Lisa Carter

MSci Natural Sciences, 2010, PhD, UCL Institute of Child Health

As a Natural Sciences undergraduate at UCL I studied Biomedical Sciences and Physical Chemistry.  At first it was a challenging combination, but over time the fit between them became much more prominent.  I took optional modules alongside my streams from other departments, which allowed me to slowly figure out where I wanted to go after my degree. By the end of my MSci year I had decided I wanted to work in Global Health and worked at an NGO as a research analyst on HIV prevention programs in developing countries, before starting my PhD. I am now at the Institute of Child Health, focusing on probing the T-cell receptor repertoire using next generation sequencing in paediatric HIV.  The Natural Sciences programme put me in a great position to handle the different aspects of this project, including basic science, lab work, computational skills and the experience of putting this into a developmental perspective, which in turn will help me with career progression in the future.