Undergrad students to work in Germany

As an exciting beginning to the exchange of undergraduate students between University of Plymouth (UoP) and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, two students from the School of Biomedical and Healthcare Sciences (SoBHS) will be spending the Summer at the RKI in the laboratory of Dr Bernhard Ehlers. Based on an established collaborative interaction between Drs Jarvis (UoP) and Ehlers (RKI), Nicholas Lyons and Lucy Davison will be using state-of-the-art molecular techniques to search for viruses in European Badgers. This is a continuation of the research they did for their third year projects supervised by Dr Jarvis.

Klenerman Seminar

Next Wednesday, Professor Paul Klenerman will be coming from Oxford to talk about his work on the immune responses to hepatitis C virus (which is a major cause of liver disease globally). The virus can be controlled by natural immunity although typically viral evasion strategies lead to persistence. He will describe attempts to characterise the successful immune response and reproduce this using a vaccine, as well as some quite unexpected features of immune responses in the liver. You can find more information on Paul's work here. All welcome.
Wednesday 28th May, Plymouth Lecture Theatre, Portland Square, 1:00pm

Students planning their Nobel Sessions for new academic year

Here at Plymouth in the Biological Sciences and Biomedical & Healthcare Sciences Schools, we have a vibrant postgraduate student community that organises a variety of talks, discussions and events both inside and outside the university.

Every other week starting from 16th October 2014 there will lunchtime sessions (1-2pm) (free cake and tea provided) covering a wide variety of topics from speakers including undergraduates to PhD students and post-docs. The aims of the sessions are to broaden understanding of The Nobel Prize winning research, which underpins so many of the technologies, medicines and discoveries that we rely on in everyday life (see the Nobel Prize website for more information). The sessions also provide a platform for students to practice their presentation skills in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and improve their science communication. Moreover, attending and presenting at these sessions looks good on your CV and may make the difference in that next job interview!!

Outside of university we also run annual ‘Science in the News explained’ evening sessions during Science Week (blog) which are aimed at the public and held at the nearby Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery. In addition to this we have also contributed to an S-factor (S for Science) event in a local secondary school, where several students presented Nobel Prize winning research. A panel of 'experts' (staff and pupils) and the pupil audience then questioned the speakers, and the audience voted for the most important discovery (more details are on another School Blog). For their efforts the presenters were kindly awarded a year’s subscription to Nature magazine.

To find out where and when our talks are held please visit our University or Facebook page for more information. If you would like to get involved by attending or presenting please don’t hesitate to contact Rebekah Simpson (rebekah.simpson@plymouth.ac.uk) or Kirsty Lloyd (kirsty.lloyd@plymouth.ac.uk).