The past and present collide in Leuven

During the summer of 2012, I was lucky enough to make a quick visit to IMEC to start a project with Evelien Mathieu, a Ph.D. student at IMEC. Last April, Evelien visited JHU and the lab of my adviser, Dr. Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, to learn techniques to study cell migration.

Now, the collaboration continues, and I am back in Leuven. We are working on combining a microfluidic device that we use to study cell migration with exciting imaging technologies being developed at IMEC.

IMEC is located adjacent to the Arenberg campus of KU Leuven, the largest university in Belgium. This photo is of Castle Arenberg, which amazingly was built in the sixteenth century and now houses the KU Leuven Faculty of Engineering.

In the photo, you can see IMEC's newest addition, a modern glass tower, which is still under construction, rising in the distance. I think the photo is a good symbol for my research project for the summer. Scientists have been studying cell migration for many years, but there is still a lot to learn. With our work at IMEC and JHU, we will build on the work of the past to make the study of cell migration more efficient and more productive. I'll keep you updated on how we're doing.

Blog post by Colin Paul, a doctoral student in the chemical and biomolecular engineering laboratory of Konstantinos Konstantopoulos

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Photo by Colin Paul.