environment while collaborating with scientists from different backgrounds and expanding my perspective on global biomedical research.

in the University of Cambridge's scholarly environment as well as enjoying various cultural events in Cambridge, England.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Australians driving on the other side of the road. In somewhat related news, I picked up biking for a hot minute, but I’ve decided to take a short break in an effort to minimise the number of times I accidentally turn into oncoming traffic.

I’ve already seen heaps of Sydney, including the Taronga Zoo (I saw my kangaroo!), the Sydney Opera House (still haven’t spotted Benny the Seal, but this Padlet will absolutely be the first to know when I do), and I even took a ferry under the Harbour Bridge.

I start working on my research project next week, so the next update will hopefully be about that, but until then, ta for now!

I started lab last Wednesday, and I have really enjoyed getting to know my new lab mates. This week, I officially began experiments, including cell culture and running TLC plates. It has been a great experience getting to learn new techniques, as well as learning about the other projects being conducted by the other students.

During my time here, I’m staying in Morges, a smaller city just outside of Lausanne. It is very well connected to many hiking trails, as well as Lake Geneva. During my free time, I have hiked some of the local trails, visited a medieval castle, and spent a lot of time at the lake. Last weekend, I also took the train to Lausanne and spent the day exploring. It was such an amazing day, as there was a big market at the city center with hundreds of vendors selling everything from produce, handmade goods, and clothing. Afterwards, I even hiked back to Morges along a beautiful lakeside trail.

I'm looking forward to spending the next few months exploring more of Switzerland and continuing with my research project!

While the city is a similar size to Tucson, it feels so much larger and lived in because everyone here bikes! Which means I have also begun biking everywhere, and it can be intense... on the bright side, I have only almost fallen into one bush! For the most part, I feel like I have the hang of it, and I definitely overthought how biking would actually be.

As for my research, I have begun analysis of some isolated FDB fibers, and next week I will be dissecting my first mouse. Stay tuned to find out how that goes!

For a lab update, last week I treated and collected the cells I will be using for my experiments. For my next steps, I will be doing more TLC, as well as lipidomics and imaging with the microscope. It has been an amazing experience learning new laboratory techniques and seeing how scientific research is conducted in a different country.

Beyond my research, I’ve been exploring new towns and hiking trails throughout the region. The train rides here have been unreal, and every destination feels like it was pulled straight from a postcard. This weekend, I took one of my favorite day trips so far to the town of Vevey. I spent some time by the lake and walking around the old town. Afterward, I headed up to the famous hiking trails in the Lavaux vineyards and caught some of the most incredible views of the lake and mountains. I am really looking forward to planning some bigger day trips and further exploring during my time here! Bye for now!

Last week, my lab invited me to a lab retreat at a large estate in Bedford. We went hiking to a lake, played board games, and cooked meals together; it was a great way to get to know everyone and try British cuisine (including a variety of ice lollies!). Since my lab mates are mostly PhD and postdoctoral students, I have learned so much from them about computational techniques for biomedical optics and scientific writing, as well as places to visit in the UK during the summer!

I also traveled by train to London last weekend, where I had the opportunity to attend a ballet at the Royal Opera House. The theatre is incredibly impressive and the performance was one of the best I have seen. I also met a former Cambridge student and her mom outside the Arts Theatre Cambridge last week, where they spontaneously offered me an extra ticket to see Venus & Adonis, a spectacular adaptation of the Shakespeare play by puppeteers! Everyone in Cambridge has been so kind, and I can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store!

Aside from my weekend travels, I have been very busy in the lab. I have been working on two different assays: one where I am measuring the cytosolic levels of the amino acid arginine in cells and another where I am measuring the vacuolar pH to quantify how different nutrient states change the proton gradient that influences amino acid transportation into the cell’s storage center, the vacuole. This is helping us better understand how the cationic amino acid transporter protein, Vsb1, regulates when and how amino acids are transported into the vacuole during different nutrient conditions.

So far, I have already found that Vsb1 is required for the timely return of cytosolic arginine levels back to steady-state conditions following nutrient deprivation. Additionally, changes in the vacuolar proton gradient caused by differences in V-ATPase activity appear to influence the activity of Vsb1 under different nutrient states. The ability to generate so much data so quickly has been incredibly exciting, and I am looking forward to seeing what else we discover in the coming weeks.

It was an amazing weekend getaway from the main city of Zürich, and I am unbelievably grateful for this experience I am lucky enough to have here. The research has been going smoothly, and I have made many friends with the students in my lab. I cannot believe it has already been a month. It feels like I have been here forever!

The mountains and summer showers have been breathtaking and are always a big pick-me-up after long days in the lab. Every day I continue to learn something new, and I am constantly reminded of how fortunate I am to be here. Once again, I am so happy to be a part of this group of researchers. They have taught me so much already, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of this experience has in store. Bis zum nächsten mal!

Most recently, I tried to take a trip to Cologne to see the amazing Gothic cathedral, but this weekend's trains had very different plans for me. As I got to the platform with my train, I read something along the lines of "this train will stop only at the next station due to mechanical issues," which was the only connection train to the station for my international train for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, I did not go to Cologne. However, now I can plan a weekend to go to Cologne and visit Hürtgen Forest, which is home to a decisive battle of World War 2! Sunday, I did make it to Antwerp, unlike Cologne! Unfortunately, on my way back, there was a smoking incident which caused us to be stopped in the middle of fields with no shade and a beaming sun for a few hours as the fire department assessed the situation. Safe to say I was just very happy to not have to find lodging in a random village and made it home very late.

Outside of my weekend fun, I have been very busy in the lab! I have been developing a whole hindlimb protocol with the goal of demineralizing the leg and maintaining muscular orientation, as well as a variety of different analyses of images to figure out the best objective way to quantify our FRAP results, as well as discrepancies in fiber length within our animals. Soon, we will also begin zebra fish experiments as well! I am so excited for the coming weeks as we expand our data sets and further develop our methods!

Outside of the lab, I have explored a few museums in Cambridge including the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Whipple Museum. I went punting on the River Cam this week to escape the heat and see a few of the Cambridge colleges from "the backs"! It was a great way to relax and enjoy the weekend (and also get in a quick workout!). I've officially adopted Celsius (the high is 42 this week...), and I have been trying a fair range of chippies (fish and chip shops) and cafes on the weekends. I'm looking forward to exploring more of the UK in the coming weeks and continuing progress on my project! More updates coming soon!

I’ve been spending a lot of time on behavior scoring. It all feels like it's come full circle because one of my first “real” tasks in my UofA lab last summer was scoring behavior. That experience led me to join my long-term behavioral project, and the overlap between that project and Dr. Holmes’ research is ultimately what brought me to BRAVO! in the first place. How beautiful is that? Shoutout Dr. Halladay!

I’ve been to a few new places around Sydney, including this amusement park called Luna Park. As someone who loves her fair share of roller coasters, I can honestly say the rides here are some of the scariest I’ve ever been on! I was proper devo (devastated) when a couple of them closed because of the wind, but I’ll definitely be back before I leave.

I love my lab so much! Everyone is so brilliant and supportive of each other, and I leave every day with my face sore from laughing so much. I’m so so lucky, can't wait for the next update! Catch ya later!

Last weekend, I escaped the heat wave by heading to the Belgian coast and spending a few hours at the beach. The water may not have been perfectly crystal blue, but the weather was much cooler along the coast, and I was able to relax, lay out, and get a little sun. This weekend, I am going to Ghent, which I have been told looks like a real-life Hogwarts, so I am really looking forward to exploring it.

The lab has continued to keep me busy, but one of the best parts of the assay I have been conducting is how quickly it generates data. I am able to produce a new graph, completed in triplicate, every few days! I also had a meeting with both my PI here in Brussels and my PI at UofA, which gave me the opportunity to share all of the data I have collected so far. We also began discussing the future of this collaboration and how I will continue working on a joint research project when I return to the University of Arizona this fall.

Right now, I am especially looking forward to my friend visiting in a little over a week and having some time away from the lab for Belgian Independence Day. During the break, we are planning to do even more traveling, including trips to Paris (again for me!) and Cambridge, UK.

The lab has also been going really well. I am part of such a fun and amazing research team. I have learned so much from my lab mates, and it has been really cool to learn about all of the different types of research happening in my lab because it is so diverse. For my project, I am currently plating and treating cells to perform more TLC experiments. I am also preparing to do some lipidomics with my samples. I can’t believe how fast the time is passing, as I only have a few more weeks in the lab. I’m looking forward to making the most of the rest of my time here by continuing with my experiments and fitting in a few more weekend adventures. I’ll post more updates soon!

Outside of the lab, I have had so much fun taking weekend trips and exploring my personal interests. Unfortunately, I am still having terrible train luck. I had a trip to Ghent get cancelled due to electric wiring issues on the route to Ghent. Instead, I biked 86 kilometers to the nearest beach to Amsterdam and back! This was an incredibly fun experience, as I got to see much of the countryside on the way, as well as see some medieval windmills. Most recently, I took a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic, which was incredibly fun! There was so much Gothic architecture, as well as Baroque art within churches, that was very impressive! I was also able to attend an orchestra performance inside one of the churches, which elevated the experience so much. I would even say it felt heavenly.

The next post will be following a weekend trip to Krakow, Poland, which I am very excited about because of the WWII history there! In previous trips, I have heard much about the rail lines, connections, transport systems, and ghettos, some of which I have been able to see myself, and many of their routes end at Auschwitz, which I intend on seeing. It feels surreal to be able to explore these places so deeply and connect them back to each other.

The lab here is going amazing. I have grown close with my lab mates and have been busy doing extraction after extraction. One thing I really love about this lab is how they have optimized my time to be exposed to as many techniques as possible, all while introducing me to their clinical research approaches. It has been so cool to study patient-specific mutations and be in communication with their doctors.

This experience has not only been fun and unique, but it has also really helped solidify my love for research in tandem with patient care. I cannot wait to bring what I have learned back to the US and continue learning.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic day.

Connor Rasmussen

We also got to meet up with Supriya, who has been in Cambridge through BRAVO! this summer. It was great to share our experiences and catch up. It felt like the ultimate BRAVO!/UBRP meetup, since all of us are, or have been, part of UBRP at the University of Arizona.

I recently hit a few setbacks in the lab, but when does that not happen in science? Some assays have not worked as expected, and I have had some difficulty constructing new strains. However, I have finally started screening a group of mutants connected to the metabolic pathway my U of A lab studies, using the assay I have been working on all summer. I only have about a week and a half left in the lab, so I am trying to get as much done as I can before I leave. I know these last two weeks are going to fly by, and I am trying to do and see as much of Brussels as possible before I go.

Over the past few weeks, I have also been traveling and trying to see as much of Switzerland as I can before I leave. I was able to do some incredible hikes in the Swiss Alps, as well as explore new cities and even ventured to a waterfall. This weekend felt even more magical than usual with the rain, which made it feel like I was hiking through the clouds.

As I enter my final week in Switzerland, I’m looking forward to revisiting some of my favorite places before I leave. I am truly grateful for this experience, which has allowed me to grow so much personally and professionally. My experience in the lab, weekend adventures, and the friendships I made have been so rewarding and something that I will carry with me.

In the lab, I have made great progress on my texture feature analysis pipeline and have generated texture feature maps of the quantitative spatial features across the whole-slide images I am using for my study. My next endeavors involve writing the programs to determine which features are best at differentiating between each of the six disease states using statistical analysis and multi-class classifiers. I virtually met with my PI in Tucson to discuss some next steps and possibly continuing this research collaboration once I leave.

Apart from academic engagements, I also recently attended the annual "Singing on the River" summer event presented by The King's Men, the choir of King's College here at Cambridge. Summer evenings in Cambridge are absolutely stunning, especially against the scenery of the historic colleges. The event was well attended and so delightful! Outside of Cambridge, I also met up with some friends from high school studying in Oxford and London to attend a concert at Silverworks Island. Next week, I plan to travel briefly to Edinburgh by train and see the National Museum of Scotland (and hopefully a few highland coos!).

Time has been flying by, but I hope to continue forging ahead on my project and exploring as much of the UK as I can whilst I'm here!

In the lab, I've been working on my statistical analysis pipeline using non-parametric tests to evaluate which mathematical features are best at differentiating between the six esophageal precursor disease states and am producing the classification analysis pipeline using multi-class classifiers to identify non-linear relationships between the features. This will reveal the accuracy of certain features in identifying the disease state of unlabeled (test) samples. Since the data I'm using is protected and I may not be able to process the data once I arrive back in Arizona, I have also been trying to process as many of the images as I can. I've been given the opportunity to present to my lab before I leave, which will be a great opportunity to share my results and get feedback on my project, and I look forward to hopefully continuing this collaboration once I leave the UK.

This weekend, I met up with Kaia (BRAVO! student in Brussels this summer!), Natalie (former UBRP student), and Bryce (former UBRP student and completing his MPhil at the University of Cambridge). It was wonderful to grab coffee and catch up with them! See Kaia's post for the photo!

I'm hoping to catch a Cambridge Shakespeare Festival performance and spend some time in the city before I leave. I am also planning a very brief trip to Paris next weekend if all goes well, so stay tuned for some more adventures before the summer ends!

Before going to Kraków, I took a day trip the previous weekend to Groningen in the Netherlands. My colleagues in the lab described it as a college town where mostly students live, and they were perfectly on point. It has a much more youthful and colorful charm. Whether it was the vibrant cobblestone streets or the more colorful walls and interiors of the churches, the entire city was filled with a youthful atmosphere! I think it is my second favorite city outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

As for research, it has been steady and is going decently well. At the moment, I am navigating some setbacks in the embedding process of my demineralized legs, which is less than ideal. In the coming 2.5 weeks, before I finish my research here at Amsterdam UMC, I will be doing mostly data analysis.

For the next couple of weeks, I will be going to Cologne, Germany, and Rotterdam again to shadow a perfusionist! Which you will hear about in the next post!

These final two weeks in the lab were some of the most productive of my summer. I spent my days running multiple experiments, testing mutants of the nutrient signaling pathway studied by my lab in Arizona to explore whether it plays a role in the amino acid transport carried out by the vacuolar cationic amino acid transporter I had been investigating in Brussels. The results were exciting: I obtained data confirming that the transporter is indeed implicated in the amino acid signaling branch of the TORC1 pathway, specifically through the GTPases associated with the complex. I was also able to rule out the hypothesis that the transporter's function is mediated solely by the adjacent V-ATPase and the proton gradient. These findings are meaningful for the future of the collaboration between the Brussels lab and my lab in Arizona, and I could not be more proud of what we accomplished together.

Beyond the science, I am walking away from this experience a changed person. It was not always easy, but I have grown in more ways than I expected, both as a researcher and as an individual. I have taken trips I will remember for a lifetime, embraced everything new and unfamiliar, and discovered a deep appreciation for the slower pace of European life, the fresh produce, the bakeries, and yes, even the metro. As much as I will miss it all, I am very ready to return home to my friends and family and step into my senior year.

But my European adventure is not quite over yet! I am currently on a train to Amsterdam, with stops in Hamburg and Berlin still ahead, before wrapping up with a few days in London. Thank you for following along on this journey. Bonne journée!

Just kidding—I’m definitely being dramatic, but the PhD students just left for a conference in Europe and won’t be back for THREE WEEKS! I’m so devastated I’m not even going to try to use Australian slang in this post, though I reckon it might come out naturally.

Life has been busy, busy, busy! I just finished a 21-day stretch of coming into the lab and working every single day. I’m exhausted. I finished running my bonus project by myself last week, and now I’m waiting until next week to see the results of the delayed test. I’m looking at how a change in context impacts the renewal of fear memories, as well as whether a time delay leads to the spontaneous recovery of those memories. Fingers crossed it’s exciting news!

Now I’m working on running my official BRAVO! experiment—heck yes! I’m working directly with a postdoc (my favorite person ever), and I’ve been acting as an extra set of hands. I wish I had a picture of the facility where we’re running this cohort because it feels like I’m on a spaceship whenever I’m inside!

The Fourth of July in Sydney was interesting. There were fireworks on the Harbour! I spent the morning in the lab, so it didn’t really feel like the Fourth, but once I finished up, I saw a group of people dressed in American flag suits walking around campus.

That’s all for now! Have I mentioned that UNSW is the #1 ranked university in Australia?

Life feels like I’m stuck in a time warp. I blink and another week has flown by!

We finished up my BRAVO! experiment, so now all that’s left is scoring the behavior. It’s absolutely mental that a year ago I was Googling what the Holmes & Westbrook Lab studied, and now I’ve completed two experiments as a member. This experiment was especially interesting—we manipulated circuitry involving the infralimbic cortex to better understand how it regulates second-order learning.

I spent a few days up in the Blue Mountains at a research conference! I’m an international delegate now—how crazy is that? It was my first oral presentation, but everyone was so lovely that it eased my nerves a tiny bit. I presented research I completed in Tucson, and everyone was super impressed with how much work has gone into the project (of course, I didn’t do it alone… shout out to the Halladay Lab and Penzo Lab!). Not too shabby, hey?

This feels like the end of a coming-of-age movie. I can almost feel the camera zooming out as the credits begin to roll. It’s so bittersweet. I’m also beyond excited to be back in the same time zone as everyone at home. I will never take that for granted again.

One more post from me next week! Get keen!

The last two weeks have consisted of a lot of computer work to collect data from the pilot experiments, as well as trying to stain the sections taken from my decalcified legs. Unfortunately, the sections were not the best, and overall, the experiment was neither a total success nor a total failure. Overall, it feels very good to fail within the realm of this project because my personal experiments and the assignments I was tasked with will allow the rest of the Ottenheijm group to move forward and make adjustments based on the data and results that I provided! It was also very nice to be much more hands-on in the lab while developing new skills and techniques.

Beyond the lab, I was invited to shadow a team of perfusionists at Erasmus Hospital in Rotterdam.

The experience was incredible and truly the reinforcement I needed to ensure my pursuit of a career in perfusion. I was able to watch a variety of surgeries, including two coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) operations and one aortic valve replacement. This was a great experience, as I was able to see new operations that I had not seen before and speak with perfusionists at different stages of their careers, including those in the education phase, those deep into their careers, and a perfusionist who conducts research within the field. Overall, this was a great day, and I feel much more confident in the applications I am currently working on!

With my research capped off and a day in the operating room as a final treat, I am looking forward to relaxing for a while until the semester begins and I return to Tucson!