One month in!-Sharada Narayanan

The chip I am using to 
run my DNA extractions.

Not to sound cliché, but its so hard to believe that I’ve already been here for almost a month. I feel like a newbie, just got here, still trying to figure out imec’s convoluted floor plan, but when I step back and think about my time here, I’ve really experienced so much.

I’ve now begun to properly dive into my project here at imec.I’m working on optimizing DNA extraction on microchips to develop a simple and efficient process for PCR-on-a-chip: a huge step in the realization of point-of-care medicine. One of the best parts of working on my first truly engineering project is that the work has a clear purpose. The goal of my project is to go beyond the on-chip extraction of DNA in blood and viruses and begin developing a protocol for extracting DNA from bacteria, something that hasn’t been done before at imec. After running some preliminary experiments using blood, I’ve recently started running the DNA extraction using bacteria. Things have gone wrong and there aren’t a lot of people who can tell me how to solve my problems, but it’s exciting to be able to spend every day solving mysteries using both science and (organized) guesswork, knowing that my work is really going somewhere.

Infusing lysed blood into my chip.

Something else I have really appreciated about my internship at imec is the complete freedom I have during the weekends (and generally after about 5 PM every day) to go anywhere I want. Last weekend, I went to Paris. From the moment I arrived, I was overcome by the staggering old-world opulence of the city; it was truly unlike any other European city I’d visited. Not only was it beautiful, it was also enormous. Compared to Amsterdam and the small Belgian cities I’d visited, Paris went on forever: a behemoth of European culture and architecture. Though I have enjoyed travelling (and will be returning to Paris at least twice more this summer), I am looking forward to a few upcoming weekends of relaxation at home, exploring the beautiful city of Leuven, and finally cleaning my room.

Admiring the sweeping view of Paris 

from the Sacre Coeur.

Settling In - Sharada Narayanan

Me in Bruges

I’ve been living in Leuven for a week now and I have been quite busy with administrative chores ranging from registering as a visitor at city hall, setting up Wi-Fi in my dorm, and completing a myriad of trainings to begin work in the lab. Additionally, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading papers on my research project.

Buzzwords like “personalized medicine” and “point-of-need” medical care boil down to the need for fast, efficient, and cost-effective ways to identify genes in a patient’s DNA. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method that amplifies DNA for gene identification. However, PCR methods require sophisticated lab equipment, expensive reagents, and have long wait times.

Many advancements have been made in lab-on-a-chip technology, that is, using microchips with microfluidic reactors to perform PCR using the tiniest pin-prick of blood or cells. But the initial purification of DNA remains challenging to perform on a microchip without using a large, complex set-up. Alongside my mentor Rodrigo, we are refining the use of silicon micropillars for on-chip sample preparation of bacteria, and testing its efficacy using DNA concentration quantification methods and on-chip PCR assays.

Beyond work, I have been acclimating to Belgium life and exploring the surrounding area. There are bikes everywhere, no water fountains, friendly and laid-back people, and good bread. Everyone speaks English, but a lot of signs, menus, etc. are in Flemish, a particular challenge for me, a vegetarian, but I’ve been able to avoid catastrophe thus far.

Leuven is beautiful. Nestled between farmland, the residential area I live and work is lush and green with wood pigeons cooing in the trees. The city center is a quintessential European town complete with cobblestone streets bursting with shops and restaurants. This weekend Christina and I visited Bruges, Antwerp, and Brussels. Interwoven with canals, soaked with sunshine, and a waffle shop every 50 ft, Bruges felt like the perfect place to retire after a long and interesting life. Antwerp, cloudy and gritty, was the city to sit at a cafe in a black turtleneck and smoke. Brussels was historic and bustling and felt like the first truly big city I’d see in Belgium, fitting its moniker as “the capital city of Europe”.

The view from my dorm room in Wisteria

Digging Up Leads to an Exciting Adventure - Thomas DiSorbo

My first 10 days in Belgium were characterized by a positive uncertainty. Soon after arriving, a pervasive sense of anticipation followed me as I was introduced to my new environment, the small details of my work and lodgings, and of the city of Leuven itself coming together to paint a picture of this summer’s staggering potential. Even in the earliest days, this was apparent, that at no point during my stay will I ever feel like my routine has become predictable or sedentary, that I will have to be always on my toes, ready for the next exciting opportunity, fully aware it could be waiting just around the corner.

 A Liège Waffle

My work at imec this summer revolves around electrical partial cell lysis, and, like many challenges in microfluidics, it is in some elements an optimization problem. The project’s overarching project has two parts: develop a reliable process for electrically disassembling the membrane of an isolated single cell, and capture the intact, free floating nucleus once the cell membrane is ruptured. While I am in the early preparation stages of my experiment, the work I have completed in literature review and mathematical modelling has me flush with that positive uncertainty. There is so much room for growth and adaptation in the project that I am expecting very few days to look exactly the same.

Settling into Leuven was surprisingly easy, something I would attribute in part to the warm reception and introduction we received from members of the imec staff such as Laurien Mols and Carl Van Den Bulcke, who helped us settle into our lodgings and acclimate to our surroundings. The city itself maintains a surprising level of familiarity for its large population of over 100,000, and in the first week I found myself wandering its beautifully antiquated streets with no objectives beyond simple observation.

Me on the Brugge Canal

In the face of a more than adequately historical and interesting city, it is amazing to think how close I am to a number of other fantastic travel destinations. Belgium’s proximity to much of Western and Central Europe again fills me with that positive uncertainty. On any given weekend I could be in Paris, or London, or close to home in Brussels, exploring cultures I am extraordinarily fortunate to be so close to. 

There is little to be decisively said about my trip so far into Belgium. One of the only things I can say with certainty is that no day will come without the promise of adventure and achievement.

Chipping In - Kirby Leo

Touring imec, settling into my studio at Wisteria, and knocking out paper errands across the city left me exhausted at the end of each day in Leuven. However, I was beyond excited to get started on my research here.

I met the Cell and Tissue Technologies team that I’ll be working with, and I immediately jumped into my heart-on-a-chip project with my supervisor, Thomas. There’s been a learning curve with the experimental part of the electronics work since I’m used to the more biomedical side of biomedical engineering research. However, the heavier engineering experience is part of what I expected and wanted from my time at imec. Between experiments and literature research, I’ve been immersing myself in the world of chip technology and in vitro cardiotoxicity assays. I’ve also gotten the chance to learn about some of the other work going on in the Life Sciences Technologies division.

Enjoying Brugge

During my first weekend in Europe, Tom DiSorbo and I took the train to Brussels and Brugge. From the tourist-congested Manneken Pis and pristine chocolate bust of Jean Jr. Neuhaus to alley-hidden 16^th century restaurants and quirky Belgian street city art, I was blown away by the density of everything in Brussels. Though Brugge was equally crowded as Brussels, the setting was mainly short residential cottages and towering chapels. My favorite spot was Sint-Janshospitaal (St. John’s Hospital), which was a medieval hospital founded in the 12^th century. It held the artwork of Hans Memling along with collections of medical instruments and an apothecary in the back; I found the intertwining of religion and medicine incredible.

Bike-filled Leuven

Though I haven’t been in Europe for long, I’ve been enjoying it immensely. Biking is becoming less of a struggle, and I’m constantly acclimating to the Flemish way of living. Though I’ve noticed similarities with how the Center for Nanomedicine at Hopkins and imec operate (e.g. team style, product-based engineering projects), imec has a uniquely industrial feel from its microelectronics technology and wide-targeting collaborations (partly due to it being such a massive organization). I’m extremely grateful to my supervisor for enlightening me with all the academic and cultural details, and I’m eager to see what the rest of the summer holds for my research and explorations.