BioAscent is passionate about supporting and inspiring early-career scientists, and this summer, was pleased to offer an internship to Emily Carr, a 2nd year Medicinal Chemistry student from the University of Liverpool. In our latest blog, Emily shares her experience with us here at BioAscent.

This June I had the amazing opportunity to join BioAscent as a chemistry intern, an experience that turned out to be one of the most valuable and inspiring of my academic career so far.

As a Medicinal Chemistry student at the University of Liverpool, I am passionate and curious about the science behind drug discovery and during my time at BioAscent I got the unique opportunity to put this fascination into practice and truly immerse myself into the CRO world. I worked alongside Viv Mochrie on an internal project that focused on optimising a chemical reaction with the aim to make the process greener.

Having responsibility for a project at this early stage in my career as a chemist was exciting and challenging but with the help of Viv I gained confidence in decision-making and my lab ability. Presenting my work to experienced chemists during internal project meetings was initially daunting but due to the supportive and collaborative team around me, I was able to communicate my findings clearly and decisively.

The people truly make BioAscent. Moving to a new city, far away from home, could have been overwhelming but from the first day I felt welcome and supported. The encouragement and patience of everyone around me made the experience extremely valuable.

Furthermore, being located in such a beautiful part of the world, I was able to use my weekends to explore all that Scotland has to offer – from Edinburgh to Glasgow, St Andrews to Loch Lomond, and discovering my new found love of hiking!

This internship has helped me solidify my career direction, confirming that I want to work in a hands-on lab environment where I can continue to learn and contribute to scientific progress.

I am so grateful to BioAscent for this opportunity and for everyone who made my short time at the company so impactful. I have left this internship with valuable skills, and more confidence.

To find out more about working at BioAscent, click here.