how luke became a microbiologist

What to study?

Whilst studying for A-levels Luke was unsure what he wanted to do in life so he choose to attend University instead of doing nothing. This prompted him with a minor problem - what to study!

He decided to phone Universities and request a prospectus which resulted in his local postman being kept busy delivering them each morning.

Biomedical Science

After browsing through these prospectus one degree that stuck out was the degree of Biomedical Science. This appeared to be interesting as the structure of the degree was in essence understanding human disease, a topic that sounded exciting.

The next decision was where to study. By making a shortlist and attended numerous open days, Luke choose to study at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). This decision was based on their open day appeared the most impressive, the structure of the degree was well organised and finally Liverpool appeared to be a vibrant place to live!

After the first semester at LJMU, Luke knew he had made the correct choice since he enjoyed the degree, the University and more to the point made a great number of friends and had a great overall time.

Infectious Disease

The degree programme included an industrial training year which was carried out in year three. During the previous years, Luke found the topic of infectious disease to be interesting and for this reason he chose to work within the Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory (ARMRL) at the PHLS Central Public Health Laboratory, London which is now part of the Health Protection Agency.

Upon returning to University for the final year, Luke opted to undertake a project related to antibiotic resistance, thus using the skills and knowledge gained from the industrial training year. After completing the degree he returned to work in ARMRL as a Senior Medical Technical Officer.

During the time at ARMRL he was actively involved in several research projects resulting in various publications. It was also during this time that he decided to expand his experience in microbiology.

Choices

At this point in his career there was a choice to be made. Continue to work in antibiotic resistance or be brave and attack another area of infectious disease. The latter of these options was chosen to increase his skills and knowledge.

Luke choose to work in the field of bacterial pathogenesis which resulted in leaving London to work at the University of Edinburgh. The research involved understanding the pathogenesis of EHEC (enterohaemoragic E. coli), a particular type of E. coli which amongst other diseases is a major cause of diarrhoea world-wide.

This research was conducted out at both the Zoonotic and Animal Pathogens Research Laboratory and Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Moving on

As the project at the University of Edinburgh draw to a close the decision was where to work next. After working in a reference laboratory and academic institute the logical area was a clinical setting.

Luke was fortunate to be offered a job working as a microbiologist for NHS Lothain which is where he works to date.

This is the brief story of how Luke became a microbiologist.