Dr Chris Boyd is retiring after starting work at the University of Edinburgh 40 years ago. He started working independently in the Molecular Biology department in 1986 on small plasmid mobilisation systems in E coli. Despite good progress in establishing a one-person lab from scratch, building on related studies carried out as my first postdoc […]

Gout is on the rise, with global cases increasing significantly over the past few decades. Despite these numbers, managing gout effectively remains a challenge. Less than 40% of patients in the UK receive recommended long-term medication for gout1, such as allopurinol or febuxostat, and patients continue to suffer recurrent flares of intense pain needlessly.  Why the gap?  Many patients aren’t fully informed about gout […]

Lukas Tamayo-Orrego, who joined the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC) in 2019, is preparing to embark on an independent career after being awarded an MRC Career Development Award. The five-year Fellowship will enable Lukas, who is originally from Colombia, to continue studying the molecular mechanisms of DNA replication. For me, this is the most […]

We all know that DNA (four chemical letters: A, T, C, G) encodes the genetic information of our lives, including appearance, growth, and even genetic diseases. It performs like an instruction book that tells our cells how to function. However, do you know how we decrypt this personal book and apply it for diagnosis and […]

By Yuqin Wang, PhD student Life is built upon cells, the basic units of all living organisms, much like bricks form the foundation of buildings. To gain deeper insights into cellular structure, function and interactions, a wide range of technologies is used in biomedical research to unravel the complex mechanisms underlying living organisms. These methodologies […]

By Cléo Pereira De Almeida, PhD student I remember swinging my legs in the waiting room chair. My brother and parents were behind a closed door that the nurses kept insisting I could not enter. Still, I could hear my mother crying. Appointment after appointment and test after test, a quiet realisation began to form: […]

By Elllie Richards, PhD student All living things, from people and animals to trees and bacteria, have a genome: a complete manual written in the language of DNA. This encodes instructions for how to make proteins, the building blocks that make and control our bodies, controlling everything from cellular motility and survival all the way […]

As researchers and academics, sometimes we can get a bit caught up in our world of experiments and data – we don’t think about the daily struggles of people living with the conditions we study. Rare diseases are categorised as conditions affecting fewer than 1 in 2000 people. They are individually infrequent, but collectively common, […]

With applications invited for the August 2026 ECAT-i (Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track – inclusive) intake,  Antonia Churchhouse talks about her experience of taking part in the programme. Antonia applied to the University of Edinburgh’s ECAT programme in her first year as a Gastroenterology Registrar. I was really keen to do a lab-based PhD, learning core techniques that […]

After completing his medical degree and starting training in anaesthetics, Dr Andrew Bretherick decided to follow his dream and pursue a clinical academic career by applying for the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track (ECAT) programme. I knew I wanted to do science, and wanted an academic career, and ECAT was always on my radar. For me, […]