{"id":873,"date":"2020-07-27T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/?p=873"},"modified":"2020-07-24T08:21:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T08:21:32","slug":"thomas-barbera-research-technician-department-of-metabolism-digestion-and-reproduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2020\/07\/27\/thomas-barbera-research-technician-department-of-metabolism-digestion-and-reproduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Barbera, Research Technician, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the lockdown\u00a0<\/span>b<\/span>egan, I ensured that the multitude of samples in our department were safe, meaning our liquid nitrogen tanks were filled and our -80 freezers were monitored.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

I studied\u00a0Biomedical Science at the University of Manchester and after graduating, I worked as a Laboratory Technician\u00a0before joining Imperial.\u00a0<\/span>In my current role as a Research Technician, my main duties include aiding clinical trials alongside\u00a0<\/span>biobanking<\/span>.\u00a0Biobanking involves approaching<\/span>\u00a0outpatients attending clinics to manage their liver-based diseases, and asking them to donate extra samples to our\u00a0biobank sample repository. These will then\u00a0be used in research to investigate liver disease, pending approval from the\u00a0Biobank Governance Committee.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>A<\/span>s well as\u00a0<\/span>working at Imperial, I am\u00a0<\/span>also\u00a0<\/span>completing my master\u2019s in clinical research.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

COVID<\/span>-19<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>has impacted<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>both\u00a0<\/span>my job\u00a0and studies. Most ongoing clinical trials in our department were put on a hiatus to prevent unnecessary risk to participants. Also, with most outpatient appointments now over the phone,\u00a0biobanking was paused. With labs in lockdown, I am also unable to continue with my\u00a0<\/span>MRes<\/span>\u00a0research project. As the peak of the pandemic has (hopefully) passed, trials are now\u00a0beginning to resume and hopefully in time lab\u00a0work will return to normal.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the lockdown\u00a0beg<\/span>a<\/span>n, I ensure<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>t<\/span>hat the multitude of samples in our department were safe, meaning our liquid nitrogen tanks were filled and our -80 freezers were monitored.\u00a0<\/span>I was able to step up and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>organise<\/span>\u00a0the emergency plans and essential duties of our department<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0was invited to participate in the weekly senior lab\u00a0management meetings.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also supported during this time\u00a0by\u00a0<\/span>locat<\/span>ing<\/span>\u00a0and donat<\/span>ing<\/span>\u00a0as much PPE as we could spare. The research nurses and clinicians in my department were key players in the early COVID-19 trials. I assisted where I could, mainly helping to\u00a0<\/span>organise<\/span>\u00a0the safe transport of samples to our department and storing them appropriately to allow future work to\u00a0be carried out.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of my colleagues\u00a0bravely joined the front line, having the clinical experience that was desperately needed. I work hard and do what I can to help, trying to follow their example.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs the lockdown\u00a0began, I ensured that the multitude of samples in our department were safe, meaning our liquid nitrogen tanks were filled and our -80 freezers were monitored.\u201d\u00a0 I studied\u00a0Biomedical Science at the University of Manchester and after graduating, I worked as a Laboratory Technician\u00a0before joining Imperial.\u00a0In my current role as a Research Technician, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294815],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}