A day in a life as scientist is ever-changing. Science is fun, challenging, exciting, educational, interactive, social, mind-blowing and of course, fascinating. A typical workday encompasses many of these, making each day a little adventure. Staying informed is crucial as a research scientist. Around the globe, new research ideas are emerging and evolving all day […]

About Me Hi everyone! I’m Alsadeg, a fifth-year medical student at the University of Edinburgh, currently in the first year of the PhD phase of my MB-PhD. I’d like to tell you a bit about this programme and, hopefully, shed some light on why I’ll be at University for nine years and how I ended […]

There it was… I knew immediately that this was a path I wanted to take. Hello everyone! My name is Rowan and I am currently in the middle of my first year of the TRAM MB-PhD programme. I shudder slightly as I transition from saying start of my first year to middle of my first […]

How can early career researchers, such as PhD students, integrate the expertise of several labs into their research? This post aims to introduce why we research rare diseases, particularly craniofacial disorders, and share the experiences of students working across labs with complementary expertise. Congenital malformations are conditions which emerge early in development. Researching the genetics […]

Doors Open Day 2023 marked the first outing of our new public engagement activity at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer – the Dark Genome Fish.    This project has been a fantastic collaboration between our research scientists, zebrafish facility staff and workshop and graphics teams. The result is a 4-foot model zebrafish (somewhat larger that […]

Rare diseases are defined by the European Union as a disease or condition that effects fewer than 1 in 2000 people within the general population. Despite their individual rarity the sheer number of rare diseases results in a much higher figure as 1 in 17 people in the UK will suffer from a rare disease […]

As a first-year PhD student with interest primarily in deciphering inner workings of cells and gene regulation, I have yet set foot outside my comfort zone MRC unit. Rare Disease Day offers a great opportunity to explore research on rare disease and cancer conducted in IGC. Brain tumors are collectives of abnormal cells that multiply […]

Above: Image by Chloe Brotherton, Pleasantine Mill’s lab   A rare disease is defined as a disease that affects less than 1 in 2,000 people in the general population, which is the equivalent of 4 million people worldwide 1. To this day, around 6,000 different rare diseases are known 1. Although a single rare disease […]

Above: From the Government Rare Diseases Framework   I knew precious little about rare disease before I started my PhD at the IGC. I was aware of the existence of rare disorders, and had heard the names of some of the better known ones, like cystic fibrosis and motor neurone disease. And that was about […]

Above: Comfy sofas for scientific discussions   In September 2023, I began my 4-year MRC Human Genetics Unit (HGU) PhD journey at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC) in Edinburgh. Despite consistently nearly being blown away by the wind, I shall still head to the IGC for my experiments and PhD training. I am […]