3-month visit in Boston

"For my exchange to Boston, I had the opportunity to work in the lab of Dr. Michael S. Rogers. The Rogers lab focuses on endometriosis, blinding eye disease and cancer. The lab developed a model of endometriosis-associated pain and uses this model to identify and validate new and repurposed therapeutic targets. During my stay, I worked together with Victor Fattori, who has profound experience in working with nerves and performing pain studies. Victor taught me how to isolate and work with dorsal root ganglia. Combining this with my project on breast cancer, the goal was to create a co-culture in vitro model to study the interaction between breast cancer and neurons. 

During my time in the Rogers lab, I worked on experiments related to my research in Bergen, but also got to help with experiments that other lab members were working on. I liked this balance of progressing in my own research and implementing the techniques used in the Rogers lab into this field, as well as familiarizing myself with experimental work on endometriosis to better understand what the group was working on. I enjoyed participating in the weekly lab meetings. It was inspiring to hear other lab members talk about their projects and to see all the different techniques this group is familiar with. I also got to present updates on my own project several times which provided me with helpful feedback from fellow lab members.

Visiting a laboratory with a different research topic than the research group in Bergen, I was able to expand my field and learn about new techniques, not least improving my techniques for cell culturing. It taught me to ask the right questions to enable me to work independently towards the end of the 3-month stay. I am grateful that I got to learn many new skills to bring home with me. 

Besides working in the lab, I tried to explore as much of Boston as possible. I did a popular “Duck-boat” tour, visited the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum and went to a baseball game. I also took part in more day-to-day activities by joining a hiking and running group. Downtown Boston has a lot to offer, but also Cambridge, Back Bay and Jamaica Plain are worth visiting. My favorite activities were going to a Red Sox game with colleagues and joining friends at a beach in Rockport on a sunny weekend. Even when going by yourself, Boston is a very welcoming city with people from all over the world coming here to study and work. I very much enjoyed my stay and would highly recommend going abroad as part of your PhD to anybody who has the opportunity."