After a year at Oxford Uni, back to Bendigo
The opportunities that come about through spending time at one of the School of Rural Health clinical schools are as diverse as they are interesting. Just ask Dr Joe O’Brien, a former Year 4C and Year 5D student who has returned to Bendigo after a 12 month research stint at Oxford University in the UK.
He is back in Bendigo working as an intern at Bendigo Health. The following is Joe’s story.
In the middle of my fourth year of medical school in 2010, I made an eleventh hour decision to do a BMedSc but narrowly missed out on securing a research position at one of the overseas institutions I had been corresponding with.
With the permission of the university to do a BMedSc post-5th year, and a very understanding Monash supervisor on board – the affable and ever so efficient Associate Professor Pamela Snow – I now had a whole year to nail down a project anywhere I like, in any field of my choosing. This is how I ended up completing a lab-based project at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolism.
Under the supervision of Professor Fredrik Karpe, an expert in the field of lipid and diabetes metabolism, I spent roughly nine months investigating the role of novel nucleic acids known as micro-RNA in the metabolic inflammation of obesity.
Roughly put, the risk of thromboembolic events in the obese is mostly driven by the rupture of atherosclerotic (fatty) plaques in the arteries. Inflammation is a big factor in what makes parts of these plaques flick off, and bigger-than-normal fat cells put out a lot of inflammatory chemicals into the bloodstream.
My project was essentially trying to make it ‘safer’ to be fat by playing about with these microRNAs, turning off the inflammatory part of their cellular pathways.
After several months of labwork, I completed my thesis. Unfortunately the result was negative, but the concept of manipulating inflammatory cellular signals with microRNA is still in its infancy and remains a promising field for future work.
My 12 months in the UK were amazing, and I was exposed to a world class centre of research. I would never have been able to complete my project without the help of the team at OCDEM and Bendigo’s own Pam Snow. I would encourage any students contemplating a BMedSc year to ensure they have a supervisor as helpful as Pam, because you never know what challenges the year will throw in your direction.
I have followed up a successful 2012 by officially starting my medical career here at Bendigo Base Hospital. The time I spent in Bendigo as a student has been invaluable towards ensuring a smooth transition from student to doctor.
This year I have the opportunity to rotate through Surgery, Medicine, Emergency and Cardiology. I look forward to completing the rest of my time here and am always happy to answer any questions students may have about career opportunities in rural medicine.
By Dr Joe O’Brien