This summer I followed the well-trodden footsteps of many past Brasenostrils and migrated from Oxford to the big lights of London. However, I was not stepping into the customary well-respected graduate job but embarking on another four whole years of university: this time as a post-graduate at Imperial College. My four years at Brasenose passed in a slightly sleep-deprived blur, owing to a hectic social life, dedication to rowing, and of course last minute working before deadlines. However, despite the haziness, some moments had a strong impact on my undergraduate experience; spending three summers working for UNIQ, the University’s access summer school, was one of these. Over the course of a week, sixth form students get to experience life as an Oxford student, complete with lectures, laboratory work and tutorials. As an 18-year old, arriving at Oxford University from a state school and finding that I fitted in and that my friends were equally as enthusiastic about their subjects as I was gave me a new found confidence. I hope that my work with UNIQ helped show other potential applicants that Oxford could be right for them too.
Having graduated in July after studying undergraduate Chemistry, I decided to change tack slightly and move to a more biological front, and so I find myself now at the end of my first term as a Chemical Biology PhD (+ MRes) student. As part of my undergraduate degree, I completed a year-long research project in my fourth year, known as a Part II research project. I was lucky enough to join the Kawamura group, focussing on a group of enzymes called histone demethylases, which I really enjoyed. Based in the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, this project gave me my first insight into chemical biology, and was instrumental in my decision to do a PhD.
I am now based in a Chemical Biology group in Imperial, supervised by Professor Ed Tate, where I will be using chemical probes to study the role of protein lipidation in a type of cell death called pyroptosis. As part of the Institute of Chemical Biology Centre for Doctoral Training, I started in a cohort of 18 students from various different research groups, and we have been rapidly attempting to learn some biology together.
Aside from studying I have so far still found plenty of time to keep up my hobbies: I have transformed from a hardened Brasenose Boat Club rower to an Imperial triathlete, and have also been coxing for Imperial College Boat Club. After rowing on the Thames in Oxford for four years, the extra space on the Tideway has been a nice change, even if it is a little choppy! The transition from Brasenose to Imperial has been an interesting one: gone are the hall cooked meals, the friendly cleaners, and the eight week terms; but instead I have gained the electric London lifestyle, the night tube, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of pint prices at different pubs.
By Cassandra Kennedy - former Chemistry undergraduate student