Wezi Sendama
Academic Clinical Lecturer
What have you gained from it?
The Academic Clinical Lecturer post has allowed me protected time to engage in postdoctoral research and work towards an intermediate research fellowship. I was lucky enough to be granted a post-CCT extension to the ACL post after completion of clinical training, which has allowed me to continue my research alongside working as a consultant in respiratory medicine at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
I have been able to develop skills in bioinformatics and have been successful in gaining external funding to undertake pilot research into immune receptor repertoire dynamics in chronic lung disease. I have been involved in journal peer reviewing and editing, and I was appointed to the Early Career Editorial Group of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Next steps will involve submitting applications for intermediate-level fellowships, and the ACL post provides adequate and valuable time to develop such applications.
What would you recommend about it to others?
The ACL post allows you to follow threads of research that you develop during your doctoral research training. In addition, the external funding of the post allows a degree of flexibility in the nature of clinical work that you undertake, which allows you to develop specialist interests that might dovetail with and facilitate your research.