Alumni Profile Callum Costello
Course: BSc Biomedical Science and MRes Molecular Medicine
Current position: Abzena/AbCellera
"The course gave me a huge number of transferable skills which allowed me to start my career in industry at a running pace."
What did you do before you started your MRes degree?
Studied for a BSc Biomedical Science at 亚洲色吧.
Why did you decide to do an MRes in Molecular Medicine at 亚洲色吧?
Having been at the university for my undergraduate degree, I was aware of and attracted to the research areas NWCR staff were investigating. Given the positive experience I had with the department during my undergraduate degree, and the opportunity to receive KESS2 funding for the MRes, I decided to remain at 亚洲色吧 and continue this through to my postgraduate level.
What do you think was most valuable in the course?
Spending ~9 months in the lab gaining both the practical and critical thinking skills necessary for a career in science, either in academia or industry, is invaluable. This has been especially true after the last few years where practical experience has had to take a backseat because of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns.
What was the most challenging aspect of the course? What did you learn from this?
Outside of the specific research area, which I found challenging and rewarding in itself, learning how to organise myself and my experiments with less input from a supervisor was the biggest hurdle that I faced. However, by spending every day in the lab performing experiments and gaining experience, you quickly learn how to plan in advance and fit the pieces of the puzzle that is research together in a way that makes increasingly more sense as the weeks fly by.
Where have you been employed since? What are you doing now?
Straight after completing my MRes, I worked for Abzena, a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) in the Cell Line Development (CLD) department based in Cambridge, UK. Here I worked on client projects to produce Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell-lines that express a variety of proteins, such as Antibodies, Fc-Fusion Proteins, and Viral-like Particles, for use in vaccines or therapeutic scenarios. However, I have recently secured a position in the new CLD group at Abcellera in Vancouver, Canada. As part of the team, I will be performing many of the same roles as at Abzena, but with the added opportunity to be a part of the development and setup of a new department at the company, working to develop a new platform cell-line and continue to work in drug discovery and development. At both Abzena and AbCellera, we utilise a large array of advanced automation equipment, from liquid handlers and ddPCR machines, to bioreactors ranging in size from 15mL to 2000L. This allows us to provide purified material to research teams throughout the drug development process up to clinical trials.