During the 6 week period from the 18th of June to the 30th July 2025, I had the incredible opportunity to conduct research in the TB immunology lab led by Professor Keane in the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute in St James’ Hospital in Dublin. This research was for a project entitled ‘Identifying potential host directed therapies to enhance the innate immune response in macrophages to Mycobacterium Abscessus infection’. Mycobacterium abscessus(Mabc) causes infection in patients with chronic lung diseases like cystic fibrosis(CF) and Ireland has the highest incidence rate of CF in the world. Mabc infection is difficult to treat because of its significant drug resistance and ability to evade the body’s immune response to infection. My project focused on investigating how Mabc affects the host immune response(through processes like autophagy) so that we can identify medications that can possibly be used in the future to treat Mabc infection. The way these drugs work would be to boost the host immune response instead of trying to directly kill Mabc(like traditional antibiotics to which Mabc is resistant) and these types of medications are called host-directed therapies.
My personal experience of the project was an absolutely amazing one. This research project was unlike anything I had ever done previously and I found the whole experience incredibly useful. I was fortunate to have incredible supervisors who supported me virtually every step of the way, either with their physical presence in the lab beside me or through being reachable and engaged via email. The project is in an extremely niche area at the intersection of respiratory medicine and immunology and so if it weren’t for the effort and commitment from my supervisors, this project would certainly have been a much more challenging and discouraging experience.
Being faced with the realities of conducting lab based research from Day 1 was certainly a baptism of fire but looking back now that was definitely the right way to start. Working in a lab requires immense focus, attention to detail and diligence and a major part of my induction was to attain the skills and competence necessary to be able to physically conduct and execute the experiments myself. These skills were initially foreign to me as there is little overlap between medicine and labwork but gradually as I got further into my research I became more comfortable. As the weeks passed, we needed to become increasingly strategic in our overall planning to ensure we’d produce a coherent set of results by the end and while this step was again, quite challenging, I enjoyed the exercise of figuring out how best to optimise the research in order to maximise the yield of the time I had in the lab.
The most exciting part of my research was being in the lab, working in biological safety cabinets because I found this step the most rewarding as there was the most drastic change in my ability across the 6 weeks. The work itself was not always the most riveting but the overall process and attention to detail demanded my best and it was the most exciting and busy day of the week. Another moment that was undoubtedly exciting was when we had collected all of our results and it became time to focus on producing the poster. I really enjoyed having to process all of the information and thinking how best to create a coherent story for my poster to tell and then consider different options to make the poster visually appealing and engaging. This combined with the not insignificant task of finding a way to explain my research in an easy to understand way was the final hurdle in ‘conquering’ my research and the prospect of being finished and ready to present was certainly an exciting one.
One of my biggest learnings from this whole experience was how crucial a role research plays in the medical system and how it forms the backbone of every treatment plan and novel treatment strategy. It is only after the tireless toil of a team of researchers that drugs can be approved and improved care can be delivered to patients. Staying involved in research is definitely something that I want to continue as I progress through my career and I am certain that without this research project whetting my academic appetite, I would not have held this opinion at this stage otherwise. I also found immense benefit in the multidisciplinary nature of the lab. I was the only student conducting research but I was surrounded at the bench by PhD’s, MD’s, post-docs and SPR’s. They were extremely willing to help me out in any way they could and this combined with their extensive expertise made for an incredibly friendly and supportive environment in the lab.
Ultimately, this research was an amazing experience and I am honoured to have been given this opportunity by the Laidlaw Programme and my supervisors. I would never have spent my summer doing anything remotely close to this but I am glad I did because it has been a surprisingly enjoyable and fulfilling experience. I’ve learned a lot about the importance of planning and conversely the harsh realities of executing plans. I’ve had to throw myself into the deep end and pick up new skills and practice them well enough to execute my research and that taught me a lot about myself as a person and student and also what type of leadership styles lend themselves to making people feel comfortable learning and allowing them to learn in a healthy and challenging environment. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows but life rarely is and as such I think this research project has taught me plenty far beyond the realm of Mycobacteria and will continue to be an experience I look back at fondly as my hair grows grey and that is the best way to capture why this was such an incredible experience - it taught me things I needed to know, taught me things I didn’t know existed and taught me a whole hell of a lot in between.