Industrial placement student Review

My role is to carry out cellular and biochemical assays within the high throughput biology team. This involves lots of wet laboratory skills as well as data analysis and problem solving. Assay development involves forward planning, literature searching, optimisation, validation of results and data interpretation. Day-to-day, I also attend meetings, prepare for presentations, complete experiment write-ups and attend training courses.

I have learnt many new laboratory techniques in my placement. This includes: mammalian cell culture, aseptic technique, cell transfection, fluorescence imaging, antibody labelling, protein purification, gel electrophoresis, western blot, microscopy, and automated techniques. This doesn't include all the transferable skills gained from running assays like time-management, problem solving, organisation and data analysis. Furthermore, I think my communication and presentation skills have improved immensely from when I started due to lots of practice and great feedback from my team.

I believe I was given just the right amount of responsibility in my placement. I was able to plan, run and analyze experiments on my own time but my supervisor and team were always available to help. During my placement, I was able to develop my own assay with lots of collaboration from my team. Having this responsibility was slightly challenging but was very rewarding once I was able to see the results.

I received lots of support. I had weekly 1:1 meetings with my supervisor where I was able to share my results and voice any concerns I had in a space without judgement. My team has been really supportive, always happy to provide answers to questions and help out when problems arose in the lab. I also had a buddy in my wider team who I could go to if I had any issues.

I believe Vertex has a very inclusive and supportive atmosphere. There are great employee resource networks for women in science, people of racial and ethnic minority, and LGBTQ+ individuals. These groups organise events to celebrate different cultures and provide education for employees. The site has also shown commitment to improvement of psychological safety.

I really enjoyed my placement. Vertex is a great place to grow career development skills and this placement has given me a great insight into what a career in pharmaceutical research is like.

Yes

I would advice applicants to show enthusiasm and passion for the job, and also show off any specific skills and experience they may have.