Dr David Owen, MRC clinician scientist and honorary consultant, Imperial College London
What do you do? and what is a typical week for you?
I spend the majority of my time (approx. 90%) doing research and the rest doing clinical medicine on the wards. When I’m on the wards I’m doing the same as all other acute/general medical consultants. When I’m doing research my time is mainly spent talking to the post docs and students in my team – planning which experiment we need to do, how to do them, and then trying to interpret the results.
What qualifications and experience do you have?
My qualifications are the same as other general medical specialties – a medical degree and MRCP. I also have a PhD, which I did whilst a junior registrar to help me decide whether research was for me. If you are interested in research, a PhD is an ideal way to find out whether you want to make it your career. As for experience, again same as the other medical specialties. 2 years as a Medical Senior House Officer (SHO) then 5 years as a Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Specialty Trainee Registrar.
What’s the most interesting aspect of your job?
Finding out new stuff about the world is one of the most fun things you can do. A wise supervisor once told me, nature doesn’t give out its secrets easily, so it is extremely rewarding when you uncover one. Obviously it’s all the better if the secret you uncover can be used to cure a disease (but in all honesty, that doesn’t happy very often!)
What are your research interests?
The immune system probably doesn’t cause dementia, but the way it responds to neurodegeneration is very important in how the disease progresses. Lots of people are trying to understand whether drugs can be used to modulate immune responses in order to slow progression of dementia, and I am one of them
What one piece of advice would you give to someone seeking a career in clinical pharmacology?
Clinical Pharmacology offers a very flexible and varied career and most of us who do it find it extremely rewarding and great fun. But it requires you to be self-driven in a way that other specialties perhaps don’t (because in other specialties the road is mapped out for you in a stricter way). So if you are interested in how drugs work, and in research, join us!