Two Leipzig students at Vanderbilt

/ December 3, 2010/ News

Sabina Kanton and Henrike Indrischek (biochemistry undergraduates from Leipzig University) took the opportunity to visit Vanderbilt University for a 5 week research stay in September and October 2010 with a special tender of the DAAD RISE program. Here is their report about this experience.

Why Vanderbilt University?
Both of us wanted to gain practical experience and get an insight into the work of a research group abroad. We were just curious to get to know the atmosphere of such a prominent American university and of course were keen on improving our scientific English.

Research projects
I (Henrike Indrischek) worked in the group of Hassane Mchaourab at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics whereas Sabina was part of Chuck Sander´s group at the Department of Biochemistry. Both of us worked on similar projects running gel electrophoresis under native conditions. My task was to try out Blue Native PAGE as a technique to investigate the oligomeration state of the group`s membrane proteins under native conditions. In addition to that I had the chance to get an insight into the group´s projects and various methods like EPR or HPLC. Sabina`s goal was to investigate the influence of different factors e.g. detergents, buffer composition etc. on Clear Native PAGE which completely abdicates the negative charge of proteins during electrophoresis.

Experiences – inside of Vanderbilt and outside in Nashville

In spite of the fact that as being sophomores it was our first possibility to work in a research group at all, the groups found the right combination of letting us work self-consistently and guiding us at the same timeWe coped with our first disappointments in the lab work and had to prove persistence-valuable skills not only in research.

In addition to that we got to know so many friendly people we wish to keep in touch with. We were both impressed of the natural hospitality and care the groups welcomed us with – I have never been invited to so many BBQs, birthdays and trips at a place where I originally did not know anyone. Thus we had the opportunity to explore not only facets of the music city Nashville but also the surroundings e.g. the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, the Mammoth Caves or Cheekwood. Just being in a different surrounding, speaking a different language and getting to know different cultures – besides American, Indian and Chinese – made me deviate from our usual thinking pattern and left me slightly changed.