Name: Saarah Hussain
Degree: Medical Physics
Project Title: Incorporating spatiotemporal patterns of brain development into paediatric brain tumour radiotherapy planning to reduce treatment side effects
Supervisors: Dr Jamie Dean and Mohammad Amin Lessan

As my 10-week summer placement with UCL Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering officially comes to an end, I am incredibly thankful to have had the opportunity to contribute towards research in paediatric brain tumour radiotherapy alongside an amazing team of students and professionals alike.

The interdisciplinary nature of this project is perhaps what caught my attention to begin with; combining my interests in software engineering, coding, and physics, while also delving into the intricate world of healthcare. This multi-faceted project presented a stimulating and challenging opportunity which aligned perfectly with my career aspirations, offering an opportunity to truly make a meaningful impact.

The spatiotemporal variation in radiosensitivity is not accounted for in current treatment approaches – which may go some way in explaining why debilitating neurocognitive side effects due to radiation-induced brain damage occur all-too-often. At the very crux of this project lies the desire to exploit this spatiotemporal variation in order to design novel personalised planning approaches which can avoid the most radiosensitive regions of the brain.

My role thus involved engaging in a diverse range of data analysis tasks encompassing both human brain data and mouse brain data. During the early stages of my placement, I conducted a comparative study on the apoptotic sensitivity of various genes by analysing gene expression data obtained through RNA sequencing. Creating visual representations depicting this data across distinct brain regions and at different life stages offered valuable insights into the spatiotemporal variations in radiosensitivity within both human and mouse datasets. Particularly noteworthy were the similar patterns observed in both datasets; these findings highlight the comparability between the human brain and the mouse brain and, most importantly, their analogous responses to radiotherapy.

The latter part of my placement primarily involved investigating the mouse brain radiotherapy response with a view to comparing this with human radiotherapy predictions. This was made possible using a dataset with multi-modal imaging of proton-irradiated mouse brains – containing CBCT and MRI scans, a mouse brain atlas, and whole-brain tissue sections with histochemical and immunofluorescent markers for morphology. By using the DAPI-stained histology images to count the number of nuclei across different brain regions, we can compare nuclei count between irradiated and unirradiated areas and thus provide valuable insight into cell loss due to radiotherapy.

It has certainly been a challenging 10 weeks – yet it was this very challenge which ensured that every single day was as stimulating as the day before. Working closely with everyone in the lab has been the greatest pleasure and I have been incredibly fortunate to join such a friendly and welcoming team. My supervisors in particular have been amazing and I am incredibly grateful for their support, time, and guidance over the past 10 weeks as they helped me to navigate an entirely new domain and build an entirely new skillset.

To have really been immersed in the world of healthcare research has been such an enjoyable and rewarding journey. At its core, research is collaborative. I think that has been one of my key takeaways from the past 10 weeks – and contributing in discussions with researchers from leading universities all over the world has definitely shown me just how true that is. From the familiar world of Python, to the very unfamiliar world of QuPath, Napari, Cellpose, Fiji, and beyond… this placement has certainly been – above all – a learning experience.

I am eagerly looking forward to continuing on this journey and applying the valuable skills I’ve acquired during this placement throughout my degree and beyond – perhaps even as part of my own PhD one day. A massive thank you to UCL Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering for giving me the opportunity to delve deeper into the world of Medical Physics and to contribute towards research that truly makes a difference.

It has certainly been an eventful academic year – one which has flown by far too quickly! Yet in the hustle and bustle of student life, perhaps now is as good a time as ever to take a step back and reflect on the year that has very much characterised the stepping-stone into adulthood.

As with anything, the transition from school to university is a uniquely personal experience. But what seems to ring true for us all is the fact that there will always be some things that feel smooth-sailing, and other things that feel like an entirely new world. Oftentimes we get hung up on the unfamiliar; navigating new lives and new homes and new people without any real indication of where to go. Yet at the very crux of the student experience lies the awkwardly-endearing friendships we form along the way; friendships which make that transition just that much easier.

Studying Medical Physics at UCL has been an incredibly fun rollercoaster of emotions. From ice cream breaks during lab sessions (in the middle of winter…) to the existential crises during exam season, my first year of this course has certainly been one to remember. Yet what has become abundantly clear over the past twelve months is that I feel content knowing that choosing to study Medical Physics here at UCL was indeed the right choice.

That’s not to say that it has been a walk in the park. The course content and academia is inevitably challenging – but it is by no means unattainable. Studying a subject as multi-faceted as this truly is remarkable; combining the wonders of Physics with Medicine, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering, this degree offers the flexibility for each student to select modules across these disciplines, allowing us to tailor our education in the way that fits us best.

Perhaps my favourite part of this year has been embarking on a research journey as part of the MPBE Summer Studentship programme. To have had the opportunity to learn about and contribute towards paediatric brain tumour radiotherapy research at such an early stage of my academic career reflects the abundance of opportunities available to us as students here within the MPBE Department – and may just be why so many students end up going on to do their PhD within the department that has always been so warm and welcoming.

This past year has been one of growth and laughter. And it has also been a year of setbacks and unfamiliarity. The good and the bad accompany one another; they both exist, simultaneously. Yet if quantum entanglement has taught us one thing, it is that it takes knowing one to know the other. We must know the bad before we can know the good, and vice versa. And I am beyond excited to continue this journey here at UCL – knowing that despite the challenges that are yet to come, there is always so much to celebrate throughout it all.

This blog was written by Saarah, Medical Physics