2017 Molecular and Cellular Medicine Hi, my name is Natasha and I studied Biomedical Sciences at Balliol. I’m now doing a DPhil in Molecular and Cellular Medicine (at Balliol and the Kennedy Institute), on the effect of gut microbes on the vaccine response. I was a JCR women’s officer in my 2nd year, and co-ran an all-women funk band, which has had multiple Balliol members. I am an enthusiastic home-fermenter and my project will be on kombucha brewery culture. Kombucha is a lightly sparkling fermented tea which has exploded in popularity in the US in recent years. As someone interested in both microbiology and experimental food, I would love to visit kombucha breweries in New York, Portland, Seattle, and California to meet the innovators and eccentrics who run them. I want to learn more about their processes; the bacteria and yeast they use; the conditions they have optimised and the flavour combinations they have developed. I’m excited to hear the stories of the breweries and the customers who frequent them; the human cultures that form around the microbial cultures. Balliol has been my home for the past five years, and I can’t wait to meet Balliol’s network of alumni.