Living the dream: UCL edition

UCL is even better than I expected and I am still impressed by the whole institution. Experts in their field hold all of our lectures, which are recorded and subsequently can be seen online on our school website with the corresponding Powerpoint presentation. The syllabus is updated ever each year and therefore it is possible that scientific articles published in 2016 are already part of our curriculum. During our laboratory work, we share the machines and equipment in pairs so we can work without taking turns or waiting until other people finish. Last but not least, since each of one of us has his personal tutor who monitors our grades and the state of our mental health- UCL gives a feeling of a personal approach.

The biggest between a university life in Prague and in London is the fact that four us university is out life. We live in halls without any family environment and basically we do not meet anyone else but students. Therefore, it is common that everyone is actively involved in school’s societies; everyone goes to lectures and all one’s friends are either from halls or from his course. Further more, in the United Kingdom it is important with which grade you graduate with and this grade then needs to be displayed on your CV. This means that everyone cares how well they do in their final exams. During exam period we basically spent 3 months locked up in a library with occasional breaks for food and it did not seem strange that instead of meeting in a coffee shop or going to the cinemas, we would go the library together.

Since the 1st year of Biomedical Sciences was rather general I had to choose my specialisation. I will be focusing on molecular biology and genetics with modules from embryology, immunology and genetics.

The most interesting experience of this term was a Family Day in the Royal Institute, London. Royal Institue was established in 1799 with its goal to scientifically educate the general public and introduce new technologies. Each year a famous Christmas lecture takes place and the 1st one was held by Michael Faraday in 1825. In May 2017 I was involved in the organisation of the Family Day whose theme was “Biochemistry”. On the day of the event I was explaining to kids and their parents what are neurotransmitters. Not only the event, but the whole even was very enriching because I was able to see lots of school kids being enthusiastic about science. Most importantly I was excited that in my audience there were girls as well. Maybe the stereotype about boring old male scientists is being broken!!

Concerning my summer plans, I have a planned study internship in the “Motol University Hospital”. My supervisor will be Mgr. Martin Matejcek from the Blood Bank Department and I will try different laboratory work from several fields connected to my course- biochemistry, flow cytometry, immunology, and genetics. Afterwards I will have a 2 months internship in a biotechnology company called SOTIO, which is focused on the development of drugs and treatment for cancer and autoimmune diseases. My supervisor will be Mgr. Kamila Hladikova who is working on her Ph.D. in SOTIO with main interest in cancer disease of neck and head and their link to HPV.

Since my summer is so science based, decided to enrol to French conversation classes and I will be part of the organisational team of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. I will be working for Mrs. Uljana Donatova, spokesperson of KVIFF, and I will be in charge of press conferences  and communication with the press. There is also a long list of books I have not had time to read.

This year has been extraordinary- I found amazing friends, experienced life in another city, understood what it is like to start from the scratch and most importantly successfully finished 1st year at the 7th most prestigious University in the world. I would like to express my gratitude towards The Kellner Family Foundation because without its help all of this would not have been possible. Thank you.