The travel support that I received from AEA, assisted my trip to Cambridge University, UK where I spent a month as a Policy Analyst Intern in the Science Division at the Public Health Genomics (PHG) Foundation. During my placement at the PHG Foundation, I conducted research related to Breast Cancer Stratification (B-Cast) which is a multicentre European project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research grant.
B-Cast aims to improve knowledge of genomic factors that influence breast cancer risk in order to develop individual-specific risk information. I published a blog based on my findings on the PHG Foundation website (buff.ly/2zAPMkL ) and produced a scoping review of the literature on personalized cancer prevention for the Foundation, which will also serve as a chapter in my PhD thesis. I had the opportunity to attend training workshops at the University of Cambridge, establish new collaborations with international leaders in cancer genomics research and present my PhD work to the Foundation and other groups (such as the Cancer Group, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge).
This funding also supported my attendance and poster presentation at the European Society of Human Genetics conference, Milan, Italy, at which I networked and established new international collaborations with leading researchers in genomics research.
I am very grateful for this travel funding from AEA as it enabled all of these opportunities that have greatly benefitted my PhD research and international network of collaborators.
