I chose the BHLS degree because I had a strong interest in Biology and Science in secondary school. Although I didn’t want to pursue medicine, the BHLS programme appealed to me because it seemed to be aiming to provide a good understanding of both the clinical side and scientific/molecular side of disease.
I chose UCD primarily because it had the degree I wanted! However, my brothers and my parents also studied here so that played a role. UCD also has a great reputation for clubs, societies, sports and craic in general.
The most interesting part of the course as my fourth year project. As part of my project I worked in a clinical research lab, co-located with the Mater hospital, for a number of months. It was a great experience as I was working in the same building as research nurses, clinical doctors and scientific personnel alike.
If you, like me are looking for a course which goes straight for the human aspects of biology rather than the animal or plant sciences, then this course is definitely suitable.
I’m currently doing a PhD programme in Computational Infection Biology. I’ve followed on from work I started for my fourth year undergraduate project, and I am investigating the toxicities that anti-HIV drugs elicit in fat tissues.
I would like to say that I will still be in research. However, some things seem to change very fast so I’m going to focus on one project at a time.