Something Old, Something New

Hallo from Belgium!

Even just a week here has felt like a lifetime - battling through storms to get here and endless paperwork and training, we’ve finally all settled in and are ready to get our noses to the grindstone!

I’ll be working on two different projects during my time at imec, both of which are part of a larger design concept. The team I’m with is designing a cell-sorting device that can be much smaller and more efficient than the large conventional machines. This device uses lens-free microscopy to distinguish different cell types, which in effect takes the way a cell scatters light and reconstructs it into an image. One of my projects is to use both cultured cancer cells and white blood cells purified from blood to test and verify that the software involved can recognise the different cell types. This involves a lot of cell culture and fluorescent staining, which I’m very familiar with. The facilities at imec for tissue culture are very similar to what we have in my lab back at Hopkins, which has allowed me to dive right in to the work.

The other project I’m less familiar with, though it uses a lot of skills with a microscope that I’ve learned from imaging cells back home. One member of our team designed a bunch of different waveguides (structures etched into a silicon chip that guide a beam of light) to use in the cell-sorting device to focus the light at a specific point to use for the lens-free imaging. Using a fluorescent microscope, I’m testing each design and measuring how efficiently it focuses the light and in what pattern it emits light. Dealing with the waveguide and the laser used as a light source isn’t something I’ve had any experience with, but my two mentors on the project are very supportive and have been incredibly helpful while I’m learning the setup.

One thing that I’m impressed with is the diversity of the team I’m working with - we have a biologist, a physicist, and two software engineers, one of whom functions more as a mechanical engineer on this project. Having so many disciplines come together means that every discussion has very different viewpoints contributing to it, and every problem has solutions proposed from many different angles. Even though I don’t understand all of the technical jargon involved with the waveguide setup, they’re more than willing to break down the information for me so I can understand and contribute to the project myself!

Leuven itself is an absolutely stunning town. Classic European architecture mixes with more modern glass buildings in a way that reflects the atmosphere of the town itself - quaint and quiet, but with a very youthful population. After a week full of training, I spent last weekend relaxing in the city, spending several hours reading in a park and chatting with a few of the local students. I visited the M - Museum Leuven, which had a very varied collection ranging from wall-sized paintings of the Crucifixion to one of the oldest windmill cups in the world (used for a drinking game - blowing into a small pipe started the blades of the decorative windmill to spin, and the aim was to finish the drink in the cup before they stopped spinning.) We’ve wandered around the city centre and tried a few restaurants already, but there’s still plenty more I look forward to seeing in Leuven!

---Rebecca Black