FLS Alumni Summer Studentships

The FLS Alumni Summer Studentships offer undergraduates with an interest in research the opportunity to spend up to eight weeks in one of the FLS research laboratories.

About the Alumni Summer Studentships

This scheme is now open for 2023.

UCL's Faculty of Life Sciences (FLS) is pleased to announce that applications are now being taken for the FLS Alumni Summer Studentship Scheme. Through the generosity of our alumni there are a number of studentships available which can provide students with research laboratory training and experience. Studentships may be held in any of the four divisions of FLS. 

Who can apply?

Students studying for an undergraduate degree in the Faculty of Life Sciences who are in the:

• second year of a three-year programme or
• third year of a four-year programme
• have demonstrated excellence in academic achievement in their university studies

What does the studentship cover?

You will spend up to six weeks undertaking a research project working with a PI based at UCL’s Faculty of Life Sciences. Many of the previous recipients of our UG Alumni Studentships have made a real contribution to UCL’s research, doing work that has subsequently been published. 

How much funding is available?

• Bench fee of £500 to the PI (Principal Investigator) 
• £400 per week stipend for the successful recipient for up to 6 weeks 
• Additional travel and accommodation costs are not covered by the scheme 

How to apply? (Closing date for applications is 5 May 2023)

• Contact a staff member (the PI) in whose laboratory you would like to undertake your project to see if they are able to host you over the 2023 summer period 
• If the staff member agrees to you spending time with them, you will need to provide some information on your academic achievements, eligibility and motivation for them to complete the online application form 

Please note, the online application form should be completed by supervisors only.

2019 recipients

Tom Hagley

Supervisor: Frances Edwards

Undertaking essential controls for a new knockin mouse model for Alzheimer's Disease

Caecilia Kunz

Supervisor: Nick Lane

Association of iron-sulfur clusters with protocell membranes at the origin of life

Iqra Sharif

Supervisor: Steve Brocchini

Formulation and optimisation of an in-situ polymerisable collagen preparation for modified drug release for anti-scarring and anti-inflammation applications

Cher Shen Kiar

Supervisor: Lisa Cabrita

Probing co-translational misfolding of transthyretin

Emily Smeds

Supervisor: Michael Duchen

Understanding the impact of EPG5 mutations on autophagy and cell metabolism: relevance to Vici syndrome

Masahiro Takigawa

Supervisor: Thomas Wills

The post-natal development of pattern separation in the dentate gyrus

Raliat Dabiri

Supervisor: Mine Orlu

Evaluating absolute oral bioavailability of posaconazole tablets in paediatric patients: a population based pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analysis

Xinyi Feng

Supervisor: Daniel Raleigh

Islet amyloid formation and the molecular basis of beta-cell death

2018 recipients

Zane Mitrevica

Supervisor: Beverley Clark

Anatomical and functional convergence of motor cortical and cerebellar projections in the thalamus

Eneko Pascual Navarro 

Supervisor: Andres Ramos

RNA recognition of IMP1 oncofetal protein domains KH12

Marie Sion 

Supervisor: David Attwell 

The role of pericytes in cardiac and renal ischaemia

Maryam Aliasaga

Supervisor: Susan Anne Barker

Development of a patient-friendly mini-tablet formulation based on amorphous solid dispersions prepared by hot met extrusion

Nidhi Seegobin

Supervisor: Steve Brocchini

Determination of the intravitreal half-life of linear and branched PEG-Fab conjugates

Xin Yi Thum

Supervisor: Catherine Tuleu

Low dose accuracy for paediatric enteral liquids: Are we there yet?

Kristal Ng Yan-Wei

Supervisor: Andres Ramos

Molecular basis of miRNA target selection in Syncrip-mediated exosomal miRNA partitioning

2017 recipients

Xin Jie

Supervisor: Dr Jess Healy

Development of boronic acid beta-lactamase inhibitors with novel mechanisms of action

I am honoured to be granted an opportunity in the Drug Discovery Research Cluster to develop novel antibiotics while learning both biology and chemistry bits experientially. It was truly an exciting experience, knowing that my work would help combat an antibiotic apocalypse.

I spent my first few weeks in the chemistry lab, making my test compounds, doing extraction, purifications as well as scientific analysis. The remaining weeks saw me in the biology lab, preparing my agar plates, culturing my bacteria strain, and ultimately performing disk diffusion assay to assess the susceptibility of the novel antibiotics.

Neesha Kara

Supervisor: Professor Michael Duchen/ Federico Zambon

The Validation and Characterisation of iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons

I am immensely grateful for this unique opportunity to learn about how a research project develops and to get insights into the workings of the lab.

Over the course of my project, I learned about the expanding field of stem cell generation and learned how to differentiate these cells into nerve cells to model genetic forms of Parkinson's Disease. I was able to quantify protein expression and to identify neuronal markers using immunofluorescence and western blots.

Susana Colinas Fischer

Supervisor: Francesca Cacucci, Guifen Chen

Title of project: Testing architecture of head direction circuit using virtual reality

Elena Menichini

Supervisor: Dr Tom Wills

Title of the Project: The Hippocampal Representation of Space in relation to External Sensory Inputs

Sana Sheykhzadeh

Supervisor: Professor Simon Gaisford

Title of project: Determining the efficacy of probiotics commonly available in the market

Peipeng Lin

Supervisor: Annette Dolphin