{"id":778,"date":"2020-05-15T13:29:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T12:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/?p=778"},"modified":"2022-03-21T20:39:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:39:49","slug":"my-placement-year-at-leica-biosystems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/my-placement-year-at-leica-biosystems\/","title":{"rendered":"My placement year at Leica Biosystems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Alexandra Lazarova<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A\nplacement with a Cancer Diagnostics company \u2013 yes please! <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’m studying BSc Biomedical Genetics<\/a> with Professional Placement Year and knew I wanted to do a placement year since my first year of university, when I attended a placement talk given by several companies. A year and a half later, after applying to several companies, I found myself in an interview for a placement year at Leica Biosystems in Newcastle\u2026and ended up getting the position!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Leica Biosystems: Advancing Cancer Diagnostics<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Leica Biosystems\nfocuses on immunohistochemistry in the context of cancer diagnostics, and for\nthis vital work they require antibodies. For my project, I was tasked with identifying\nmethods and creating a workflow for antibody validation. Primary antibodies\nbind specific epitopes on their target protein which allows them to detect the\nprotein in the tissue. However, there\u2019s no easy way to know whether an antibody\nis specifically binding the target protein or whether it is binding to other,\nsimilar proteins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My project<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The broad scope of my project allowed me perfect techniques such as western blotting and to try methods I hadn\u2019t encountered before such as immunohistochemistry and peptide arrays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hands on experience with a microtome! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While university had provided me with plenty of theoretical knowledge, second year left me feeling as if I needed more practical experience. I knew the basics of practical methods, but I was missing the understanding needed to think for myself. Designing my own experiments allowed me to understand why<\/em> I was doing certain steps in a method, rather than following instructions without really knowing why they were necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A change in routine<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While it\nwas difficult at first to transition from my usual university routine of late\nnights and lie ins, once I settled into the 9-5 life, I found myself enjoying\nit. Gone were the days when I\u2019d get back from my lectures at 4 and work on\nassignments late into the evening, the weekend library sessions, the pre-exam\nstress. Once I was off the clock, I was done with my work for the day. Having\nguilt-free time to enjoy meant I was finally able to relax without a deadline\nlooming over my head, and I was able to pick up new hobbies and sports I\nhaven\u2019t had time for in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sense of community<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
R&D Tree Planting Day at Plessey Woods <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the\nbest parts of my placement year at Leica<\/a>\nis the sense of community. Everyone has been very welcoming and happy to help\nme out and answer any questions I may have, no matter how trivial. In my time\nhere I\u2019ve been able to participate in team building days and events, be it\nescape rooms, quizzes or plain and simple pub nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not all labs!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The day to\nday variation has also allowed me to develop skills outside of the lab, such as\nreport writing, presenting and data analysis. This, combined with the\nopportunity to design my own testing and manage my own time, is great practice\nfor my third-year project, and has left me feeling much more prepared. Leica\nalso provide their associates with plenty of opportunities to learn about the\nindustry and the business as a whole. For example, we have \u201cIHC In Action\u201d,\nwhich is a weekly session where a pathologist comes in to show us interesting\ncancer cases from the past week and how they went about diagnosing them using\nimmunohistochemistry (IHC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My monthly project meetings give me an opportunity to share my work and ideas. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking to the future<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In terms\nof the future, I can definitely imagine myself working in industry having had\nthis experience. Prior to my placement year, I had my heart set on working in\nacademia, and had written off working in industry as too corporate. However,\nseeing the wider impact of the work carried out at Leica, and the potential it\nhas to make a difference in the world, has made me realise there are benefits to\nworking in industry; the resources, opportunities for growth and sense of\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My workplace for the year! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Would I recommend doing a placement year?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d definitely recommend doing a placement year, whether you\u2019re thinking about pursuing a career in research or industry after university, or if you\u2019re looking to get more comfortable working independently and brush up on your skills in and out of the lab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read about\ndoing a placement at GSK here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out\nhow to find\na placement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, our\nplacement\ndestination blog<\/a> lists some of the companies that our students have done a\nyear placement with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alexandra Lazarova A placement with a Cancer Diagnostics company \u2013 yes please! I’m studying BSc Biomedical Genetics with Professional Placement Year and knew I wanted to do a placement year since my first year of university, when I attended a placement talk given by several companies. A year and a half later, after applying … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “My placement year at Leica Biosystems”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2915,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168,82,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-placements","category-year-placements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1278,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions\/1278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}