• Question: What's it like being a cell biologist, how long did you study for?

    Asked by Isobel_Buchanan to Kylie, Matt, Bex, RobB, Sam on 14 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Rebecca Thompson

      Rebecca Thompson answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Great question!

      I studied for 3 years in my undergraduate degree, Molecular biology..
      Then 4 years with my PhD in structural biology..
      So, 7 years in total!

      I’ve been in my job now for about 6 months. I love studying cells, the are amazing! I love looking into the tiny secret world of the cells, which are packed full of protein machines and different compartments that do different jobs. Each individual cell is a complicated city of activity, and I love trying to work out how it all functions!

    • Photo: Kylie Belchamber

      Kylie Belchamber answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      I studied for the same as Bex – 3 years for my undergraduate degree, in pharmacology. Then 4 years for PhD.
      I’ve been in my current job for 3.5 years now, and I love it!

      It is really interesting to be able to take a sample of blood, or lung, or heart from a human body, put it in a petri dish, and watch what it does. I have seen heart cells beating in a dish, and immune cells whizzing around trying to find something to eat. They are the little building blocks of life!

    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Being a cell biologist is great! Cells are incredible objects, and there are so many different types of them that do many different things, I work with brain cells at the moment and they form such beautiful shapes 😀 They grow mostly by themselves if they have enough nutrients, so it’s like watching nature at work!

      I studied for 3 years in my degree, and then 1 year for a masters degree, and I’ve been doing my current PhD for 2 and a half years, meaning that I’ve been studying for 6 1/2 years (longer if you include A-levels and school) 😀

    • Photo: Rob Brass

      Rob Brass answered on 23 Jun 2016:

      I’m actually not a cell biologist, i’m a physicist! I have done work in an area called Radiobiology though, this is looking closely at the affect of radiation on cells and how we can better apply it to radiotherapy 🙂

      I started my Physics degree straight after A levels, that was 3 years long, then I started training in my current job. The training lasted 3 years and included a masters degree, at the end of it I became a registered clinical scientist and have been in this role for almost 2 years 🙂

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