Luke Souter

I graduated from the University of Bristol in 2012 and since then I have spent 2 years at the Sanger Institute and then took a year out to travel before starting this CDT course.

What previous lab experience do you have?

I interned for 10 weeks over a summer while at University in a crop genetics department. I also did lab work in my final year of university. I then spent 2 years working on the mouse genetics project at the Sanger Institute in a developmental Biology and histology department.

What attracted you to the Centre for Doctoral Training in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine – Innovation in Medical and Biological Engineering

It is a well established program that is well organized and well run. Having compared this course with similar courses at other universities I liked the wide variety of choice that is available on this program, which means I can pretty much tailor make my masters course to learn what I would like.

The ties to industry are good and the teaching of Engineering is extremely good, making the transition from Biology to Engineering easier.

What have you most enjoyed during your time on the CDT Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine – Innovation in Medical and Biological Engineering programme?

I really enjoy the cohort of students that I have enrolled with. It made moving to Leeds a lot easier, as everyone is very friendly and we arrange social events outside of the course.

What benefits do you feel you get from the interdisciplinary nature of the course?

In the UK there is a perfect storm in the Biological field of too my many Biologists being produced and an ever decreasing amount of academic jobs for them to go into. So developing engineering skills to compliment my Biological knowledge I hope will allow me to transition into the biotechnology industry and open up a wider set off job opportunities that a conventional Biology PhD wouldn’t facilitate.

What have you found most challenging about the CDT course?

Choosing what units to take from a very large selection of choices. It was a good challenge to have.