specialism – STP Perspectives

What is Clinical Immunology?

Hello, I’m Helen and I’m a second year STP in Clinical Immunology. I work with University Hospitals Sussex and so get to work across a few of our hospitals (but mainly based in Brighton). Clinical Immunology is part of the blood sciences group which works closely with Biochemistry, Haematology and Genomics specialties. It’s an area that varies a lot depending on the hospital you are training in but there are four main areas that we test:

Autoimmunity – eg. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Celiac disease, Rheumatoid arthritis
Immunodeficiency – eg. Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA), Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD)
Allergy – eg. Anaphylaxis, Oral Allergy Syndrome, Drug allergies
Haematological Oncology – eg. Chronic Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, Multiple Myeloma

Nurturing Life in the Laboratory: The Embryologist’s Perspective

The journey of the embryo during its first week of development

Since the beginning of life, the evolution of gametes produced one big and immotile gamete, the egg. It also produced one small and highly specialised motile cell, the sperm. In humans, the ampulla in the female reproductive tract is where magic happens (Figure 1 and 2).

**Figure 1.** Natural embryo development in the female reproductive tract. Taken from Carroll, 2018.

**Figure 2**. Time-lapse imaging of embryo development *in vitro* (the embryo has good quality; the velocity of the video was increased).

Bioinformatics: It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s magic?

What is bioinformatics?

Good question. Let’s start off with some definitions:

STP Specialisms | Biochemistry

Biochemistry sounds like a complicated subject, but simply studying the chemical components of the body can have a huge impact on the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of diseases a patient may have. I’m Tom, a first year STP student specialising in Clinical Biochemistry. I joined the STP fresh out of my undergraduate degree. Before starting university, I didn’t have a career plan set in mind, I just wanted to do what I enjoyed most through my A-levels which was biology and chemistry. And now I’m very fortunate to be on a programme where I can use my knowledge to improve patients’ lives.

A Day in the Life of a Medical Physics STP Trainee (Imaging with Ionising Radiation)

Hello! I’m a second year STP trainee on the Medical Physics (undefined) stream – undefined just means that I’ll choose what I specialise in after having completed my rotations in Radiotherapy, Radiation Safety, Imaging with Non Ionising Radiation and Imaging with Ionising Radiation.

STP Specialisms | Cancer Genomics

When people ask me what I do, I always need to take a little time to think. Partly because STP is a mix of so many varied experiences that every week is different to the previous one, and partly because my own understanding of my specialism keeps evolving as I move through these experiences. When I first applied for this course, I thought I had a reasonable understanding of what cancer genomics was. But now I see how naive I was and that three years is not anywhere near enough time to fully comprehend this very diverse and quickly developing area of science. So summarising it all in a few paragraphs will be a challenge but… let’s give it a go!

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STP Specialisms | Critical Care Science

Critical Care Science in the Wider Context
Critical Care Science (CCS) is one of the smaller STP specialisms but deals with one of the most complex patient populations. Critical care patients range from elective cardiac surgery patients to major trauma and acute/chronic medical conditions. Critical care refers to specialised care for patients with life-threatening conditions; typically compromising of one or more organs that are failing. This level of care may be delivered in A+E, Intensive Care, High Dependency or specialist wards, e.g. long term ventilation. While a lot of the STP specialisms focus on a particular organ system or on a particular grouping of investigative techniques, the skills of CCS cover a holistic approach to clinical care, incorporating all areas of medicine and technology.

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Specialisms | Genomic Counselling

Genetic counsellors see individuals and families to discuss genetic conditions that are present, or are thought to be present, in their family. Information about an individual’s personal medical history and their family history is taken into account when determining the likelihood of a genetic condition running in a family.

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