Agata Zielinska

- UCL's MSc programme in Fertility and infertility; science and society - UCL's BSc programme in Reproductive Science and Women’s Health Graded in cummulative student feedback as 91.9/100.

Sex Chromosome Biology Laboratory: exploiting advanced microscopy techniques in pre-implantation embryos to understand how cellular sex (i.e. being a male or a female embryo) shapes the developmental potential at the beginning of life.

Locum medical doctor (Senior House Officer level) at Imperial College NHS Trust - weekend/ad hoc shifts to maintain a high level of applied medical skills during Basic Research phase.

Clinical rotations in Nephrology and Acute Medicine (included looking after acutely unwell patients during the COVID-19 pandemic). Research block in Academic Medicine (Clinical Trials Unit at Imperial College London, topic: Human Infertility).

Clinical Trials Doctor in Reproductive Endocrinology as part of Prof. Waljit Dhillo's and Dr Ali Abbara's research group,. performed as part of the Academic Foundation Programme.

Clinical rotations in Liaison Psychiatry, Surgery and Stroke Medicine. Included providing hospital care to patients during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Group of Professor Mitinori Saitou. Learnt how to perform IVG (In Vitro Gametogenesis), i.e. produce functional female mouse gametes from stem cells.

Together with Prof. Melina Schuh's department, provided tutorials in Gametogenesis and Chromosome Dynamics and graded end-of-year exams for MSc/PhD students enrolled at the GGNB International Max Planck Research School.

Medical degree at University of Cambridge, with an intercalated BSc degree in Developmental Biology (2010) and a PhD in Cell/Reproductive Biology (2018). Awards and honours during the medical studies: - Tripos Prize (2012) - Amgen Programme Scholar (2012) - Trinity College Exam Prize (2013) - Ver Heyden de Lancey Prize, awarded “to undergraduates who have most distinguished themselves in their studies in the year in which they qualify themselves for the Bachelor’s degree” (2013) - Senior Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge (2013-2014) - Junior Research Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge (2014 - 2017) - Amgens Scholar's Programme Alumni Travel Award (2017) - Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Travel Grant (2017) - Target Ovarian Cancer Prize (2020), co-organised with RCOG (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists)

Implementation of advanced microscopy techniques to understand why human eggs are particularly prone to aneuploidy. First reseach phase done at the University of Cambridge (2014-2016), second research phase (2016-2018) done at the Max Planck Institute in Goettingen. PhD work resulted in 6 first author/first-co author publications, including journals like Science, Nature Communications and eLife. Co-authored a book chapter with Prof. Melina Schuh. Awards: - The Otto Hahn Medal, awarded by the Max Planck Society (2019) for “ground-breaking work on the molecular mechanism underlying the maternal-age effect in human oocytes”; prize money €7,500 ((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Hahn_Medal)) - DGZ Nikon Young Scientist of 2018 Award; awarded to one PhD student or young postdoc by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zellbiologie (DGZ) for outstanding scientific achievements; prize money €1,500 ((https://zellbiologie.de/en/awards/))

First part of PhD conducted at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (2014-2016). In 2016, the lab of Prof. Melina Schuh moved to the Max Planck of Institute in Goettingen, Germany.

Overall ranked 2nd in the year, including a top 80% mark for the experimental research thesis with Prof. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Cambridge, UK.