Student Profiles

Sridhar Vasudevan completed the MSc course in September 2005 and went on to study for a DPhil degree within the department. Approximately half of our students go on to undertake DPhil studies. Obtaining outstanding grades in the MSc, Sridhar was offered a place in pharmacology, studying NAADP mediated calcium signalling. “The amount of contact I had with a wide range of academic staff within the department was amazing,” Sridhar explained. “When I saw the work that Grant was doing with calcium signalling I was intrigued and was motivated to do well so that I could gain a scholarship. Now, I really enjoy the lab work and was very lucky to be able to continue my studies here.” Since completing his DPhil, Sridhar is now working as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department.

Alice Yu started the MSc course in 2004 and was offered the opportunity to conduct her research project at AstraZeneca. For four months Alice worked within the Cancer Research Area, investigating model systems for evaluating the performance of novel chemotherapeutics. Alice used this time to gain a wide range of experience in in-vivo pharmacology and to make contacts within the company. Recently, Alice was offered a permanent position at AstraZeneca. After completing her coursework Alice will be moving to Alderley Park to work within the Integrative Pharmacology Group under the Cardiovascular and Gastrointestinal Research Area. “I have always been interested in the pharmaceutical industry so the industrial research project was an ideal stepping-stone for me,” explained Alice. “I really enjoyed my time at AstraZeneca and felt it exposed me to another important side of pharmacology. The culture within the pharmaceutical company is quite different to academia and I really appreciated the opportunity to experience this first-hand. There were always people with expertise to guide and help me while I was there. The time at AstraZeneca solidified my interest in the industry as a whole and directly led to my applying for a post within the company. I highly recommend students who want to pursue a career in the industry to take up an industrial placement.”

Feedback from 2010/11 students:

“Valuable hands-on experience – theory and demonstrations can only go so far”

“In vivo teaching has been very useful”

“Good combination of theory and practice”

“Well organised”

“I really felt the course is very well organised and taught”

“Good support from teaching staff throughout the course”

“It’s a nice course and well equipped”

“Good explanations and help from supervisors”

“Lots of in vivo experience”

“Very good lectures”

“Plenty of time for experiments”

“Very friendly supervisor and staff”

“Broad range of lectures”

“You could actually see what was going on – it makes it easier to understand than reading textbooks”