Biomedical Science covers subjects from Anatomy and Biochemistry to Virology and Zoology. In this menu, we have provided some examples of these, with a brief introduction to current research and careers in each field.

Specialization and interdisciplinarity

As research careers progress, they often become more specialist. For example, a pharmacologist may become a neuropharmacologist or an immunologist may become an immunogeneticist or a vaccinologist. Sometimes these titles reflect not only specialization, but  research going on at the interface between different fields. This sort of interdisciplinary research can be some of the most productive and exciting - where the scientific outlook or techniques of one discipline are applied to another field. For example, applying genetic approaches to the study of developmental biology has resulted in an explosion of knowledge in "developmental genetics." Using the techniques of molecular biology to clone new genes and sequence genomes continues to open up new lines of research in pharmacology, neurology and most other areas of biomedicine. 

Learned Societies and professional bodies

There is a wealth of professional bodies and learned societies - in the UK, other countries and internationally - that have been established by scientists to represent and promote research in their particular fields. For different subjects, there are web links to some UK societies on the RELATED links on the right. But this is not exhaustive. If you do not find your subject - try googling your field of interest - as these organisations can often provide some specific careers advice and job opportunities. They also organize meetings where scientists with similar interests can exchange ideas, often publish specialist journals and provide small grants or fellowships in their specific subjects.