Nebangwa Derrick
Intern at NIHR BioResource
I am a PhD student at King’s College London doing biomedical research in drug discovery. I use methods in computational biology in the Fraternaili’s group and wetlab-based techniques in the De Nicola’s group, to answer my research questions in the quest to identify inhibitors against IL-1-mediated inflammation and associated diseases.
I am very pleased to be offered this great chance by the Health Data Research (HDR) UK Black Internship Programme to grow my clinical data analyses skills. This opportunity comes with several benefits to both my academic and research careers. I take keen interest in drug development, conducting early phase human trials to address safety and efficacy concerns of new therapeutic molecules. Indeed, for this programme, I am hosted by the NIHR BioResource for Translational Research at Cambridge University – an ideal match with my interests. The Bioresource network recruits and manages about 200,000 active patients and healthy individuals across the UK, with interests to participate in medical research and provides a rich platform to gain skills in bioinformatics and clinical research data analyses. During my training, I was fortunate to work with Neil Walker, the Clinical Bioinformatics & Statistical Genomics Manager of the Cambridge centre. Neil has a wealth of experience in managing and analysing health data, with more than 100 publications under his belt. On this note, I would like to extend gratitude to the organisers of the Health Data Science Black Internship Programme for granting us access to such a wonderful scheme.