Meet student Isabell von Loga

What year are you and what is your PhD on?

I'm a second year DPhil in Musculoskeletal Sciences. I'm part of the Vincent Group and am looking into molecular pathogenesis of pain in osteoarthritis.

What is your day-to-day like? What does your research involve?

The beautiful thing about lab work is that there isn't a typical day, really. Depending on experiments, I could be in a high-throughput phase of experiments, meaning I will be at the lab bench all day. Other days, it's time to write up so most of my time is spent on my computer analysing and putting it together. We also spend a good deal of our time making sure our work gets out there, so putting together presentations and talks is part of it, too.

What is your background? And what brought you to a DPhil at NDORMS, Oxford? 

I did my undergraduate degree at Princeton University, where I studied psychology and neuroscience. After that, I went to medical school at Imperial College London, where my spark of rheumatology got ignited. I have ever since joined NDORMS and am part of the osteoarthritis centre now. This includes my supervisor, Prof Tonia Vincent, and the entire lab group spanning from summer students, to, PhDs, post-docs, and everything in between. We're part of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology.

What is it like to be a DPhil student at Oxford?

Outside of my work at the Kennedy, I'm part of the Oxford University Women's Boat Club, which participates in the annual Boat Race on the Thames against that other place. I'm President for the season 2016/17 and thus spend most if not all of my non-research time on the water or in the gym with my teammates.

Any other comments you wish you'd read from students when you were applying?

Our institute and lab has an incredibly friendly vibe and it makes working here a great experience.