I spent five months at Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden on a
Semester Abroad Programme (SAP) between August 2011 and January 2012. Umeå is
situated in the north of Sweden, a mere 400 kilometres from the arctic circle.
The journey to Umeå from Chennai lasted a sum total of around 30 hours by air –
on four flights, across five airports!
I had selected two
courses spanning 10 weeks each to complete during my stay there. The first of
my courses there was called Molecular Genetics which encompassed lectures
on several advanced techniques used in molecular biology and six intensive
experiments on the same. This was an advanced course, which meant that most of
my classmates were Master's students and I was among the youngest in the class!
Many lectures delivered in the duration of this course were by leading
scientists working on a wide variety of model organisms ranging from Yeast to E.coli,
pathogenic bacteria, Drosophila and C.Elegans. In the
laborations, I got to work with Yeast as well as other bacteria and write lab
reports in the style of research papers.
The second course I undertook was a 'Practice course' which
is a project course that does not require a thesis submission at the end. I
worked in a lab that carried out research on the pathogenesis of Yersinia
pseudotuberculosis, a food borne pathogen. My supervisor, Dr.Ikenna Obi,
works on periplasmic peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerases (PPIases) and my job
encompassed carrying out studies on and developing various mutants of the same
by site-directed mutagenesis. This was a fantastic experience and the course
was designed in such a way that I got an intensive training in lab practices
and also a working knowledge on how mainstream research is carried out.
Although academics and working in lab took most of my time
in Umeå, I would me remiss if I did not talk about the cultural experience in
such an exchange programme. Needless to say, socially and otherwise, the
practices followed in Europe are very different from those in India. I made
many friends from many countries, namely Sweden, Austria, Germany, France and
so on; sharing our cultures, and indeed, cultural differences was a great
experience! Sweden is an expensive country to live in, especially as a student
from a different country.
Living on a tight budget, and having to take care of oneself
in the absence of guardians or parents or wardens, cooking everyday and
cleaning are all things that one will have to be prepared to do! It was great
fun experimenting in the kitchen after a long day at the lab! Another thing
that was very different was the weather. Swedish winters are harsh at best, and
in Umeå, temperatures are known to drop below -35°C. From the day I arrived,
the highest temperature I experienced was just 14° C and the lowest,
around -23° C! I even got to
see the northern lights or Aurora Borealis a couple of times! Watching the
weather became a regular passtime of mine, and I promised myself that I would
never complain about the sweltering heat of Chennai again!
Overall, this SAP was a wonderful learning experience, academic
and otherwise. It gave me perspective, hands-on experience and an idea of how
to go about research; and also a reassurance of my earlier convictions to
pursue the same as a career.
Shyama Nandakumar