The next generation scientists: BSc student internship at UCL

With the support of the Invest in ME Research charity, we were very fortunate to have Isabelle de Rooij visiting our laboratory for a 5-month internship. Isabelle is a BSc student from Hogeschool Rotterdam in the Netherlands (my old University) undertaking the Bachelor of Science course in biology and medical laboratory sciences. As tipped for the best student in her year, we had big expectations from here and she did not disappoint us!
During her internship, she not only learned different laboratory skills and techniques but also got an insight into the biomedical research applied to ME/CFS. This was just as important as the technical part of the internship.
Isabelle really enjoyed her time her and was very passionate about her project. She significantly contributed to the development of new protocols for our future experiments, and assisted me with ongoing projects related to the joint project with Christopher Armstrong.

We were very proud of Isabelle when she finished her internship, which was examined based on her technical lab skills and final report, with 9.5/10.
A great achievement from a great student! Her university was so impressed and satisfied with her achievements and progress in our group that they have asked us if we would be interested in future collaborations.

We are happy to say that we have accepted another student who will start in February!

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The article also demonstrates the importance of our strategy of funding students in research into ME - a strategy proven to be successful and making a real difference.