In the quest to develop an in vitro cardiotoxicity assay, I have been immersing myself in
multiple aspects of bioengineering. With the electrical, computational, and
cellular components that make collecting and analyzing my data, I’ve been getting
a very comprehensive view of what it’s like to work at the interface of cells
and technology. My experiments are chronological in that I have been following
certain chips by characterizing them and performing electrical stimulations and
recordings via my weekly cardiac culture schedule. I’ve definitely been seeing
some sensible trends in my data, and I never feel like I am slowing down in my
work since there are always new ways I can interpret old data, in addition, to
combing through all the new data I constantly collect from my electrophysiology
experiments. Comparing results and analysis methods with those from papers in
the field has also been something I have been consistently practicing to
maintain direction and relevance in the limited time I have. However, I’ve been
speeding up a lot in my analysis now that I have more code written and overall have
a more intuitive sense for troubleshooting and running experiments with the
setups at imec.
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Having fun in a data analysis session at my temporary flex
desk – photo credits to my supervisor, Thomas
Collaboration has been a key part of my experience at imec.
In addition to heavily using Skype for Business, my team works at flex desk office
stations in the tower. All I need to do is plug in my laptop into any empty
desk with a docking station, and I’m good to go. This environment has inspired
me to be more interactive with my team members, specifically through discussion
and sharing of equipment. The highly international setting promotes cultural
exchange that intertwines with work habits and behavior. However, this global awareness
and connection doesn’t stop with my team, it’s definitely a characteristic imec
as a whole. For example, I happened to meet a non-LST engineer sitting at the
end of my lunch table from America whose wife had gone to my high school in San
Francisco!
Travel wise, considering how hot it has been in Europe,
taking a dip in the ocean on a Saturday at a beach in Oostende, a coastal
Belgian city, was refreshing. In contrast, I met up with a Hopkins friend who
was interning in Switzerland on another weekend to take a hectic and hot trip
to Paris. Together, we practiced our French and navigated our way from Champs-Élysées
to the Musée d’Orsay and bakeries where we could get our fill of pastries and
bread. It was an incredible but exhausting experience that I would love to
extend upon in the future when I come back to Europe.
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A classic tourist picture at the Louvre, with my friend,
Jody
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