EASTBIO has just held its first entirely digital Induction event, spread between the 7th and the 9th of October. We thank our students and supervisors, our students reps and our support team and Management Group for helping to deliver and engage with this series of events that launches the EASTBIO DTP3 Training Programme.

We asked our new students to type one sentence about their PhD research and got the word cloud, below (thanks to Dr Mhairi Towler for sharing):

EASTBIO DTP3 funding

It is with great delight that we announce that the EASTBIO DTP3 bid has been successful. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, a part of UK Research and Innovation) announced £170m in funding to support 1700 PhD researchers over the next 5 years. BBSRC’s Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) provide vital training to early career scientists working at the cutting edge of biology and biotechnology.

For the past few weeks, first-year EASTBIO student Zoe Gidden (based at the University of Edinburgh, supervised by Professor Lynne Regan and Dr Mathew Horrocks) has been volunteering in the Pathology Department at Northampton General Hospital to help set up COVID-19 testing. Shortly after returning home, Zoe reached out to the Head of Pathology, Augustus Lusack, to offer her help at what is a challenging time for the department.

Jennifer Wardle, a fourth-year EASTBIO student at the University of Aberdeen, has been working with Professor Jo Smith on the project "Resolving conflict between demands on organic waste in rural Ethiopia - Optimum solutions for food, energy and water security". 

On the 5^th March 2020, EASTBIO first-year PhD student Eddie Martin organised a concert with a difference. The performers? Researchers in the fields of Biological Sciences and/or Music. Their instruments? Computer programming languages. The audience? Enjoying a healthy mix of inspiration, entertainment, and bemusement.

To mark the EASTBIO partnership’s successful bid for a third term, funding 50+ PhD studentships for a further 5 year, we call on our students’ creative powers for a new EASTBIO logo header! This will be used on our website as well as all material, digital and textual, relating to the EASTBIO programme (Handbook, presentations slides, fliers, etc.) and our social media.

The EASTBIO Management Group will review all submissions and select the winner.

Winner prize: £100 book voucher

We are delighted to start working together with our new student reps - Daniel, Abi, Dewi, Philip, Tgan and all the many volunteers/reserves - to develop relationships and training events that remain relevant to our PhD students and their research plans.

We encourage all our students to approach their reps and trust them to act as interlocutors to the EASTBIO Management Group. 

Jordan Mitchell, third-year EASTBIO student working with Professor Danielle Gunn-Moore at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine, has two published papers in 2019 from his research:

a review article, 'Mycobacterial infections in cats and dogs,' at VNJ

The winner of the newly launched UKRI BBSRC Impact Writing Competition 2019 is EASTBIO fourth-year PhD student Luke Woodford with "Using Coordinated Varroa Treatments to Improve Honey Bee Health. Luke is currently completing his PhD on "Healthy honeybees: The biology and affordable control of varroa and deformed wings virus" at the University of St Andrews, supervised by Dr David Evans.

His case study was selected as winner of the Impact Writing Competition 2019.