our world, for better and for worse. Understanding the
decisions taken in Westminster – and in constituencies – is therefore important
for me.
In Depth...
I am at the beginning of my research into euro-scepticism
but already there are some important questions that have emerged. For example,
why did the UK government, at the time, decide to use an open-question
referendum rather than, say, a referendum on specific outcomes? Euro-scepticism
is a subject that crosses traditional political boundaries but why? How far did
‘political education’, or lack of education, play in the mind of the voter? Did
one group particularly benefit from worries of Europeanism? How far did the
media present an unquestioning approach to scare stories?
I am in a slightly unusual position to be studying Brexit.
As a historian, there is a tendency to look to events that are settled,
although may be contested by historians! Yet, with the near daily developments
with the UK’s exit from the European Union there is a wealth of new material
emerging. This helps keep my research current, but it also throws up its own
challenges in how I approach the topic.
Understanding political decisions is important for me. I
returned to Manchester to complete a Master’s Degree (immediately before this
Ph.D.) after a number of years in the ‘professional world’. It gave me an
insight into the concerns and ambitions of businesses, yet I knew that I wanted
to further explore my curiosity for History. After decided that I would leave
my job, I quickly rediscovered my love of learning and had a wonderful
opportunity to meet some amazing people (both academics and friends) who
encouraged me to pursue my interest in historical politics further.
Ultimately, I would really like my project to contribute to
a much more detailed understanding of how and why political decisions are
taken. In this, I hope to contribute through various policy platforms and forums
with the aim of ensuring that regional voices are included as much as ‘dominant
narratives’ of the ‘Westminster Bubble’.
Going further…
Looking for further information about Brexit can feel a
little overwhelming, trust me. However, understanding the origins of
euro-scepticism allows us to narrow the field a little and there are some
brilliant resources and blogs which help unpack the subject. For my experience,
an excellent starting place is the ‘Britain in a Changing Europe’ Research
Project run by Professor Anand Menon (https://ukandeu.ac.uk/).
As an academic resource, it is thoroughly fact-checked and many of the
contributors regularly appear in the media.
For a little further clarification of key terms and some of
the ideas often discussed alongside Brexit (such as sovereignty, trade policy,
and the Northern Irish ‘backstop’) see the London School of Economics and
Political Science Brexit Blog (https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/).
Another resource that I regularly use is the BBC’s fantastic ‘Brexitcast’ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05299nl).
Presented as a podcast (although now on TV as well) the podcast is a really
informal way to get the inside track on news and gossip from the UK and Europe.
Introduction
Hi there, my name is Leonie
Brinkmann. I am a German pharmacist and started my PhD at the University of
Manchester about two years ago. I work in the field of health economics. Health
economics is a branch of economics that tries to evaluate health care services
or new medications from an economic perspective without neglecting the value of
health. This combines a medical background knowledge, data analysis and
statistics. I myself, for example, focus on patient safety. Using big data sets of electronic health
records I try to identify specific patients with medication errors to see how
many of the medication errors lead to harm for the patient.
In Depth…
I am a pharmacist by background and
did my undergraduate at the University of Heidelberg. Pharmacy is a great
subject that combines biology, chemistry, physiology and pharmacology. I was
always interested in medicines and diseases, but I cannot see blood. So
studying medicine was off the table, but pharmacy happened to be the prefect
trade off!
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I enjoyed my
undergraduate a lot, but it included long hours in the laboratory. Lab work was
never something I enjoyed. I found it rather boring… But luckily as pharmacist
you have loads of other opportunities in community pharmacies, industry,
hospital or research.
I was very lucky to get a job as
clinical pharmacist in a hospital. My main objective was to increase patient
safety on the wards. I had a great time going from ward to ward, identifying
patients with medication errors, and telling the doctors or nurses off that
made the error. It always felt a bit
like being the safety police of the hospital.
But at some point I felt like I
wanted to study again, I wanted to learn something new and be challenged a bit
more. That’s when I decided to do a PhD. I found a great project that took the
work I was doing in the hospital on a small scale to another level. Before I
was looking through the patient’s health records by hand, now I am evaluating a
computer programme that automatically screens all electronic health records of
a patient and identifies medication errors. The pharmacists does not need to
screen each patient, but can focus on how to communicate medication errors to
the responsible doctor.
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The burden of
medication errors is estimated to be about £89.1 million per year for the NHS.
This highlights how important it is for the NHS to invest in programmes that
aim to reduce medication errors. But
unfortunately, the NHS does not have endless money to fund great ideas like
this. That’s where health economics becomes interesting, because we can show
the value of money of the new computer programme. To do so I am using
electronic health records from GP-practices and hospitals to investigate the
relationship between medication errors, patient harm and costs. Quantifying the
burden of medication errors enables us to estimate the true value for money of
the computer programme. Results on the value for money of such programmes aims
to aid decision making by policy makers on
whether to fund such programmes or not.
So if you like numbers, you are not
scared of statistics and you want to make the NHS a bit safer, this is the
perfect opportunity for you!
Going Further…
Learn more about Pharmacy https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/pharmacy/
Little introduction video to understand what health
economics is about (only 3 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUay9DV__G0
Learn more about what we do as health economists in our
newsletter http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/healtheconomics/MCHENewsletter/
What are electronic health records that I use in my PhD
project https://www.ehealthireland.ie/Strategic-Programmes/Electronic-Health-Record-EHR-/
Why are health records important for research?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNbe3-d3KdQ
Introduction
Hi, my name is James, I am a second
year PhD researcher in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Manchester and
I make drugs. To put that statement into context, I make drugs targeting the
biological process of inflammation which is involved in diseases such as
Alzheimer’s.
My research group are interested in
targeting the aptly named ‘inflammasome’ using small molecules. We hope that
these small molecule inhibitors might one day be able to treat diseases which
involve inflammation, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is
something that everyone is aware of. And it’s only going to become more common
– we are all living a lot longer than we used to, which means that age-related
diseases are on the rise. That’s why I think that the work that we do is really
important!
In Depth…
I studied at the University of York
where I graduated with a first class MChem degree in Chemistry (with a year in
industry), taking my fourth and final year on an industrial placement at LifeArc
in Stevenage. LifeArc is where I first started working in the field of
medicinal chemistry, and it is the year I spent there which inspired me to
continue in that area. There is something amazing about manipulating molecules
to make ones that have never been made before. Chemistry is a lot like cooking
in your kitchen, albeit with a few more pieces of safety equipment, and without
licking the spoon at the end…
On a typical day, I will spend most
of my time in the lab – setting up reactions, as well as analysing and
purifying them. I will never get bored of the fact that I am playing around
with electrons to form new bonds… and mixing two coloured liquids together to
give a sparkly white solid will always be absolute magic to me.
Going Further…
For those interested in learning a
bit more about everyday chemistry and how it impacts on your life, take a look
at the ‘Exploring Everyday Chemistry’ twitter pages or even sign up for a free
online course. This will help to expand your everyday chemistry knowledge, and
with the brilliant Professor Andy Parsons as your guide, you will have no
choice but to get excited about chemistry! (https://www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/news/deptnews/free-online-course-eedc/)
For the latest on Alzheimer’s
research and news, look no further than the Twitter feeds for the Alzheimer’s
Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK (https://twitter.com/ARUKnews)
The University of Manchester has a
huge range of exciting research – I would really suggest taking a look at the
UoM Research Hive for approachable and jargon-free updates on the work of
postgraduates (like me!) at the University. (https://twitter.com/UomHive)
For all the latest news from all
areas of science, take a look at the New Scientist twitter feed. (https://twitter.com/newscientist)
Introduction
My name is Charlotte Coull, and I’m a third year PhD student
at the University of Manchester in the History Department. I did both my
undergraduate degree and my Master’s degree at Manchester before being lucky
enough after applying to be offered funding by the History department to
complete my PhD here.
I look comparatively at the history of archaeology in India
and Egypt in the nineteenth century. Many people walk away with the idea that I
am an archaeologist when I first explain my topic to them - however I am most
definitely a historian and there is
no digging involved in my work!
In depth
One of the most interesting things about research is that
your topic and focus can change over time; as you read more, you become more
aware of what has already been said about your subject, and most importantly
you start to see different ways of looking at things and different ideas to
pull out of your original material. This sounds intimidating, and you do need
to be careful that you eventually find a path and stick with it (otherwise you
will never get any work done!), but it can also be exciting. You have the
opportunity to create something completely unique that will stand out from the
crowd!
When I started my PhD, I knew I wanted to look at
archaeology over a broad time and I knew I wanted my project to be comparative.
My idea was to look for changes over time whilst looking at how and
archaeologists reacted differently to what they found in India and Egypt - did
they prefer Egyptian artefacts to Indian ones for example? All that hasn’t
really changed. But what I have done is focused on stone.
Nineteenth century archaeologists in both countries
discovered lots of things, including bones and pottery, but it was stone that
really caught their attention in the form of temples, tombs, monuments and
megaliths. Stone can be hundreds, maybe thousands, of years old; it can be in
ruins or almost perfect; it can be huge, intimidating and strange because the
people that used it, the people who built things from it in ancient times, are
gone and cannot explain it. Take a look at the images here: this is the stone
nineteenth century archaeologists would have found in India and Egypt, but unlike
today they did not have technology like radiocarbon dating to tell them how old
it was. They often did not know who built things or how.
Three years ago, I didn’t know this. I had not done the
reading that told me that archaeologists in the 1800s were so perplexed by
stone - it was only as my project progressed that I started to notice this and
plan my work around it. Now my whole PhD thesis is looking at how
archaeologists knew what they knew about Indian and Egyptian stone - or what
they didn’t know.
To do this I work mainly with published material from the
nineteenth century. I look at the language archaeologists used to talk about
the sites they studied and the information they presented in these books and
journal articles to their fellow archaeologists. If an archaeologist has
written about how he found Indian temples confusing because they look so
different to what he is used to in Britain, then it’s in my work; if an
archaeologist has written about how amazingly old the Egyptian pyramids are and
how spectacular it is to look at something so ancient, then it’s in my work.
History is a subject with so much potential to let you get
creative and push the boundaries - your work can evolve with your thinking and
reflect your changing interests!
Going further
http://trowelblazers.com/ - a wonderful website with blog
posts about female pioneers in archaeology and other science fields. Click on
the articles tab and explore! I would particularly recommend Hilda Petrie and
Adela Catherine Breton.
http://www.asi.nic.in/ - not many people know much about
India's archaeological history. This is the website of the Archaeological
Survey of India- take a look at the 'photo gallery' tab and check out the
massive variety of Indian archaeological sites!
