Find out more about the MRes in Biomedical Research and apply

Meet our Dean's Prize winners

The Faculty of Medicine Dean's Prizes are awarded every year to the students who achieve the highest overall distinction grade on their Master's course.

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MRes Biomedical Research (EECID) - Samuel Horsfield

What did you most enjoy about your course? 

I enjoyed the breadth of options available for projects, and the flexibility within each project. This enabled me to follow a unique path of research that I could tailor depending on what my academic interests were, and which skills I wanted to develop.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College? 

The approachability and eagerness of all staff to help, whether they were my supervisor, members of my research group, or other members of the Faculty.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize? 

I am honoured to receive the Dean's Prize. The students on this course and across Imperial are exceptional, and so to have been awarded this prize makes me proud of my own efforts, and incredibly thankful for the time and patience my supervisors have provided to me throughout the year.

What are you doing now/ What do you plan on doing after graduation? 

I am now starting a PhD in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College, continuing work started in my Master's. 

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MRes in Biomedical Research (Data Science Stream) - Mingze Gao

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The course and research projects I could choose are from various fields, thus it could suit your needs and interests. Those two research projects that I conducted are an invaluable experience for me, through which I learned lots of skills. I also enjoy the lectures and seminars this course provided.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

It's amazing and comforting that whenever you need any help, staff in the Faculty and College are always keen to help you and respond within a short period of time. I'd like to thank my supervisors, they are easy going, care about my research progress, and always happy to discuss my research work or daily life.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

It's just amazing and totally unexpected. I'd like to thank everyone who has helped and supported me.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

I am currently doing a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics at the University of Hong Kong.

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MRes in Biomedical Research (Microbiome in Health & Disease) - Gina Wren

What did you most enjoy about your course?

I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to plan, manage and execute two independent research projects. For the first time in my academic career I was given a large amount of freedom to shape the direction of my own research. This allowed me to tailor the projects to suit my interests and to formulate novel approaches to tackling some of the biggest challenges in my field. As a result, I am due to submit a paper for publication based on one of my projects, which is very exciting!

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

One of the best parts about the College is the chance to work with internationally renowned academics. I felt very privileged to receive guidance and feedback from people who were experts in their field. What I found really awe-inspiring was working on a particular method or computer software and finding out that someone in the Faculty was the person who developed it!

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

Shocked and proud! Shocked as I had to rapidly learn how to code for one of my projects (I didn’t even know which button to press to import my data when I first started out!) and proud as I felt like all the hard work I’d put in this year had paid off.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

Currently I am continuing at Imperial College as a Research Assistant in the group I did one of my projects in. I am also exploring both PhD and job options to start in the coming year.

Any other comments

I would like to extend a massive thank you to my supervisors and course organisers. There were points this year when I didn’t even know if I would make it to the end of the course given all the COVID-19 uncertainty. The course was rapidly adapted to become remote and there was lots of support offered by the faulty throughout. A massive thank you to all involved!

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MRes in Biomedical Research (Bacterial Pathogenesis and Infection stream) - Ana Choi

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The fantastic practical knowledge and experience gained, and working with wonderful colleagues.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

Their incredible support throughout the degree, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

Very honoured and humbled.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

PhD at Institut Pasteur Paris.

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MRes in Biomedical Research (Molecular Basis of Human Disease) - Saira Sakalaš

What did you most enjoy about your course?

As my degree was Master of Research (MRes), I really enjoyed 'learning by doing'. Although I liked studying and learning about science during my undergraduate degree, it felt incredible to do science on my own and be the first person to have an answer to the research question of interest.

With the expertise of my supervisors and the support from the management of the course, every day felt like getting one step closer to becoming a scientist who will independently be able to discover the fundamentals of biomedical phenomena.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

I appreciated the networking opportunities I had access to and a closer professor-student relationship. 

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

Receiving the Dean's Prize was delightful, a great achievement and an honour.

The learning journey during my degree was rather an oscillatory function between successful and less successful moments. Knowing that my work has been recognized and acknowledged by the Faculty really embarrassed the entire journey during the past year and left me feeling even more happy and confident about my choice to stay in science.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

At the moment I am doing my PhD degree at the Institue of Cancer Research in London in the Structural biology of Cell Signalling group (Guettler's lab).

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MRes in Biomedical Research (APMIC Stream) - Laptin Ho

What did you most enjoy about your course?

I enjoyed every part of the course. It was well structured with a very strong focus on research work. I was able to take both a laboratory focused project and then a data and computer based project (due to COVID restrictions). This turned out to be quite a good combination and I'm definitely more comfortable working with and analysing bigger datasets now. There were weekly seminars or lectures that complimented the research aspect of the course well because you were able to hear about the latest ideas and developments in other areas of biomedical sciences.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

The faculty and college were very approachable. This made it very easy to discuss and develop new ideas with various contributors around the college, and also made this course very flexible depending how your project leads you! The course coordinators and supervisors provided great support throughout and were very interested to hear about the student's views to improve the course experience.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

It was quite unexpected! Many thanks to my supervisors and my lab group who supported me throughout the year.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

I'm currently in specialty training in the intensive care unit. This year did change how I saw basic science and clinical medicine interact and I do hope to be able to spend more time in research in the future.

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MRes in Biomedical Research - Megan Barnes

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The diversity in the core classes and the flexibility of the projects. Being able to choose from a huge list of supervisors and their respective projects meant I could cater my laboratory experience to what I wanted to learn throughout the year.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

There were plenty of opportunities to seek guidance on PhD applications from the Faculty, in the form of seminars and panel discussions. Networking was also very easy too.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

It was such an honor, and an amazing feeling given the sudden change in circumstances due to Covid. I definitely have my supervisors and their teams to thank for this too.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

I started my BBSRC-funded PhD at Imperial in October 2020, within the NHLI. The aim of my project is to investigate the early-life immune response to respiratory viruses using transcriptomics. This MRes provided me the knowledge and practical skills to start the next chapter of my academic career with confidence.

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Biomedical Research - Biomedical research stream - Emily Heathward 

What did you most enjoy about your course?

What I enjoyed the most about this masters was the core program, which gave us an insight into a wide range of different research fields and technologies. I particularly enjoyed the sessions that included the entire cohort, such as the preparation and presentation of a grant proposal.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

The quality of the research and mentorship provided by the faculty was excellent, and I'd like to extend my thanks to the fantastic research groups that hosted my lab rotations and encouraged my development as a scientist.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

It felt great to have all the hard work and effort of the last twelve months recognised with the award of the Dean's prize.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

I'm continuing my PhD studies with Professor Jorge Ferrer in the Beta Cell Genome Regulation Laboratory at Imperial College London, funded by the Medical Research Council.

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Biomedical Research - Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care Stream - Ying Ying Tan

What did you most enjoy about your course?

This course allowed me to acquire a broad range of scientific techniques while having the opportunity to be closely supervised by world-leading researchers on a day-to-day basis.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

I am extremely grateful for the privilege to study here as the college offers equal opportunity for international students. The help and support provided by the college, the faculty and section, were beyond expectation.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

I am grateful for the recognition of hard work I've put into this course and it serves as a great motivation for my further studies to obtain a PhD.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

I was fortunate to be awarded the President's PhD scholarship to continue my research in the same laboratory, thanks to the help and support I have been provided by the APMIC section.

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Biomedical Research - Molecular Basis of Human Disease Stream - Christopher Adams

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The chance to integrate with two very different professional research labs was an invaluable experience where I thoroughly enjoyed learning new techniques and actually making a significant impact on science.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

I appreciated the amazing support and supervision throughout the course from extremely influential researchers at the top of their field.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

It was a complete surprise as I hadn't previously heard of the prize but I was very honoured and pleased that my hard work was recognised.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

This course made me realise that I wanted to pursue scientific research and I am now starting a CRUK funded four-yearPhD at Imperial.

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 Biomedical Research - Respiratory and Cardiovascular Science Stream - Carlo Biffi

 

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The course offers a unique possibility to work on cutting-edge research topics with excellent scientists during the two 5-month project rotations.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

The high quality of the technological equipment available to students. Moreover, both the academic and the administrative staff have always been knowledgeable and friendly.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

I was pleasantly surprised and honoured, and very thankful to my supervisors (Prof Daniel Rueckert and Dr Declan O’Regan) for their support throughout the year.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

I am currently undertaking a British Heart Foundation funded PhD at Imperial College London.

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MRes Biomedical Research (EECID) - Helen Coupland 

What did you most enjoy about your course? 

The opportunity to do two projects in two different research groups. It really gave me a good understanding of what it would be like to work in research or to undertake a PhD. 

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College? 

The staff were all really knowledgable about their fields and happy to help me improve my ability to conduct independent research. 

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize? 

I was really happy to receive the Dean's Prize, it felt like all my hard work this year had paid off. 

What are you doing now/ What do you plan on doing after graduation? 

I have now started a PhD at Imperial College London with one of my supervisors from my MRes.

 

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MRes in Biomedical Research (Data Science Stream) - Michal Krassowski

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The great selection of projects available to choose as well as the ability to drive our own project.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

The commitment to enable students to achieve their highest potential by enabling flexible and long stays in the library, easy access to every possible journal, and a can-do attitude of the supervisors willing to help us find the right tools for the job (even if it wasn't always easy).

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

I was very grateful but also (slightly) surprised - there were many other hard-working students whose projects were showing deep insight into a variety of biomedical topics ranging from literature mining, through the biomedical image analysis, to the novel approaches to molecular data integration in cancer.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

Studying for a DPhil at the University of Oxford, applying the knowledge of research methods I gained at Imperial to help understand debilitating women's conditions such as endometriosis and bladder pain syndrome, which hopefully will lead to the development of better disease models revealing clinically-relevant insights.

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MRes in Biomedical Research - Ines Ullmo

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The Biomedical Research MRes was very complete. Being able to take part in two 6-month projects was an amazing opportunity to develop technical and analytical skills, but also to learn about the research world from the "inside". 
The weekly seminars and workshops were also very valuable, allowing us to learn about other disciplines and techniques not necessarily related to our research. It was also great to meet other students at those times, to learn about their own research and experiences.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

Imperial College is an incredible university, where state-of-the-art research takes place. This resulted in all of the projects proposed by the MRes being very interesting and relevant. Moreover, we were also allowed to undertake graduate school masterclasses, which were an amazing opportunity to develop soft skills (leadership, presentation skills). 

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

Receiving the Dean's Prize was very rewarding, and gave me a great sense of accomplishment. Research is not always easy, but obtaining this type of recognition makes the whole process worth it. 

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

I started a PhD in immunology and cancer research at Imperial College straight after finishing my MRes.

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MRes in Biomedical Research (RCVS) - Iñigo Ruiz Polo de Lara

What did you most enjoy about your course?

The opportunity to actively design and participate in two different research projects, combined with the knowledge and expertise acquired from the core sessions, is for me an invaluable experience which I believe has thoroughly prepared me to pursue a career in biomedical research.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?

I am very grateful for the continuous exposure to top-tier science and the exceptional mentorship I received during the last year. I am particularly grateful for the guidance and counselling provided by Dr Chamorro-Jorganes who has profoundly encouraged my development as a scientist.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?

It is an honour and a great reward in recognition for the work of the last 12 months, which also encourages me taking the next steps in my career.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?

Studying for a DPhil at the University of Oxford, applying the knowledge of research methods I gained at Imperial to help understand debilitating women's conditions such as endometriosis and bladder pain syndrome, which hopefully will lead to the development of better disease models revealing clinically-relevant insights.