Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 4)

Health Professional Researcher Profile: Dr Graham Blackman

14/05/2021 / Katie O'Keefe

Dr Graham Blackman, PhD Student at King’s College London

In this blog post we introduce you to one of our Health Professional Researchers (HPRs) at King’s, Dr Graham Blackman:

Graham is in the third year of his PhD funded by MRC, and is in his fourth year of specialty training in General Adult Psychiatry
Graham is based in the Department of Psychosis Studies within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
Graham’s working thesis title is The Association between Peripheral Markers of Inflammation and Clinical Outcomes in Psychosis

Graham, could you give us a brief summary of your route into a PhD, including previous research experience, and how this was funded?

I originally studied psychology at University before deciding to complete a graduate entry medicine degree. Prior to studying medicine, I had a couple of years of research experience under my belt which was really helpful in getting a flavour of what it was all about. Prior to taking time out of clinical training to complete a PhD, I was an academic clinical fellow (ACF) on the Maudsley Training Programme which provided 25% protected research time. I’ve long considered a career in research, so taking time out of clinical training when the opportunity arose felt natural.

What are your long-term ambitions for your clinical academic career?

After completing my PhD, I will be returning to clinical practice to complete my training and gain my Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT). I hope to continue having some protected research time during the rest of my clinical training to further several clinical studies that I’m involved in which look at improving clinical care in patients suffering with psychosis. Ultimately, my long-term ambition is to be able to balance a career as a clinician and academic.

What tips would you give to a clinician newly embarking on an out-of-programme research project e.g. a PhD or MD(Res)?

My main advice would be to gain research experience as early as possible. The time frame to conceive, plan, execute and publish a study is quite considerable and therefore careful planning is necessary. The other piece of advice I would give a budding clinical academic would be to seek out opportunities to work alongside a research team with a track record of securing grants and publishing in high impact journals.

What support has been most helpful to you in terms of navigating your clinical academic career to date?

In terms of formal support, being a clinical academic within the Maudsley and IoPPN has been hugely beneficial in providing the infrastructure, training, and support to navigate a rewarding, yet challenging career path. For example, through the ACF programme I was enrolled in a postgraduate certificate in clinical research, had protected research time, and dedicated training days. Informal support has also been critical – particularly in the form of advice and mentoring from other trainees, as well as more senior colleagues.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a clinical academic researcher?

This is entirely personal, but in my case it’s the opportunity to continue to learn and challenge myself – there are so many facets to research, from generating research ideas, to managing a project through to completion, to analysing the data and disseminating the results. Furthermore, the chance of making a contribution towards improving care in patients suffering a serious mental disorder is a huge privilege. Finally, my experience in clinical research has really helped improve me as a psychiatrist by gaining a much deeper understanding of the disorders I see on the wards and in clinic.

Shortlisted Submissions for the HSDTC Public Engagement Competitions 2021

05/05/2021 / Katie O'Keefe

Doctoral researcher students in the Health Sciences at King’s were invited to submit entries for the Public Engagement Competitions (The HSDTC Science Communication Competition and HSDTC Science Image Competition) for a chance to win £300 and be featured on our website and blog.

Five submissions for each competition were shortlisted and published in the brochure for the HSDTC Annual Research Symposium 2021.

This year, the Symposium took place entirely online via Microsoft Teams on the mornings of 29 and 30 April and the prize-winners of the Public Engagement Competitions were announced at an awards ceremony at the close of the event.

HSDTC Science Image Competition 2021

King’s doctoral research students were invited to submit a visual representation of their research. It needed to either convey the entirety of their research or an aspect of it.

We were looking for images which might explore the social impact that their research has on a global, population, or individual scale. They may be a true representation of the subject, or manipulated post-production, such as with false colouring; or they could show their research in a more abstract way.

Images could have shown, for example, the subject matter of their research, such as an image of cells or the brain, or research in action, for example the methods, equipment or facilities used in their research.

The judges were looking for images which are informative, captivating, and which clearly communicate the research being done. Entries could utilise many techniques, such as: photography; microscopy; medical imaging; new and emerging imaging techniques; data visualisation; artistic media.

Even with the added challenge of a limiting year of lockdowns, the students submitted a variety of creative images. The shortlisted submissions are available below, including our winner Lea Lortal, and runner-up, Andrew Doel:

Lea Lortal (winner)
Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

Doing a Lab-based PhD during a pandemic

In 2020-21, research in the lab has been complicated. From March 13th to July 5th, during the first UK lockdown, researchers worked from home, writing reviews and grants, reading as many papers as possible, and planning future experiments. But we still missed the lab. In my free time, I also played Animal Crossing New Horizons, a popular video game where you live on an exotic island and can build your home. On this game, I built my very own research lab and it made me joyful. Now, we’re back in the real lab, which is great, but conditions are more challenging than in the pre-COVID-19 world. Rotations, strict schedules, wearing masks all day and social distancing are part of it. But researchers are still doing their best to advance science and this image, I believe, captures an aspect of current lab research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Andrew Doel (runner-up),
Department of Women & Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine

New mother Breastfeeding, The Gambia

The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months postpartum and continued breastfeeding to two years or beyond, owing to its well established benefits for both mother and infant.

Exclusive breastfeeding reduces risk of infant mortality resulting from diarrhoea or other common illnesses. Further, it promotes healthy cognitive development and has been associated with reduced risk of later childhood and adult obesity. It is also beneficial for the mother in helping with child spacing and lessening the likelihood of breast and ovarian cancer.

This picture is of a mother enrolled in The Mothers Infant and Lactation Quality (‘MILQ’) study being conducted in The Gambia. This is her first child, and she has just received lactation counselling – provided as part of the MILQ study whose aim is to create reference values for nutrients and other constituents in human milk. These references will improve current estimates of micronutrient requirements across the first 9 months of lactation. They might also be used as an international reference against which to compare concentrations in different population groups and to evaluate the effects of nutritional interventions, such as maternal supplementation or national fortification programmes on breastmilk quality.

Levels of breastfeeding in The Gambia are good, largely due to it being a cost free form of nutrition for the infant, in a low income context. In recent years, however, urban regions of the country (such as where this picture was taken) have exhibited the beginnings of a ‘Nutrition Transition’, characterised by a move away from traditional diets in preference of westernised foods and altered dietary behaviours. One aspect of this transition is an increase in the use of formula milk and a shift away from WHO recommended practice. This shift highlights the importance and continued relevance of efforts to support adherence to the WHO guidelines.

Cathleen Hagemann (shortlisted)
Centre for Craniofacial & Regenerative Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

Axons of human iPSC derived motorneurons growing out of a neurosphere

Stem cell models allow us to recapitulate neurodevelopment in vitro and to investigate in depth the biological processes underlying neuronal function and neurodegeneration. However, conventional cell culture does not always resemble the highly specialised structure of neurons such as motorneurons. These cells establish long ranged connections with axons spanning over 1m in humans. Modelling axonal length would allow us to understand the specific constrains associated with length in health and disease. We develop a device to systematically investigate axonal length in vitro.

Therefore, we are investigating the growth behaviour of axons on different substrates. This image was taken in an experimental series to investigate the interaction between motorneuron-spheres and their substrate, in this case a silicon-based polymer. The neurons in this image were cultured for 7 days on the substrate and then antibody stained for beta-3-tubulin, a prominent axonal marker. This image was taken with a fluorescent microscope at 20x magnification and post processed in ImageJ using false colouring.

Melanie Le Sayec (shortlisted)
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine

Put some rainbows in your research!

Plasma samples being thawed on ice, in anticipation for sample preparation and analysis. Plasma samples have been previously collected as part of a human clinical trial investigating the impact of blueberry consumption on cardiovascular parameters. The purpose of this analysis is to identify and quantify specific molecules called (poly)phenols – present in blueberries – in the plasma. The final aim would be to understand the metabolism of blueberries following their ingestion. Photo (unmodified, only cropped) taken on the 26th of February 2021, in FWB (Waterloo campus).

Nicholas Merrild (shortlisted)
Centre for Craniofacial & Regenerative Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

When the Void Stares Back

Comprised of a web of highly dense, organised and beautiful rope-like structural proteins, collagen carries and distributes the tension of the loadbearing connective tissue of joints-articular cartilage (AC). If adult AC is fractured, or otherwise lacerated, regeneration is unlikely in adults and the tissue’s further decline inevitably leads to a condition known as osteoarthritis. What little repair can be done, is managed by the sole cell type found in AC –the chondrocyte. However, chondrocytes only comprise 5-10% of the tissue volume and live isolated lives in their lacunae –literally, a well–trapped in a dense matrix of the rope-like collagen fibres.

Using a juvenile pig AC wound model in vitro, we can successfully observe repair after injury. To understand the injury response, we can image the dense collagen network surrounding the cell. Having ruled out the generation of new collagen, collagen cross-linkers, or any macro molecules generally associated with aiding cross-linking, we stumbled upon the absurd observation that a protein generally only associated with advancing osteoarthritis, may play an active role in repair. Upon confirming its importance, we aim to leverage this protein for tissue engineering strategies. So, after years of staring into the deep dark void of the well, it now stares back at us…and it is absurd.

Using scanning electron microscopy, this image (width just under 25μm; ~1/40^th of a millimetre) shows a single chondrocyte embedded in a dense nest of collagen fibres averaging ~100nm (~1/10,000thof a millimetre!) in diameter. The original black/white image was false coloured in photoshop, and brightness and contrast were adjusted, and finally googly eyes were added to produce the final image submitted.

Disclaimer: googly eyes are not naturally found on chondrocytes, added for artistic purposes only.

HSDTC Science Communication Competition 2021

PhD students undertook the challenge of submitting a short ‘newspaper style’ article about a research project they were currently involved in (or an aspect of it). The article is aimed at a non-expert audience and had to be engaging and understandable for an interested member of the public.

The judges were looking for articles which: are compelling to read and easily understandable; clearly explain the research being done; answer the question “why does this research matter?”; and are worthy of publication in a national newspaper.

Five fascinating submissions were shortlisted, including the winning submission by Elisa Brann, and the runner-up, Simon Lam:

Elisa Brann (winner)
Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

A little magic in science: exploring psychosis using hypnosis

Psychosis is a devastating condition that involves perceiving things that are not really there (hallucinations) or believing things that are not really true (delusions). Approximately 5% of people who experience psychosis commit suicide, making it one of the deadliest psychiatric conditions you can have. Whilst it is usually treated using anti-psychotic medication, sadly, one in four people do not see improvements.

One way of developing new therapies for psychosis is by understanding what is happening in the brain as it happens. But conducting brain imaging on these individuals is no simple task. Someone in the midst of a psychotic episode is usually far too unwell to take part in research. How then can we ever understand what’s going on?

Researchers at King’s College London have come up with an innovative way of tackling this issue – they conduct their brain imaging on healthy people who have been hypnotised to have psychotic experiences.

Hypnosis describes a scenario in which an individual enters a subjective state where alterations of perception can be caused by verbal instructions, known as suggestions. Many people are sceptical about hypnosis, often associating it with magic. But it is a very real phenomenon that can result in very powerful experiences. It has a long history of being used as an alternative to traditional anaesthetics, even during brain surgery!

By carefully crafting suggestions for a select group of people who are particularly hypnotizable, the researchers at King’s College London have been able to create many different kinds of psychotic symptoms. These include auditory verbal hallucinations (‘hearing voices’), delusions of control (when you believe someone else is controlling your body) and thought insertion (when you believe someone else is putting thoughts in your mind).

Now that they have been able to reliably produce these experiences, the research team are beginning to document what is happening in the brain as they happen. They hope that in doing so they will open a window into how psychosis works and ultimately unlock new ways of treating it. Sometimes you need to think outside the box in science, sometimes you need a little magic.

Simon Lam (runner-up)
Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

Fishing for an Alzheimer’s cure – how researchers use zebrafish to study the brain
It turns out that fish really is good for your brain – but not how you might think.

The common adage that fish is brain food is undisputed. It is well established that eating fish and taking fish oil capsules are good for the brain. But researchers have found another way that our scaly friends help our brains, and it doesn’t involve eating them.

Scientists studying Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s at King’s College London have found that old age affects zebrafish brains in similar ways as it does humans. They found that as the zebrafish age, the amount of retinoid in the brain decreases. This is the same as what they observed in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients.

“Retinoids are molecules associated with anti-ageing,” explains Simon Lam, a second-year PhD student at the Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions. “We get them through our diet by eating foods like carrots and broccoli. But they’re also found in anti-ageing formulas and acne creams.”

It might not seem too surprising that known anti-ageing molecules should crop up when studying ageing, says the group. But it does help unlock the link between brain ageing and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“And that’s what makes this finding so exciting. Old age is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, but it’s unclear how that works. What we’re trying to do here is tease out the changes in our brain in old age, and that’s why we’re using the zebrafish. We have fast and slow ageing fish, which should be able to tell us more about those changes.”

But when asked if eating more carrots is the cure to Alzheimer’s, the team says it isn’t so simple.

“What makes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s so difficult to treat is that patients have highly variable responses to treatment. A treatment that works on one patient may or may not work on another. These are open questions we’re trying to answer: can we form groups of patients for which a specific treatment will work? And can we sort patients into the right group?”

William Edwards (shortlisted)
Centre for Craniofacial & Regenerative Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

Just go with the flow! Microfluidics in cell therapy production.

Cell therapy is a revolutionary concept in medical science, whereby living cells are administered to an individual, often by injection, in order to treat a specific disease. An example of this is CAR T-cell therapy, where cells of the immune system are extracted from the blood of a cancer patient and genetically edited to recognise cancer cells. They are then re-infused back into the patient where they will target and attack malignant tumours.

CAR T-cell therapy was approved in the UK in 2017 and has since been touted as one of the most important advances in cancer research in the 21st century. Despite its ability to induce complete remission in up to 90% of patients, it is currently not used as a first-line treatment as a result of the high cost for the NHS. The complex multi-step manufacturing process, requiring specialist equipment and expensive reagents, is reflected in the high price-point of £280,000 per individual.

In order to drive down CAR T-cell therapy manufacturing costs, researchers at King’s College London are attempting to use microfluidic technology in the CAR T-cell manufacturing process. Defined as the manipulation of fluids on a micro-scale, this technology has the potential to signficantly reduce costs by processing cells using a fraction of the reagents that are required with conventional methods. In addition, microfluidic approaches could also provide a higher degree of process stability and control. Typically, around 10% of patients who are eligible for the treatment do not receive it, as a result of errors in the manufacturing process. By allowing the automation of certain processes, this approach could reduce variability and human-related error, resulting in a better-quality product.

With the ambition of developing a single hand-held device to perform all of the operations of an entire laboratory required for the manufacturing process, this technology could overcome financial barriers and ultimately make CAR T-cell therapy accessible to more individuals.

Melanie Le Sayec (shortlisted)
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine

Aronia: a “berry” good ally for your health!

Have you ever heard of aronia berry, a fruit coming from North America and looking like a small dark blueberry? Probably not, yet this berry is becoming of interest in the nutritional research field. Indeed, due to its high concentration in (poly)phenols – a family of molecules present in all plant-based foods and demonstrating benefits on various chronic diseases including cancer – numerous human trials have decided to investigate the potential of aronia on cardiovascular health. Indeed, several experiments have revealed the ability of aronia (poly)phenols to significantly improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels following daily consumption of aronia extract.

Recently, a study led by researchers from King’s College London examined the impact of the berry on arterial stiffness, a parameter increasing naturally with age and related to the rigidity of our blood vessels. Their study consisted in a human trial involving more than 100 healthy middle-aged men and women who took 1 capsule per day for 12 weeks, containing either aronia (poly)phenols or a placebo. Investigators performed some measurements including arterial stiffness at baseline and after the intervention, and they compared the results to evaluate the effects of the berry extract. After 12 weeks of intake, they observed that subjects consuming aronia (poly)phenols had significantly decreased arterial stiffness, implying an improvement of their cardiovascular health.

As cardiovascular diseases account for more than 25% of the overall deaths in the UK each year, the beneficial effects of aronia berry on vascular health could help relieve the socio-economic burden associated to the incidence of these pathologies. Besides, although aronia berries are not widely available in the UK yet, the same beneficial (poly)phenols can be found in various foods, from the blueberries you have for breakfast to a satisfying glass of red wine. A great excuse to increase your intake in (poly)phenols!

Lea Lortal (shortlisted)
Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences

Fighting a global health threat: fungal infections

Fungal infections affect 1 billion people worldwide and kill 1.5 million individuals every year. Yet, they are still extremely underestimated and understudied. Currently, there are no vaccines against fungal infections.

The most common human fungal infections are nail & skin infections, and thrush. They are treatable with antifungals, but can be distressing and there is no preventative treatment. Vaginal thrush is a major problem: 3 out of 4 women will suffer from it at least once in their lifetime. Many will also experience painful recurring episodes.

The main cause of thrush? The fungus Candida albicans.

Candida albicans is also responsible for severe bloodstream infections in people with a weakened immune system and hospitalised patients. These are extremely challenging to treat and reach mortality rates of 50%.

So, what kind of research is being done?

In 2016, researchers from the Naglik laboratory at King’s College London discovered a toxin produced by Candida albicans. The toxin physically and chemically damages human cells during an infection and causes inflammatory symptoms. They named it ‘candidalysin’.

Since then, research has been focused on understanding the exact mechanisms by which candidalysin damages human cells. By investigating how candidalysin works, we may be able to find ways to block its activity and thus decrease Candida albicans’ ability to cause diseases.

What are the next steps?

The discovery of candidalysin creates a new field of science, by being the first toxin of its kind to ever be discovered in a disease-causing fungus. Further research will allow us to better understand fungal diseases, and to develop novel diagnoses and therapies. Most importantly, this could also lead to the development of one of the first fungal vaccines ever.

Understanding candidalysin gives us hope to significantly reduce the suffering and death of millions of people worldwide.

PhDeets Podcast – Talking about all things PhD

04/05/2021 / Jo Stephenson

Blog post by Carolin Oetzmann, Katie White & Nicol Bergou.

The PhD Journey can be a turbulent one – from finding the right program to navigating supervisor struggles, and all the madness in between! PhDeets is a podcast aimed at current and prospective PhD students to share experiences and help those trying to figure it out.

About the hosts

Carolin

We are three researchers working and studying at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. Each of us are in a different stage of our PhD journey. Katie is in her second year of a part-time PhD, alongside a research assistant role. Nicol is in her first year of a 1+3 programme funded by the Medical Research Council. Carolin is due to start her MRC funded PhD in September 2021, after contemplating whether doing a PhD was the right next step for her.

Nicol

All three of us are the first in our families to do a PhD and we struggled to make sense of the different PhD programmes, funding options, application processes, career pathways and other things that are difficult to figure out without having a friend or relative who can answer your questions along the way. There is information online, but we wanted to create a platform where diverse student voices could be heard. Being avid podcast listeners, we decided to start a podcast ourselves.

Katie

About PhDeets

PhDeets is the podcast we wish we had when we were applying for our PhDs. Its target audience is current PhD students at all stages, as well as people who are deciding whether or not to apply, or those currently going through the ups and downs of the application process. We interview current PhD students, postdocs, lecturers, professors, people who left academia during or after their PhDs, those who are recruiting people with PhDs into industry positions, career advisers and really anyone who has any useful insights into the academic journey.

Previous episodes

We use our experiences to inform the topics we cover, but we also reach out to people to ask what topics they’d like to hear about. Some of our previous episodes are:

Neurodiversity at university – Panel discussion of neurodivergent researchers Claire, Katrina and Sheila about what being neurodivergent means to them, how it impacts their university life, what support they find helpful, diagnosis and labels, and more.
Luke’s journey to becoming a lecturer – We interviewed Luke Devereux, a lecturer at Middlesex University about his journey from PhD to becoming a lecturer, changing topics between undergrad ad postgrad, getting teaching experience, and balancing teaching and research responsibilities.
More than one way to do a PhD – Another panel discussion with PhD students Jaya, Shaheim, Victoria and Fiyory about the differences and similarities between their PhD programmes, including a partnership with the industry, self-funded PhD, 1+3 programmes, student versus supervisor driven applications, our reasons for doing a PhD, and applying for funding as an international student in the UK.

If you’d like to propose a topic for a future episode, or get in touch about anything to do with the podcast, you can message us on Twitter @PhDeets_podcast or you can email us at podcast@phdeets.com

You can find the podcast on our website phdeets.com or wherever you get your podcast.

Health Professional Researcher Profile: Ms Tootie Bueser

19/04/2021 / Katie O'Keefe

Ms Tootie (Teofila) Bueser, HEE/NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow and PhD Student at King’s College London

In this blog post we introduce you to one of our Health Professional Researchers (HPRs) at King’s, Tootie (Teofila) Bueser:

Tootie is in the fourth year of her PhD and is a HEE/NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow
Tootie is a Registered Nurse, whose clinical specialty is Inherited Cardiac Conditions, and she is based at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care
Tootie’s thesis title is Developing a psychoeducational intervention to support patients undergoing screening and/or predictive genetic testing for inherited cardiac conditions (the PISICC study)

Tootie, could you give us a brief summary of your route into a PhD, including previous research experience, and how this was funded?

I have always wanted to pursue a research career even as a nursing undergraduate. As a nurse who trained in a different country (the Philippines), I did not find a supportive environment for this when I started working in the UK. It wasn’t until I was mentored five years down the line by a senior nurse and championed by a cardiology consultant to pursue an MSc that the pathway to a clinical academic career became a possibility for me. I was then nurtured and supported in the cardiovascular and genetics departments at King’s College Hospital and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital which gave me a taster for conducting primary research. I was also becoming more advanced in my clinical practice as a cardiac genetics nurse and identifying gaps in care where evidence was sparse and where I felt I could make a difference. With the guidance of my academic supervisors at KCL, I was able to develop a successful application for the NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship.

What are your long-term ambitions for your clinical academic career?

I have grand plans to set the standard for cardiac genetic nursing practice, have a research group of my own and forge international research collaborations focused on improving the care of patients and families affected by inherited cardiac conditions – maybe one day! I also want to inspire more nurses to pursue the clinical academic career pathway and be a good mentor for them.

What tips would you give to a clinician newly embarking on an out-of-programme research project, such as a PhD or MD(Res)?

I think it is important to have a good balance of research and clinical time. As nurses, we are already qualified so it is key to focus on honing research skills during the PhD but we also need to keep in mind what we need to maintain, or if needed increase, our clinical skills and knowledge. Do not lose touch with your clinical team and set up a patient and public group to guide your research so you are always aware of what is important to patients. Be out there, meet a range of people from different research backgrounds who will not only enhance your academic experience but perhaps turn out to be great collaborators on future projects. On a practical note, get your ethics application in early!

What support has been most helpful to you in terms of navigating your clinical academic career to date?

My academic supervisors have been great at supporting me through my PhD so choose well! It is also crucial that you get support from your clinical team/management as often as nurses, you must work with them to define your role post-PhD and how to make best use of your new skills. Also, find mentors outside your institution/profession as often they can be helpful in achieving your short-term goals and give you a broader view and opportunities for your clinical academic career.

Finally, I don’t think I could have survived this far without the support of my PhD peer group and we have helped each other navigate forms and regulations, I always have someone to lean on through all sorts of ups and downs and we cheer each other on with our successes. Doing a PhD can be quite isolating so having a peer group, alongside quality time with family and friends, counteracts this.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a Health Professional Researcher?

I think being a clinical academic gives you a mindset where you are always actively looking for ways to improve patient care and I think as a nurse, I have a unique insight on how patients experience care and cope with their condition. I find it really rewarding to be able to work collaboratively with patients to design and conduct research that is pertinent to them and to be able to impact on their care more widely that goes beyond an individual consultation.

Meet Mihai Pruna, a King’s PhD student tutoring for The Brilliant Club.

28/01/2021 / Jo Stephenson

Are you a PhD student who is interested in gaining teaching experience? The Brilliant Club recently caught up with one of their Scholars Programme tutors, Mihai Pruna, to find out more about his experience as a tutor and his role in contributing towards fair access.

What is your PhD thesis topic?

My PhD is on changes in structure and signalling at the intercalated disc, after adrenergic signalling.

When did you apply to be Scholars Programme tutor?

I applied to be a tutor in January 2020.

How many placements have you done? Which schools have you taught at?

I have taught at two schools, The Compton School and Friern Barnet School, both in North London.

What courses have you taught? Have you designed your own course based on your own research?

I have taught two courses, ‘Disease detectives’, the pre-designed Key Stage 3 course (teaching year 7/8s), and my own course, ‘Can we mend a broken heart?’ which is Key Stage 4 (year 9 and 10s).

What made you want to apply to be a Scholars Programme tutor?

In school, I had some amazing teachers who inspired me throughout my own learning journey – giving back and sharing my passion for science with the younger generation really appealed to me.

What has been the most rewarding moment of your Scholars Programme placements so far?

There were a couple specific moments. For example, I remember when teaching the diseases detectives course, one of my pupils was so captivated by the discovery of penicillin and its mechanism of action, they overwhelmed me with questions I didn’t even think about before. But rewarding moments happen in every tutorial, seeing students progressing, each at their own pace.

Tell us a bit more about being a Scholars Programme tutor. Has it helped in your development as a research student?

Yes, being part of this programme has definitely helped my presentation skills. As a research student you get few chances to speak in front of an audience, so it has been an amazing opportunity to extend these skills. But this programme goes well beyond your professional development, it also strikes a chord with your own feelings of empathy, sympathy, and kindness. It’s encouraged me to become more empathic and understanding towards the individual needs of pupils. The Scholars Programme community too, has provided me with a source of continuous support from day one.

How do you think you have made a difference to pupils as a Scholars Programme tutor?

I hope I made the pupils think a little bit more about the world around us and particularly, in the middle of a viral pandemic, about viruses and other infectious diseases. I also hope I managed to increase their confidence in their own abilities. The harsh reality is that as students grow older, it might get harder to instil in them a passion for learning. But it is not impossible! Some of the students who complained the most, wrote the best essays!

Do you have any advice for someone looking to apply to work as a Scholars Programme tutor?

The Scholars Programme is an amazing opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people and be part of a friendly and supportive community. Not to mention it is a time machine to take you back to your school years from a slightly different perspective!

The Brilliant Club is an award-winning university access charity. They recruit and train doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to deliver programmes of university-style teaching to pupils in schools that serve under-represented communities. They work in partnership with universities and schools across the UK; to date around 2000 researchers have worked as PhD tutors, including many from King’s College London. Tutors can be involved in The Scholars Programme, where they create and teach a course based on their own research, or The Brilliant Tutoring Programme, carrying out curriculum based tuition as part of the national Covid catch-up scheme. Throughout, they are supported by the Researcher Development Programme which develops 4 key competencies; Teaching and Pedagogy, Communication and Public Engagement, Professional and Career Development, and Fair Access. If you’d like to find out more about these paid teaching opportunities, you can contact The Brilliant Club.