Rebekka Koeck

During my pre-clinical training from 2011-2014 at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, I discovered my interest in human development and selected several modules focusing on the formation of different organ systems. I wanted to learn more about these intricate processes, so I chose to interrupt my medical degree to do a Master of Research in Maternal and Fetal Health at Manchester University, which I completed in 2015. During my master’s degree I had the opportunity to do an internship in the lab of Professor John Aplin where I used in vitro model to study the effects of environmentally induced embryo stress on the process of implantation. I returned to Brighton and Sussex Medical School to complete my clinical training in 2018 before working as a junior doctor in different hospitals of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS trust. Throughout my clinical training I maintained a focus on obstetrics and fertility, by choosing to do extra placements in these specialties and being secretary of the university’s obstetrics and gynaecology society. I wanted to delve deeper into the topics I had been introduced to in my Masters internship and contribute to the improvement of fertility treatments, so in 2019 I joined the Cellular Genomic Medicine group as a PhD candidate to study the epigenome dynamics of early human development and the impact of the environment on these processes.