Research internship in Coimbra, Portugal

Spe­cifi­cally, I worked in the labor­atory of Pro­fessor Carlos B. Du­arte under the su­pervi­sion of Dr. Rui O. Costa. My pro­ject fo­cused on un­der­stand­ing how dis­rup­tions in the cellu­lar waste dis­posal sys­tem of neu­rons con­tribute to Alz­heimer’s dis­ease (AD). Since neu­rons rely on effi­cient recy­cling mech­anisms to main­tain their func­tion throughout life, de­fects in these pro­cesses are in­creas­ingly rec­og­nized as a key factor in neu­ro­de­gen­era­tive dis­eases like AD. 

To fur­ther inves­tigate this ques­tion, I worked with prima­ry neu­ronal cell cul­tures ex­posed to Alz­heimer’s dis­ease-related pro­tein ag­gre­gates and used cell biolo­gy and mi­cros­copy tech­niques to ana­lyze cellu­lar changes. The pro­ject’s broader effort is to better un­der­stand the mo­lecu­lar mech­anisms un­derly­ing Alz­heimer’s dis­ease and to ulti­mate­ly identi­fy poten­tial targets for future thera­peutic inter­ven­tions. 

Be­yond the scien­tific work, I es­pe­cially ap­preci­ated the col­la­bora­tive at­mosphere within the lab. Re­spon­sibili­ties for main­taining dai­ly labor­atory tasks were shared among all group mem­bers and I quick­ly be­came inte­grated into the team. Over­all, I gained val­uable in­sights into re­search cul­ture in an­other coun­try and most of all in an inter­na­tional envi­ron­ment.

Life in Coimbra was just as re­ward­ing out­side the labor­atory. The city has a unique aca­demic tradi­tion with a wel­com­ing and inter­na­tional at­mosphere. Through my lab-friends, Eras­mus stu­dents, and local bars, I quick­ly met many inter­esting peo­ple and built a great social circle. My work­load in the in­tern­ship was flexi­ble enough to allow fre­quent week­end trips across Por­tugal, which is easy to ex­plore thanks to af­forda­ble long-distance bus con­nec­tions. I also partic­ipated in activi­ties orga­nized by the local Eras­mus Stu­dent Net­work (ESN) and regu­larly ran with the local run­ning club Run­away, where I met many like-minded peo­ple. For the first time, I also partic­ipated in a cou­ple of 10K races orga­nized in Coimbra and other neighboring towns. 

One of the things I en­joyed most about Coimbra was its vi­brant stu­dent cul­ture, with tradi­tions, music, and events shap­ing eve­ryday life in the city. A par­ticular high­light was expe­rienc­ing the end of term festi­val, Queima das Fitas, at the end of my stay, and a mem­orable finish to my time in Por­tugal. Over­all, my time in Coimbra was an in­credi­bly re­ward­ing expe­rience. I met amaz­ing peo­ple whom I am still in con­tact with today, and I am grate­ful for all the op­portu­nities and expe­rienc­es the Elite Net­work of Ba­varia and my Elite Graduate Pro­gram “Trans­latio­nal Neuro­science” ena­bled with this in­tern­ship.

Text: Chiara Spear, Elite Graduate Program “Translational Neuroscience”