Honours Program
If you are enrolled in an honours program, the Biomedicine Student Research Hub can provide extra depth to your project.
About
A lot of freedom in designing your own research
Set your own goals and learn or enhance the skills of your own choice
Access to the well-equipped Biomedicine Student Research Hub lab
Approachable supervisors that can help and guide you, with short lines to local research
Experience what working in a lab is like
Work on real-world, relevant research
Connect to other Student Research Hubs at UMC Utrecht and/or Utrecht University
Opportunities for interdisciplinary research
Following the successful first edition of the Honours Innovation project, we would like to continue in this academic year as well! During the first edition students honed their creativity by working on an innovative project developing nanobody-based immunotherapy for the paediatric brain cancer medulloblastoma (for more information about the outcomes of the previous project, please follow the link to UU news message: Honours students discover potential immunotherapy for brain cancer in linked research hubs - Students UU). In this 20-week project talented students had the freedom write, plan, and conduct their own research. Working in a small, interdisciplinary group allowed them to improve their critical thinking, communication, and creativity. The project is designed to give students full reign of their own research and get an realistic impression of what it is like to be a full-fledged researcher.
Students worked in Biotechnology Student Research HUB (Kruijt building) and Biomedicine Student Research HUB (UMCU), facilitating collaboration across various disciplines to bridge the bench to bedside gap in translational medicine. In this upcoming edition, we are able to offer even larger network of HUBs which students can contact and establish collaborations, should their project require so.
The new project will start at the beginning of period 3 of the 2024-2025 academic year until the end of period 4 (Monday February 3rd 2025 until Friday June 27th 2025). Students will start by reading into the topic and planning their next research steps, while focusing on in vitro modelling of blood-brain barrier and delivery of immunotherapy to treat medulloblastoma (overarching topic for edition 2025). Guidance and overarching topic is provided by research experts, but Honours students are in charge of their own research plan, experiments, and angle from which they wish to address the topic, based on their own interests, wishes, and expertise. It is hands-on lab research, and there is a lot of freedom to design experiments and plan next steps and angle from which the project should be tackled.
Moreover, during the first few weeks, students start up in the lab and are taught relevant research techniques for their project (e.g. cell culture work with specific focus on medulloblastoma cell lines and potentially organoids, and immune cells; flow cytometry, western blot, qPCR, killing assays, 3D in vitro modelling). The schedule of the project can be tailored to the Honours students’ agendas, courses, and Honours requirements. This means that students can also work part-time and plan their experiments based on their availability, as long as it is during periods 3 and 4. Even tough students work together, they write an individual research report or thesis from their viewpoint, discipline, and perspective. Group final presentation is organized at the end of the project, however individual presentation can be scheduled if required by their respective Honours program. That being said, the only requirements are that the project is done sometime in the periods 3 and/or 4 (part-time or full-time), and that you are an Honours student and do this project as a part of your Honours (it can be considered as an extra assignment you need to do, or for your bachelor thesis, etc).
We hope to welcome new, enthusiastic Honours students for our upcoming project this academic year and grant them the freedom to do their own research.
Deadline for applications is extended until 1st of November. Students can send their applications (including CV and short motivation) via the form available on the website (https://www.biomedicinestudentresearchhub.com/education-honours-program) and questions about the project to bachelorresearchhub@umcutrecht.nl.
Example below:
