This week, the IRES students participated in the pre-departure symposium. Over the week, we discussed IRES program logistics and I ran various workshops aimed at preparing students for their summer projects. The students learned how to prepare and present scientific posters, write conference abstracts, give an elevator pitch, present at lab group meetings as well as how to approach presenting complex scientific figures. Additionally, students had the opportunity to speak with previous IRES students to hear about their experiences in the program. Thanks again to our alumni panelists: Lauren, Molly and Sean. Lastly, students learned all about graduate school and spoke with a career panel to learn about the exciting opportunities available for PhDs. Thanks again to our career panelists: Drs. Anna Blakney, Margie Matthewson and Hermes Taylor-Weiner. This week wasn't all business though! We had a burrito dinner in La Jolla Shores and played a game of Mölkky, which, although it is a Finnish game, acquainted the students with Scandinavian lawn games :). Lucia was our victor - good work Lucia, you're a natural!

We left San Diego on Friday morning and arrived in Sweden on Saturday morning where the students settled into the dorms. On Sunday, I showed the students around campus and took them for lunch at Rosendals Trädgård. The students all head to lab for their first day on the 12th. Follow their journey here over the next 10 weeks where there will be new posts every week.  

Mark Chapman, NSF-IRES Program Director

Cevi

Week number one was an absolute blast! Too many adventures to even count. After our long journey to get here, we spent our days experiencing the incredible and simple pleasures of walking around Stockholm. The weather was in the 80s the whole weeks (25˚ C by Swedish standard of course), and in a dense and incredibly walkable city, we set out trying to explore as much as possible every day. Our first day we happened to walk down Drottninggatan (the lovely pedestrian only Queens street) to the Galerian (a massive multilevel mall that seems to connect to every store imaginable) to Küngstradgården (a tree lined thoroughfare of small shops and fountains that lead to the water) for fika. Many of the adventures have been almost by accident, finding cool stores, statues, and beautiful architecture just by wandering into it. Later in the week, we got to start really planning with a trip to Haga Park to swim, Gamla Stan for history and views, and Gröna Lund for wild roller coasters. I got the unique opportunity to see the Swedish health care system first hand (ha), after I cut my hand climbing out of the lake at Haga Park (on day two, sorry Mark). When we got to the very near hospital, I got four stitches in after next to no waiting or paper work on the cheap (woot woot nationalized healthcare!).

Lab work has been absolutely lovely, with some of the nicest PI, postdocs, and grad students you’ll ever meet all trying to get me and Marissa oriented. We got to see a presentation from every lab on campus and they are all doing absolutely fantastic work, with everything from metabolomics and aging to spider silk synthesis. Our lab is very communal, we share lots of stories and get lots of advice, and talk through all our breaks together. The whole Karolinska is incredibly diverse, from four continents (depending how you count) in our lab alone. Everyone loves telling us how they learned to live and Sweden, and what they recommend for us to try next. This first week has been packed to the absolute gills, and hope to update you all soon!

Francisco

During the first week in Stockholm I explored a bit of the city. One of the major places I visited was Old Town (Gamla stan) which was amazing to see the old architecture. Along with this, I also visited an Ikea here which was very big. There was also a lot of walking around the city in general. In regards to my lab work, during this week I read a few papers to better understand my project and began the beginning stages of the project. One behavior I noticed that is different here compared to my background is that people don't do very much small talk here. I was told of this during the virtual training series, but wanted to see it for myself. It was a little surprising however I don't really mind as an introvert

Marissa

The first two weeks here have been amazing. The first week of work was related to catching up on the biological concepts behind the project, mainly sequencing techniques, and processes. On our first day we attended the annual BioNut meeting and had the opportunity to hear about the research going on in all of the labs that share the building with us which was amazing. My favorite part of working here has been getting to know the people in my lab and hearing about where they all came from and their passion for their research. It is quite energizing (and intimidating) to be surrounded by such innovation and the literal forefront of science.  

One huge thing that I have noticed while being here is the amount of international collaboration that happens within and between labs.  I've learned so much through our simple lunchtime conversations with my lab group about the cultural differences between our home countries, and their perceptions of being in Sweden and each other's respective countries.  I find that people here in Sweden mind their business, but it is interesting how our lab has formed a very communal bubble where we share food, space, and each other's company.  Every day I find that there is quite a lot to learn both within research and academia, but also within the social context of our world!

Outside of work, I spend every evening either walking around the city or at the Haga Park! Last week I picked up my bike, so now I am able to bike to my favorite cafe, Kaffeverket, and explore the further areas of the park that are so perfect for swimming and laying out in the sun. My favorite place in Stockholm so far has been Gamla Stan-- the city is so beautiful and lovely to walk around (and people watch!)  I've had an overwhelmingly great first two weeks, and am so excited to spend another two months here.  I already have a few trips planned while I am in Europe so there is a lot to look forward to.  I am excited to give more updates soon :D

Abby

It has been about two weeks since we have arrived in Stockholm! So far in my lab I have been reading papers and learning about single cell sequencing. I learned about different ways and how to analyzing H3.3 data from sci-TIP- seq. Such as recreating u-maps, box plots, finding the top genomic ranges that show H3.3 enrichment, finding overlap between the data I have been working with and data having to do from anterior cells, and using igv genome viewer. This week I plan on doing similar things but with H3.2 data. 

Stockholm is beautiful and there is so much to do! As a group we went to Vaxholm to celebrate midsommar, which was so much fun and really cool to see Swedish traditions! I like to walk to Hagapark and explore . It is so pretty and so nice it is so close. Additionally I have walked around  Gamla Stan, including touring the Royal Palace. One thing I noticed was the volume of talking is very quiet, especially compared to America. I can’t wait to continue to explore Stockholm and Europe and continue to learn in my lab! 

Lucia

I've only been in Stockholm for three weeks but boy does it feel like much longer than that, in the best way possible. My lab is absolutely amazing, I am so glad that I have already been able to meet so many people. Most of my time so far has been spent working on understanding everything that is happening in the dataset that I am working with. There is a lot of information that I hadn't encountered before in this form, but so far I've been able to pick up a lot of it fairly easily. Biomaterials, the topic of this project, is a field of bioengineering that I'm very excited about and happy to be working on it. 

Stockholm is an incredible city. It's laid out in such a way that makes it a very bike-friendly place. I rented a bike and have been using it to get around on weekends. During the weekdays, I mostly spend my afternoons wandering around on foot. I find that the best way to explore a city is truly to pick a direction and walk until you find something interesting. In these first weeks, I have spent a lot of time with my cohort on weekends. We went to Gröna Lund, an amusement park, together the first week and the second week was Midsummer so we went to Vaxholm to celebrate there. On Saturday, I went to Skansen, which is an outdoor museum/park to participate in their Midsummer festivities. So many people were there and there was so much to do! I'm super excited to spend more time in the many museums that Stockholm has. 

One thing that really struck me is that the work culture is so different here than in the US. Everyone works from 9 or 10 to 5, like in the US, but no one is willing to stay over. They seem to have a very healthy work-life balance that is something to be envious of. But at the same time, they enjoy spending time outside of work having fun and enjoying each other's company. The city is pretty vibrant after 5, even though most things close at 8 and since it's after Midsummer, most people will be vacationing in the next couple weeks. I can't wait to explore more! 

Chris

Hej! My first three weeks in Stockholm have been absolutely  incredible, from spending lots of time in the lab running experiments, to biking around the city, to exploring every possible recommended food place I can, it has been an absolute blast! In my lab itself, I have been mostly doing wet-lab work to gather the data necessary for my project. Before this, I have not had much lab experience, so getting to be a hands-on environment has been awesome! In addition to that, the lab culture is amazing here! Every day, we walk up the 7 flights of stairs ( we are an exercise physiology lab :) ) , to eat lunch on the roof with amazing views. 

Outside of the lab, I have explored so much of the city! Having a bike makes going everywhere MUCH easier as there are protected bike lanes that eeyrone uses. On a bike ride back from the grocery store after work, I usually am alongside tons of others biking home from work as well as many use this as their primary form of transportation! Everyone here is very active, so hiking, biking, and kayaking in the city has been by far my favorite thing to do! For example, last weekend Cevi and I biked ~ 20 miles ( 30 km!) while seeing the Swedish History museum, Djurgården , and Hagaparken. 

Last weekend we celebrated Midsummer out on Vaxholm which was a memory I will never forget.  We made our own flower crowns, danced around the maypole, and  enjoyed some locally grown delicious summer fruit from a farmers market . This weekend, my dad visited all the way from San Diego to come visit me! We took a weekend trip to Bergen, Norway which is a cute old fishing/trading town on the western coast of the country. For three days we hiked around the Bergen hills, cruised the fjords, and explored the Bryggen old town where Hanseatic merchants used to come trade in medieval times. An absolute blast for sure, and an incredible end to my first three weeks here! Hope to go on more adventures soon!

Cevi

Hi all!

The last month here has been an absolute blast! Life in the city has been a really fun story of exploration. The museums keep getting more and more amazing, and the most recent trip to the Vasa Museum was simply incredible (so much history visible at once!). With my girlfriend in town, I also tried a bunch of the most interesting and Swedish foods, including numerous cheeses, salted tomato caviar paste, lemon and melon salted chocolate licorice, and of course knackebröd (literally “crack bread,” which is excellent). The weather has been a little colder, which means bike rides and rain walks have been abundant!

At work, we’ve been making solid but slow progress on variant analysis of seven patients. We’ve also had a great time training a new student who entered our lab from a similar European exchange program. Our lab is very social and we’ve had a great time getting to know each other, and relying on one another for advice. 

One major challenge has been debugging with the sheer amount of data we are working with. We’re working with Sarek, a tool developed at NF Core in Sweden that uses Nextflow and relies on best practices developed in the US. Our main challenge in the analysis has been simply that our pipelines often timeout or run out of space days into running (or cause other more arcane errors), and then the next debugging step takes days to test again. This has taught me to treat working with errors much more carefully. Often in computer science, one leans into trying a bunch of options as quickly as possible, and then jumping to the next step. But with 1.5 Tb of data, you’ll spend a week on one SIGINT.

Working with Sarek has taught me to carefully document my mistakes because every one simply takes a very long time to work out. The added benefit is that as I’m working with Marissa, we can tag team much more effectively and prevent each other from running into those same challenges. On the whole, working with Sarek has still been pretty slow going, but we’re essentially nailing down everything broken until there’s just nothing left to break. The other resource that has been super useful is the team developing Sarek, who are both very friendly and surprisingly responsive (the benefits of working on a tool from the same timezone). They are also copious documenters of every kind of error, and so sifting through their many error reports and past advice has been incredibly instructive. Overall, Sarek has taught me that communicating how your tool works sometimes is much faster than keeping your notes to yourself.

Francisco

Since my last post I've been getting more accustomed with living in Stockholm. I have started to cook when I get home from the lab which is fun to do. In terms of my lab, I have been getting more progress done and believe I have reached close to the halfway point in terms of the steps I have to take in order to complete the research project. I have mainly been walking to the grocery store and seeing what's around the area in terms of exploring the city. I have also checked out the mall in central Stockholm a bit more and the design of it is very interesting and nothing like I've seen in the malls in Los Angeles. 

Once challenge that I've successfully overcome with my research work has been the challenge is trying to understand what it is I'm doing. To better explain it, I could easily do the coding aspect, however if I don't know why I am performing Flux Variability Analysis I would be somewhat lost and not understand the research as a whole. The way I have overcame this was to keep asking my direct supervisor questions about my research work and seeing if everything is correct and why we do these steps. What I learned from this is to not be afraid of asking questions which will be useful in the future for many applications such as a job. Asking many questions is a great way to learn more of what you are doing and help you understand better. 

Marissa

I couldn't have asked for a better first half of the summer. Work is great!  For the past couple of weeks, we have been learning how to read the output files that our variant pipeline produces.   This means doing quite a bit of research on the different tools that we use, and lots of programming!  Luckily, now that we worked through making the data look pretty and readable, we can extract more useful information about our patients and begin a very high-level description of the mutations present within the DNA of their tumor cells.   Getting to this point has been quite a journey.  I was a bit naive coming into our lab in thinking that everything will go the way I want it to go, but in reality, I have spent more than half my time debugging and working through errors in my pipeline just to get the WGS (whole genome sequencing) data annotated.   Technology is amazing! But it is not always perfect.  This has taught me to have a lot of patience and to be comfortable with pivoting.  While I am not sure if I have fully feated this challenge (or if I ever will), I am confident in saying that I am getting better at using my resources to help me overcome my troubleshooting challenges.

Outside of work, I still enjoy my time swimming and walking around.  This past weekend I spent a few days in Ireland.  Exploring the countryside and oceanside during the day and enjoying the scenes of the night has kept a smile on my face that still hasn't gone away.  That weekend was definitely a top-five experience of my life so far, one I will never forget!

Abby

I have been learning so much at work. My coding skills have improve immensely. As before the internship I had never worked with r programming, now I know how to do so much with it. I have been working on using r to analyze a single cell sequencing H3.2 data set. I have not only learned how to make umaps, scatter plots, bar graphs, and 3D plots but I have also learned the best and different ways to scale and color the plots to get a better understanding of what is happening. One challenge I have overcome is feeling stuck. While it still happens, my skills to research coding functions and to learn more about them on my own have increased a lot. I used to get overwhelm(still do at points) when my supervisor would say to use a certain function and I had never heard of it, but now I feel more confident being able to look more into it where I can use the function and reach my end goal.

After work I still enjoy walking to Hagaparken and exploring the city. I really like the museums, the photography one has been my favorite! On the weekends, I have been exploring other countries. Since the last post I have been to Tallinn, Paris and Edinburgh! It has been amazing! I have loved seeing all the different countries! 

Lucia

Wow. So much has happened between the last time I posted and now that I probably need a whole separate blog to fully do everything I've done justice! Work wise, it's been a lot of editing and generating new plots. I spent a lot of the last two weeks writing and editing my abstract to submit to the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) 2023 meeting. I have been so stressed about that (but mostly in a good way, like an excited sort of stressed). In addition, I've been working on doing some more in depth data analysis of the samples that we have. Personally, my parents came to Stockholm to visit me! They were in the city for a week during which we did so many fun things. We went to museums together, drove around, ate a lot of really good food, and overall had a fantastic time. I missed them a lot and it was really really good to have them close for a week. They also spent some time on vacation themselves and we got to have fun the weekend they came back from that adventure. After they left, I've been slowly checking off museums from my truly daunting list. Abby and I also went to Copenhagen this weekend. We spent Friday evening through Sunday evening there and had a blast. It's such a fun city and has such a different atmosphere to Stockholm (especially the weather, it rained all day on Sunday).

Research is something that I'm really really passionate about and want to spend the rest of my life doing in some capacity. But this trip, it has been hard to focus myself entirely to something that doesn't have any wet lab or hands on component. The thing I love about tissue engineering and biology in general is that I usually always have my hands in all the major parts of the work. This experience has been about analyzing data that has already been collected. But I've learned to work around this issue. My lab mates are fortunately very kind and I've asked them if I can shadow them for a little bit to see the type of lab work they do. I learned that I don't necessarily have to love every aspect of my job. Understanding and grappling with the data is challenging, but rewarding when I finally get something out of it. This experience has also taught me a lot about what I want in a career. Not only that, but I can actually code in R now, which makes me feel good!

Chris

Hej! Since my last blog post, I have made lots of progress in the lab as well as traveled to some new and amazing places! In the lab, I have been running PCR experiments in order to finalize the data that I need to complete my project! additionally, I have been working on my abstract to submit for the Biomedical Engineering Society conference! Its been nice to take a break from experiments in order to summarize my work  in an easy to understand way that also helps me understand my project much better! Outside of work, i have had a few weekends to travel and explore Stockholm as well! Last weekend, I took a trip to Edinburgh which was absolutely incredible! Lots of bagpipes (although I don't need to hear anymore for a while haha), delicious haggis, and amazing scotch whisky! While I was there, I also got to see my mom as she was on a cruise with my grandma and happened to be stopping in Edinburgh that Sunday, so I got to surprise my grandma who I hadn't seen in 2 years! Other than travelling abroad, I've explored lots more of Sweden such as the island of Sandhemn in the archipelago as well as the royal palace of Drottningholm! 

A major challenge that I have discovered while doing  my research is that sometimes things will take longer than anticipated, whether that be due to a error thant I made or something that was designed wrong in the experiment.  Repeatedly having an experiment fail and feeling lost has taught me perseverance and how to always keep moving forward  ( Yes I love Meet the Robinsons). Whether it be trying a new approach, looking back at my numbers, or not being afraid to ask for help if you are completely lost, there is always something that can be done in order to keep working on the project.  In addition, when I am aleays learning new things, knowing not only that I can ask questions, but knowing the right questions to ask is also very important.  

Cevi

The tales of a Swedish existence have gotten extra interesting! At work, the pipeline Marissa and I were working on finally (finally!) ran without errors, and we got more data to analyze than we could imagine! We also wrote a new tool to work with the output data, the Haga Parser (named after our favorite Stockholm park), and so we've got lots of easy to use information for our next analysis. We've also got not one but two new summer students we are working with and training in the lab from Poland who have been really fun to work with and have lots of really fun ideas to engage with. Outside of work, my family has been visiting, so I've had a blast showing them all of my favorite Stockholm sites, and getting more pastries than one would think is possible. I feel very lucky to have visited Helsinki this weekend and experienced easily the best library I've ever been to (with a public makerspace, free instrument and recording rooms, and public vr and retro video game areas). Finland is so like and so unalike Sweden, you learn so much when the countries are so small!

At work, one challenge that I have not been able to solve is simply the limitted sample size of my project. To clarify, we have lots of data, but only five patients are in both of the study cohorts that need analysis. Lots of data per patient though! This is a very common problem in all kinds of science, but bioinformatics seems so full of studies like this. What can we do about it? Well, the basic approach is 1, do the best you can with a little, and 2, rely on the studies of the past! That means trying to find as much as possible in our patients in both cohorts, and then testing these findings in the patients that are not in both cohorts (to try to corroborate our findings). Then we can justify our work with the findings of previous papers and even incorporating their data (if we have time).

Francisco

Since my last post I've been making good progress on my lab (at least I think so lol). I have gotten the results I needed and will begin looking at scientific papers to see if my findings are accurate and play a part into the metabolite changes in patients with Parkinson's disease. Outside of the lab I have been getting into the habit of trying to walk around campus Solna every evening whenever I don't have to make runs to the grocery store. Along with this, I did get to go watch Barbie and Oppenheimer with Chris which both were great movies. On thing I found different compared the the theaters in the US, but I enjoyed was being able to grab your popcorn, candy, or other snacks then paying for them instead of waiting in line and asking for which items you want. 

Since starting my research work one challenge I still haven't been able to resolve has been is not necessarily with the work, but in terms of having self doubt about having good progression in the project. When I am usually stuck in a step or I am slow in it, I tend to think to myself that I am not going to make good progress with the project. However, what I learned is that even if I have these moments of self doubt I still am able to make good progress and it is best to ignore these thoughts and just keep pushing. The way I will be dealing with this challenge in the future is just ignore the self doubt and just tell myself that there will be progress. It will also help to think back on projects I finished such as my senior design project when I didn't think it was going to be finished but it was.

Marissa

I have been really enjoying myself here in Sweden, both in work and also traveling!  A few weekends ago my family came to visit me and stayed in Stockholm, I also met up with them in Berlin, where we visited my cousin who is living there. The other weekend I went to visit Rome with Abby for her 21st birthday.  We visited a small city to escape the heat and the crowds, and we made the most delicious pasta that I have ever eaten.  Of course, we could not visit Italy without eating 3 gelatos a day. So I can confirm, that yes, the food in Italy is no joke.  This past weekend though, I spent in Sweden-- which was a nice break after hopping around Europe for a majority of the other weekends that I have had here (no complaints though).   We trekked the public transit system to Tyresta National Park and walked a beautiful trail through the fields and forest to a lake.  

Luckily, the fun does not stop even during the workday.  Over the past few weeks, a couple of other student researchers from Poland have come to join our lab and have made going to work even more enjoyable than it already has been.  Although, it does mean that we have to squeeze together as there is not enough desk space. I have chosen to focus on looking at the SNPs that were present within the patient data, and the affected genes associated with these variants.  I have mostly been working to produce a high-level description of these mutations, such as visualizing their genomic locations and looking at the similarities and differences in mutations between patients.  The analysis of our data, and thinking about how to explore our data has been one of the most significant challenges for me here.  There is an overwhelmingly significant amount of questions that a scientist can ask, but it is also hard to know if what you are doing is good science with the amount of freedom that we are given.  But as a student, it is an amazing opportunity to learn how good research is conducted by observing the innovative and thoughtful work that my labmates are working toward.

Abby

Since my last post I have continued traveling! I have been to Copenhagen with Lucia and Rome with Marissa! Additionally took a day trip to Sandhamn, Sweden. Copenhagen was really cool and definitely had a lot of similarities to Stockholm. We went on a canal tour, that was a lot of fun as well as a lot of museums! Rome was amazing!! There was so much history and it felt surreal seeing some of the sites in person(such as the Colosseum). Marissa and I also got to go a little outside Rome and learn how to make pasta(which was so good)! And Sandhamn was really cute and prefect for a day trip.

In my lab I continued to work with and explore the sciTip-seq H3.2 dataset. It is really interesting to be apart of the beginning stages of exploring the dataset. It is a lot of well try this, and when it either not what they expected or does not show really anything then you try something else! I am now also finding a new dataset to explore to see if we see the same conclusions from the dataset I have been working on this summer. One challenge I faced with was one dataset I found was too big for my computer and I was having storage issues as well as it taking a really long time to run code. I found a different dataset that was a little smaller that works! 

Lucia

Since my last post, most of my efforts have been dedicated to verifying that the work I did earlier in the summer was correct and making better figures as we wrapped up the program. This actually leads into a challenge that I haven't been able to resolve. In theory, there is a way to run statistical analysis on the figures I'm generating with code. However, none of the documentation I've looked through has been able to help and I have no ideas. Coming into this, I knew the value of working with other people and getting a diverse array of perspectives and viewpoints on an issue. Now that I am working on a project that no one else in my immediate vicinity is working on, I am really missing that cooperation and working together. With this type of challenge, where I don't have anyone to talk with about an issue, I have found that hunting through internet forums and talking to people outside of my immediate group is very helpful. For instance, I was able to talk to Cevi about a problem I was having, and even though he didn't have the context for what I was working on, he helped me fix an issue I'd been stuck on for a few days in twenty minutes. 

Personally, I've been wrapping things up on my museum list. Over the summer, I wanted to go to as many museums and centers of culture as I could and I have made it to everywhere I wanted to. Upon returning from Copenhagen with Abby, I attended a joust at Skokloster Castle (see my last post) and that was so much fun. It had a very Renaissance Fair vibe which is something I really enjoy. The next weekend I went to Birka, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the oldest known Viking settlement. It was founded in 700 and it was gorgeous. There isn't anything left of the village itself but there are about 2,000 burial mounds and a wonderful museum that houses the exhumed relics from these sites. This weekend I visited the Swedish History Museum and the Nordic Museum which were all beautiful. I also went on an IKEA quest to find my mom some things that she wanted that were not available in the US. I can't believe there's only a week left!

Chris

Hej! Since my last blog post, I gotten lots of progress done on my project as well as traveled to a few new and exciting places. In the lab, I finally was able to get my PCR working which allowed me to finally collect data that can be used for the final presentation. After not having much to show for my work for a few weeks, finally having data to show off is very exciting! Outside of work, I have done a few weekend trips to places outside of Stockholm. When my girlfriend came to visit,  we took a trip to Dublin for the weekend where we got to tour the Guinness Brewery, walk around Trinity college, and take a tour to the Cliffs of Moher! In Sweden, Cevi and I went on a kayaking adventure in the archipelago on which was absolutely beautiful!

In my work, one challenge that I have not been able to resolve is completing the analysis of the data that I collected. This would have involved an adjustment model with variables accounting for different parts of my research to answer my main research question. Due to this complex equation being derived from other sources, I do not complety understand it, although I am still trying to do so.  Even though I may not complete the full analysis, I have learned to celebrate the victories where I can, which in this case is having data to present at all. In the future when solving these types of problems, I will attempt to start looking at the problem sooner and managing my time more efficiently so that I would have enough time to solve the problem. 

Cevi

My time in Sweden taught me so much about what it means to do science as an academic. The lab that I worked in was absolutely an excellent environment and supported Marissa and myself at every single turn. I had the chance to discuss what it was like to do a PhD with multiple graduate students working with us almost every day. While the challenges of writing a thesis do seem incredibly individual, the graduate students in our lab were still deeply supported academically and personally by the surrounding environment of the lab. I realized that even individual projects in an academic lab are never purely solo, and there is a level of support and communal camaraderie that made the academic experience feel much more welcoming. I gained valuable experience in Sweden in what it is like to collaboratively work and carefully document my findings. I had the privelige of working in collaboration with Marissa the entire summer, and very frequently the importance of carefully keeping track of a complicated project amongst two people, while also sharing the rewarding outcome. Overall, Sweden taught me that I'm surrounded by collaborators that are always an excellent source of support no matter if you're project is solitary or with a whole bunch of people.

Personally, being in Sweden taught me a lot about living on my own. I realized just how powerful having a work life balance can really be, expeically if you;re free time can be spent exploring a place like Stockholm. Being able to swim around any nearby lake a bike wherever I like really helped shift my perspective on the accessibility of parks in an urban environment. The time I spent outside of work exploring was an absolute blast, and allowed me to learn about how to better live by myself. Sweden taught me both the value of developing that social network when you are alone, and how it feels while you are still developing one. I learned that, strange as it may seem, I really am capable of living on my own in another country, and I can grow a lot just by trying to live in a new context.

Francisco

I have learned a lot professionally during my time here. One example is managing my time during a certain a given time period to try to complete my project as much as possible. It is somewhat similar to doing assignments in university, however it was under a lab environment here. Another thing I learned from my research lab was more info about the gut microbiome. Before the lab I had little to no knowledge about this topic and I am glad this lab gave me the opportunity to learn more about it and work with it. It was also great learning and working with the COBRA toolbox for my lab. I also learned that it is fine to be stuck trying to figure out what is wrong with your project and to just take a break to go for walk to clear your head.

One of my favorite parts about living in Stockholm was the easy access of public transportation and there being little to no traffic. Coming from Los Angeles it can be very tiring sitting through traffic or waiting for a bus because of it so it was a welcoming change while living here. Something else that I enjoyed was the amount of nature there was here which Los Angeles is lacking a lot. The most challenging part of living abroad was living independently while being very far away from family. This has been my first time being far away from family which was challenging not being able to see them, but being able to call them definitely helped. I also never lived alone, however I am glad I developed some skills such as starting to cook to be able to do it again whenever I live independently again.

Marissa

Wow, this summer has been an incredible experience for me.  My time in the Daub lab has pushed me to grow so much as a student and a learner.  I tribute this to the amazing lab group that Cevi and I worked in, and for the independence that we we granted in navigating our research project.   Our research environment fostered very innovative and creative ways of asking questions and approaches to science.  While we were able to work independently on our research, we were granted so much space to collaborate and be advised by the postdocs and PhD students who worked in the lab with us.  They showed us what good research looks like and provided a blueprint for how to think like a scientist.  I also learned how valuable it is to work alongside your peers.  The shared knowledge between Cevi and I allowed us to accomplish so much more than I would be able to accomplish alone.   My lab was a great source of energy for me and taught me a lot about how to be excited about both my successes and failures as a researcher.

As my fellow friends have also agreed, my favorite part about living in Sweden has been living on my own.  I've enjoyed spending time by myself and learning how to navigate the world on my own.  I had the great privilege of being able to travel on most weekends, but some of my favorite memories in Stockholm were the times spent after work walking through Gamla Stan or sitting at the lake in Haga Park.  I've also made some amazing friends within my research group, all of whom come from different countries and cities throughout the world.  The most challenging part of this trip was leaving them.  My time spent here will stay with me forever :) 

Abby

This summer I have grown so much personally as well as professionally.  This was my first internship and I learned so much. It was incredible to work in a lab setting and see the day to day work in a lab. I did not really understand what they did day to day before working in a lab. I got to hear different perspective of why people chose to go into academia. I also learned a lot about biology and my coding skills improved immensely over the summer. I learned how to overcome errors on my own and how to problem solve when I was stuck. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.

Living abroad was such an amazing experience and I absolutely loved it! I loved how clean and quiet Stockholm was and my favorite part was all the parks. I loved going to Haga park after work and being so close to nature in a city. I also loved how easy it was to travel when living abroad and am so thankful for all the opportunities I had to travel to different countries and see so many amazing things/sites! One aspect that was hard was being on such a different time zone than family and friends. Depending on the week it would sometimes difficult to find time to talk to people back home. Overall it was such a great experience, I loved it and loved Stockholm!   

Lucia

I feel like the summer has gone by both so slowly and so quickly at the same time. I can't believe that it's over and that I'm going home this weekend. I have learned so much about myself in both a research context and a personal context. 

Professionally, I learned that coding is not something that I want to do exclusively. I love being in the lab and I love working on experiments. However, I feel that this was a good opportunity to be able to learn how to code better and make sure that I can apply these skills to another area. Additionally, coming into this I knew that I wanted to do research and go to graduate school but this really convinced me that it was the right path for me. The people in the lab were so inspiring to talk with and learn from. I am so pleased with my time here and everything I learned. 

Personally, my favorite thing about living in Stockholm was the public transit system and the walkability of the city. I know that is quite basic but it truly was so freeing to be able to get anywhere I wanted to within the city and the surrounding area with enough time and patience. Second to that would be the history and beauty inherent to a city as old as Stockholm. I am a huge European history fan and being able to spend my weekends going to museums and historical places that had such significance in the history of the country was amazing. The most challenging part of living abroad over the summer was dealing with my homesickness. But my parents came to visit and my friends and I talked everyday thanks to the internet so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Overall, this was an amazing experience and one that I would gladly do again and again. I'm sad to leave but excited to get home.

Chris

After a full ten weeks in Sweden, I have learned so much about what it means to both live as well as work abroad. Professionally, I have developed both my scientific as well as personal skills over the many hours of working in the wet lab. Learning to persevere when my PCR experiments would not work, how to ask the right questions when I needed help, and when to separate my work life from my life in Sweden. When I was working abroad this last not especially was hard sometimes as trying to find a solution to problems in my experiment was always on my mind. However, something Sweden does very well is encourage a very healthy work-balance, with many of my coworkers encouraging me to go and try new things around the city. 

My favorite thing by far about living in Stockholm this summer was the city itself. From exploring Hagaparken on runs, to biking south of Gamla Stan to explore, to finding amazing food halls in Östermalm,  there was always something to do (or eat lol) in the city. Additionally, having the opportunity to travel to other European countries that were so close was absolute incredible. Being able to compare my experiences in these other countries and cities with Stockhom further enhanced my appreciation for Stockholm with all of its amazing quirks. Over the summer I put together a list of the things that I loved about Stockholm which included a few things such as: The cleanliness, bikes everywhere, the great beer, the amazing work culture, Midsummar, the amazing cheese, the summer sunrise/sunset hours, and finally some of the best parks for runs ever. 

On the other hand, living abroad for almost 3 months was extremally challenging at times.  Especially when my research was not going very well, loneliness was a big problem for me and learning how to set a schedule for calling my loved ones was very important. Although overall, the experience is something that I will never forget and cherish for the rest of my life. Saying hej då to Sweden was bittersweet for sure, very sad to leave behind a place that will forver have an effect on my life, but excited to go back to my family and friends at home!