I still remember the nerves that I felt the first day of my PhD. I had done my undergraduate and master’s in the same building, the concrete behemoth known as Biosciences, I knew the corridors, the lecturers and the journey all too well, and yet that day I felt like I was somewhere completely foreign. The first few months were a blur of meeting and re-meeting the same new faces, feeling so far behind on the administrative tasks, and, of course, failed experiments. My undergraduate degree was in Biochemistry so I found the transition into bacteriology to be challenging, especially since the COVID lockdowns hampered much of the lab experience I would've had in my second and third years of university.
My research area is the gut microbiome, the collection of microscopic life, including bacteria, viruses, fungi and archaea, that live within the human digestive tract. We focus on the development of travel associated diarrhoeal disease, and how the microbiomes of different individuals can affect the severity of disease state - if they even contract the disease at all! The process that governs this sensitivity is known as colonisation resistance; the interplay between biochemistry, genetics, and ecological population dynamics is why I love the field so much - that you can research one protein of one species or millions of microbes all at once, and still make progress.
Something that really helped me to learn to enjoy my work was attending conferences and seminars. Listening to and understanding how other people's research can impact my understanding of my own, allowed me to develop a deeper relationship with the subject. In my institute (Institute of Microbiology and Infection (IMI)) we have a monthly forum for PhD students and post docs, and at the end of my first year I was asked to co-chair the seminars. I didn't feel ready for it, I wasn't sure that I would be able to come up with questions or to present someone's research portfolio in a balanced way, and I definitely wasn't sure if anyone would even acknowledge me beyond a cursory glance at the start of the forums. Yet the post-doc who used to run it encouraged me to try it and now, two years later, I can honestly say it's been the best decision I made during my PhD.
Running the forums gave me the confidence to pursue other opportunities such as 3 Minute Thesis, hosted by the University Doctoral School, where PGRs are tasked to deliver a summation of their thesis in 3 minutes. Having to boil down 3 years of work into 3 minutes is difficult enough without having to flawlessly and clearly speak to an audience of non-experts. But the experience of script-crafting and holding the attention of that willing crowd was so rewarding and really encouraged me to get further involved with the PGR community at the University.
To this end I applied for the PhD Rep in my department, Microbes, Infection and Microbiomes (MIM), and after an agonising few weeks perfecting my application I was passed over for another candidate. I found out that I was not the most qualified candidate, but I was invited to join a PhD committee for the department with some of the other applicants - the department was of the opinion that 5 heads are better than one, and that by splitting the load we could do more for the community. I think it's safe to say they were right, in the past 18 months we have put on more events and had consistently higher turnouts than ever before.
I found that planning events that help to build a community was something that I enjoyed. To this end, I applied for a PGR Rep role with the IMI, a cross-college institute for microbiologists, and this time I was offered the role. Using my connections I was able to collaborate with the MIM committee and host cross college events which have been very popular, and have led to collaborations and friendships between PGRs of different departments who may not have met otherwise.
Thanks to my involvement with this, I was invited to participate in forming the first ever School of Immunology and Immunotherapy PhD conference. I used my existing connections with science companies like Merck, which I developed during my time as chair of the IMI forums, to acquire funding to increase the scope of our event. Seeing how successful we were in integrating the disparate departments in the School and making space for the PhD students to enjoy themselves was immensely rewarding.
A PhD is primarily an opportunity for growth, but in order to grow I had to ignore my worries and insecurities and press onwards beyond my perceived limitations and into my stride. I don't think that I could've achieved what I have without the support of people I looked up to in the department, and I am immensely grateful to them. In some way studying the interactions of microbial communities has helped me to flourish in the communities of macroorganisms.