Research Stay at Vanderbilt University on Arrestin Proteins
by Lizzy Wanka (doctoral student at Leipzig University): In the autumn of 2013, I had the great opportunity to visit Prof. Dr. Vsevolod V. Gurevich`s lab at the Vanderbilt university for 12 weeks. Prof. Gurevich and his group work with arrestin proteins and investigate among others their binding to receptors and other signaling proteins. I wanted to study the binding of different arrestin mutants to NPY receptors and NPY receptor chimera. Together with Dr. Luis E. D. Gimenez, I performed various bioluminescence resonance energy transfer assays and learned a lot about the arrestin recruitment and the optimization of this assay. The discussions about analyzing the data were revealing and very helpful. I enjoyed the work in this lab and the great atmosphere as well as the activities with my colleagues.
The most interesting experience during my stay was Halloween and the preparation for this day. I learned a lot about the American way of life and made some close friendships. All in all, I savored my stay in the country music city Nashville.