EXPERIENCING the intricacies of medical research has fuelled the ambitions of a Penrhos College student.
Sophia Stannard (15) was one of two WA students to secure mentoring opportunities with some of Australia’s top health and medical research institutions as part of a health research internship from Research Australia.
The Mt Pleasant resident recently experienced the working life of a medical researcher under the supervision of professional researchers from Curtin University’s school of biomedical science.
“The most important things I learnt included how medical research investigations are conducted, how to use the equipment and understand how it works, as well as grasping the structure of cells,” Sophia said.
“I also received some very valuable guidance about my future studies.”
Sophia said as part of the internship, she assisted in an investigation to identify if extracts from a native plant would selectively kill a line of cancer cells before human cells.
“It was exciting as the results will help further studies by an honours student to find out exactly what the compounds in this plant do,” she said.