Nico

Week #1 in Stockholm has been amazing! This city is so gorgeous, and instantly takes away any stress I acquired from finals week. Although adjusting to the time zone change and fighting off my jet lag has not been easy, I have still been able to explore Sweden and visit some beautiful places! On the very first day, Allister and I went to IKEA to see if it was any different from the IKEA in the U.S. (it didn't look different at all, but the mere fact that we were in an IKEA in Sweden was insane). Dr. Chapman then took us to this amazing lunch place that not only had free bread, but amazing food too! Allister and I then explored the Nobel Prize Museum while wandering around Gamla Stan, which was very interesting! We also rented bikes for the summer, which has easily been the best decision made in this trip, however it took some time getting used to considering I haven't biked since I was 13. My favorite activity was the boat tour, where we were able to hangout and sight-see throughout the city on the water! 

In addition to these activities, I was also introduced to the Karolinska Institutet lab! I was first given a quick tour by Dr. Chapman, then was able to watch and learn how to conduct a histological assay on muscle tissue! In just one week, I learned how to prepare several solutions, including a blocking solution, Primary antibody solution, and Secondary antibody solution! I also attempted the application of these solutions onto the slides containing muscle tissue samples, and have learned that pipetting is not as easy as I remember! Finally, I was also able to see the microscopy aspects of this experiment, which I am very excited to learn more about. 

Despite how nice and welcoming everyone here is, I inevitably experienced some culture shock in my transition to living here. An example of this is the lack of social interaction between strangers. It seems as though the people in Sweden have their own friends, and are not interested in interacting with others outside of that bubble. I have observed that in Sweden, it is uncommon that someone smiles at you as you cross paths, however in the U.S., it is uncommon for someone not to smile. This has taken some time to get used to, as I am generally a very social person, however I have learned to adapt to this and understand how their culture works!

Allister

This first week in Stockholm has been so much fun. I got to explore the city and was introduced to our research project and the team that will be working with us for the summer. The first few days here were very sunny and warm, and I got the chance to check out this really nice lunch place located in a garden/farm area with Nico and Dr. Chapman. After, I walked around Gamla Stan, or the old town area, where Nico and I visited the Nobel Prize Museum. I also picked up my bike and have been mainly using it to get around the city. I also celebrated my 21st birthday here last Thursday! Nico and I went to this bakery that Dr. Chapman said was life-changing (it was) and we went on a sightseeing boat tour that went under bridges across the city. 

Working in the lab has been a great experience. I got to learn all about the staining that we're using to analyze muscle tissue and did a bit of microscopy. I have also started to work on analyzing the gene expression of adipose tissue, but my first step is to compile and organize all the data that has been collected so far. One thing that I have noticed in the lab is that, compared to the US, there is less of a heirarchy present in work environments. No single person in the research group feels like they're the one "in charge," and instead everyone is there to work on their own tasks, but also to support each other and still work collaboratively. It was definitely a good difference since it's already challenging enough to be in a different country but everyone in the lab has been very kind and welcoming. 

Nico

Every week in Stockholm has been better than the last! Within the last few weeks, I have had so much fun exploring the city. I tried my first ever Swedish meatball, shopped around at the mall of Scandinavia, soaked in the sun at the lake, and visited a few flea markets! Best of all, I was able to enjoy Midsommar this past weekend! My mom and my sister visited, and we all went to Skansen to celebrate and experience some cultural traditions of the holiday. It was so fun to embrace myself in the culture and the holiday, and overall learning about the history of Stockholm. Additionally, progressing with my lab work has been very interesting and fun! In addition to staining, I have learned how to make buffers, cut tissue samples, complete a Bradford Assay, and analyze citrate synthase activity! I cannot wait to continue to learn through this research, as it has taught me so much!

Despite research being captivating, it has come with difficulties. One significant challenge that I have struggled with was comprehending the purpose of my work. When staining or measuring citrate synthase activity, I feel confident in successfully producing accurate data, however have a hard time understanding what the data means and why I am completing these procedures. However, as of last week I feel like I have overcome this challenge! In the beginning of my experience, I found it difficult and nerve-wracking to ask questions regarding this challenge in fear that I should already know what is going on and should be able to figure it out on my own. However, I learned that it is critical to ask as many questions as necessary, as this will only strengthen my knowledge and capacity to analyze data.  I can now safely explain why measuring citrate synthase activity is applicable to determining the effects of exercise! Most importantly, this has taught me to not be afraid of asking questions, which is vital for my future career given how complicated the biomedical engineering field can be!

Allister

I've had such a great time here in Stockholm these past few weeks! I've been walking around and exploring a lot of the city. I went to Skansen for the Midsommar celebrations, visited the Moderna Museet which is a museum of modern and contemporary art, and went to a couple flea markets! I also walked around this nice little park and garden area in Östermalm. Aside from exploring the Stockholm, my work has been going pretty well too! I've finished with the analysis of the genes that were significantly expressed in adipose tissue, and I identified the biological pathways that were increased or decreased as a result. I have also been working on comparing these results to the results of muscle tissue in a previously conducted study. I've been doing a lot of visualization of these analyses so I've been creating tons of graphs. 

Despite all the progress that I've been making in my work these past few weeks, it has been quite a struggle coding in R. I've had some experience with it due a class I took this past semester but I haven't worked on it to the extent that I have been lately (I have written over 2500 lines of code compared to maybe 30 or so during the class ). Because of my inexperience, I would say that about half my time is spent debugging, trying to fix things that didn't work out the way I wanted. It has been pretty frustrating when I attempt to make a simple change to adapt my code to an additional task I want to complete, thinking it should take about 15 minutes but instead it often always goes wrong and it takes a lot of time and a lot of Googling to find a solution to my issues. It's definitely taught me to be patient and to not always expect things to be perfect in the first attempt. I will say that I have been getting better at looking for help online and seeing if anyone else has run into the same problem I would face. 

Nico

These past few weeks have been amazing! I have had so many visitors from home who I have gotten to travel with to different countries, including France and Italy! I got to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and got to boat across the Amalfi Coast in Italy! It was truly the most fun I have ever had. I did so many fun activities in Stockholm as well, including attending the Vasa Museum, riding rollercoasters at Gröna Lund, taking a boat to Vaxholm, and visiting the Paradox Museum! I have also made great headway with my research, as I was able to finish conducting a Bradford Assay for 35 muscle samples, along with a citrate synthase analysis for those samples! I am currently working on analyzing my data in order to determine the abundance of citrate synthase activity within each sample. I have also stained many samples, and am now analyzing the microscopic images. Overall, I have had an amazing few weeks both socially and academically, and am so sad that this is soon coming to an end!

Throughout this research, however, I have come across several challenges, one of which I have not been able to overcome. I was unable to get an R squared value above 0.98 for every attempt I have made at my Bradford Assay. This value is vital, as it shows how well the protein samples for the assay fits the model of standards that I have made (meaning that the lower the R squared value, the less accurate my model is to predict how much protein was loaded in each sample). From the beginning, I was achieving numbers such as 0.85, however after several tries, have gotten it to around 0.97. This is still an accurate representation, however is not as accurate as I desire or expected. From this challenge, I have learned that being extremely careful and paying ver close attention is crucial to obtaining data. I also learned that practice makes perfect, because with more practice, I was able to more accurately obtain results. Additionally, the more careful I was when loading my samples and pipetting created a better outcome with my results. In the future, I will address this type of challenge by taking a deep breath, and understanding that I just have to keep trying and practicing, along with going slowly to avoid more mistakes, in order to obtain the data I want. 

Allister

These past few weeks have been so much fun! My family and my girlfriend came to visit so I had the chance to go around the city with them. We went on a tour of the royal palace, visited the ABBA museum, and went to the Gröna Lund amusement park. I also took a weekend trip to Amsterdam and I had an amazing time. My girlfriend and I went to a contemporary art museum, went on a tour of the canals, and ate some freshly-made stroopwafels and chocolate cookies. There was so much to do and see in the city and I would definitely love to go back when I have the chance again. Research has been going pretty well too! I just recently submitted my abstract for the BMES conference and now that I've gotten new data to work with, I've been working on updating my results and graphs to reflect the additional data.

One of the biggest challenges that I'm facing is that I'm still not sure how to approach how I should be presenting my data. There are so many figures that I've produced that my results easily become overwhelming with information, and some of the graphs themselves are also overloaded with information. So far throughout the summer, I've just been generating my results in a way that is the easiest to create, but as we look towards including my work in publication, I have to figure out a way to best present the data without the loss of important information. Even getting my figures to look presentable for my abstract submission was a struggle, and I only had 4 figures, but I've definitely learned how important conveying information through figures can be. I think that, in the future, I need to consider how my data will look first before I proceed with generating graphs to adjust my approach sooner. 

Nico

My last day in Stockholm! I can't believe it's already over, time has flow by so fast. I have learned so many things throughout this summer, especially professionally. During my time in the research lab, I have learned how to analyze results from data, perfected how to pipette, and overall gained research experience. I learned that it takes practice to make your results perfect, and that patience is vital when performing well in any lab. In a more specific sense, I learned how beneficial different exercises can be on a molecular level in humans, and how different modalities of exercise result in different health benefits! Working in this research lab overall provided me with optimal experience to prepare me for graduate school. 

I have also grown personally throughout this experience of living in Stockholm. My favorite thing about being in Stockholm is infinite amount of delicious cafes. As a big coffee drinker, it was so fun to be able to live in a city where coffee is a vital part of everyone's culture. There were so many different places to try, each with their own unique pastries and coffees! The most challenging part of living abroad for the summer was learning how to be alone. Stockholm can be pretty empty during the summer, so often I found myself alone, which was already a difficult thing for me in general. I am a very social person, and find it hard to motivate myself to do activites or explore on my own. However, living in Stockholm has taught me how to embrace this, and truly take in the beautiful scenery on my own!

Overall, I am so thankful for haven given the opportunity to make a difference with medical research in the beautiful city of Stockholm, Sweden, and am so grateful for this experience!

Allister

My time in Stockholm has been amazing and I can't believe that it's already time for me to go home.  I have learned so much from this experience both inside and outside the lab. I've learned so much about analyzing RNA sequencing data, and even though we went over it in my Bioinformatics course, this was my first time getting hands-on experience with it. I've learned to become a better coder in R, and I've learned so much about the tools and programs that make RNA sequencing analysis possible. This summer has been such a rewarding experience, and I hope to use the knowledge and skills I've gained in my pursuit for higher education.

My absolute favorite part of living in Stockholm has been the walkability of the city. It has been so easy to navigate and get around by taking public transit or by biking. Compared to driving in San Diego, taking public transit has been especially stress-free and it saves me a lot of time from needing to get gas or having to look for a parking space wherever I go. I think the most challenging part of living abroad was spending a lot of time apart from my friends and family. Especially with the time zone difference, it was definitely difficult at first to be on my own in another country.