Hiral’s first trip to EPFL
Our postdoc Hiral has been in Lausanne for the last month, visiting the lab of Omaya Dudin and getting to know her future model organisms - Ichthyosporea! So, how was her trip?
Continue reading to hear about it from Hiral:
Bonjour! I just returned from a month-long visit to Omaya Dudin’s Lab at EPFL, Lausanne. And, while this was my first visit to the beautiful city of Lausanne, it was more importantly my first in-person meeting with my postdoc co-supervisor Omaya and the Ichthyosporea I will be using for my postdoctoral research. Ichthyosporea are unicellular relatives of animals with dozens of nuclei in a single cell that bursts open to release newborn cells, making it interesting to understand how these many nuclei divide or organize within the cell. While I had heard a lot about them, I had no idea about handling these marine organisms and that’s what brought me to Lausanne - to learn the techniques to grow and image them first hand from Omaya. It was my opportunity to get to know my second postdoc lab and their work better in person, something no amount of Zooming could replace. Barring some initial paperwork hassles, it was a smooth transition to EPFL and I dived right into the science the very next day. Starting from the basics of media preparation and inoculations, Omaya carefully guided me through the growth stages and fascinating life cycle of Ichthyos as I worked with them for the first time. The stay gave me plenty of time to discuss the practical aspects of the experiments, things that worked and those that didn’t. I’m grateful to Omaya for taking time off his own work to mentor and ensure a productive visit and I apologise for sequestering the microscope! Capturing my first images of these gorgeous marine bugs was the highlight of the trip. Looking forward to many more. I also managed to try experiments and a new technique I hadn’t planned for.
It was great to get to know Marine, the research assistant in the lab, who helped me with my experiments, but also the tiny little things around the lab, institute and city - the umpteen silly questions you’d have when visiting a place for the first time. Sometimes the afternoons and days in the lab were long, but the Dudin Lab were always up for a quick coffee break. With random conversations over lunch oscillating between organism battles and sharing weekend updates, the Dudin Lab is a fun place to be. Just like my other two labs here at EMBL.
The visit also gave me the opportunity to interact with everyone at Gonczy Lab, the group that Omaya’s lab shares space with. A big thank you to everyone at Gonczy lab for sharing their research, reagents & protocols, inviting me to lab meetings and celebrations and just making me feel comfortable in a new place. Merci! Meeting Pierre Gonczy, seeing him work daily and recall every detail of every centriole paper, was nothing short of inspirational, just as it was to meet the wonderful Sophie Martin. While at EPFL, I got a chance to hear some very fascinating seminars about cell fate, centriole biogenesis, and even got introduced to Stentor.
Making use of the weekends and evenings, I took some time off to soak in the irresistible landscapes along Lake Geneva, hike through the terraced vineyards of the neighbouring towns of Lutry and Montreux, sample some goodies at the local chocolatier and meet old friends over a leisurely lunch.
Overall, it was a very enriching experience and I am grateful to the EIPOD program for supporting this interdisciplinary project and my visit to EPFL.
A great start to my ‘three PI-two country’ postdoc journey.