I would like to do a PhD in the area of virology however the groups I am interested in have stated on websites they can only take self funded students.
Is this a realistic possiblilty for someone striaght out of university? Does anyone know how much I should expect it to cost to self fund a PhD in a Biochemical subject?
Thanks.

In lab science, it would be nigh on impossible to self fund a PhD via one's own saving etc. As well as your living expenses (variable) and the university tuition fees (~£5000/year) you would need a huge amount of money for lab costs/equipment/consumables: ~£10-20K per year.

I suspect when labs say they are willing to take self funded students, they mean that they are happy to have someone do the work, so long as they bring their own studentship/fellowship funding with them e.g. international students who have sponsorship from their home governments, or UK students who take the project proposal and make an application to Wellcome/the MRC/BBRSC etc.

If you are interested in a particular lab, get in contact with them and have a chat about what the state of play is. It may be that they are planning to apply for a project/programme grant in 18 months time, and if they think you would be a good candidate to join them they will write your project into the application. In the meantime, you might get some research assistant work, which would be great experience for you.

Ive just finished a PhD in Virology and I cant imagine that self funding would be possible. Reagents are very expensive and hours in the lab are very long (for everyone in our lab anyway) due to time points and huge amounts of cell culture. There simply would not be time to have a part time job on the side to support yourself. Even if you have sufficient savings to cover living expenses I would encourage you to apply to funded positions - I have seen several advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Most lab based PhDs are funded - I dont know anyone that has done an unfunded one. Is there a reason these labs of which you speak are not attracting funding?