“Start early, think about what you want to get out of the research project”

After Bhaskar Sharma had finished his bachelor in Biotechnology in India, he concluded that for his future he wanted to focus on combining Science and Business. Therefore, he did not aim to do another ‘wet lab’ research project, but something more related to the ‘business’ part. After a lot of emails to research groups, he managed to find a project through 'Konjoin' in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology that he finds very interesting and instructive.

Bhaskar started by shortlisting research groups focusing on cancer and mailed a lot of labs, but without results. Then he contacted the programme coordinator Anje de Graaf, and she pointed out to him the existence of the research project site Konjoin. This eventually led to him finding his project.

The project he is doing revolves around the market authorisation of a new therapy to treat cancer. This therapy can treat any cancer form if the origin is the same. Two of these kinds of drugs have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Now the question for the European countries is if and how they want to include treatment with this therapy in their healthcare system.

His advice for new SBM students: start early, think about what you want to get out of the research project and thus what kind of group to look for. And make use of the information on the SBM website about finding a research project. “Everything is on it!” Also: stay in contact with programme coordinator Anje de Graaf. “She is really approachable and helpful!’