...chicken cordon bleu, and Finnish sweet bread have in common? Did you guess that all of these foods were served at the November 9 BRAVO! Datablitz featuring UBRP students Peter Carbone and Camilla Butler along with visiting Chinese Fulbright Scholar, Ye Ying? If you did, well, BRAVO! Not only did the datablitz feature tasty dishes; it also highlighted the overseas experiences and biological research of two University of Arizona students as well as the teachings of an international visitor.

Camilla entertained the audience with a video presentation entitled, "Bon Sang Ne Peut Mentir (Good Blood Cannot Lie)." A former UBRPer in Dr. Paul McDonagh's laboratory in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Camilla spent a semester in France working in Dr. Pascal Leprince's Cardiothoracic Surgery Laboratory at La Pitie Hospital in Paris. The video, which had the audience rolling with its hilarious dramatizations of life around the hospital and the city, starred Camilla's lovely and talented younger sister, Lindsey, and is the frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Camilla brilliantly reenacted oftentimes-unpleasant exchanges with ornery French men, bravely fighting off their anesthesia-induced catcalls post-surgery. Despite early language difficulties (she left without knowing a word of French and returned a fluent speaker), Camilla's research and experience as a whole was very successful. She is still compiling her data, and though she swears to have left her heart in France, she hopes to continue working on a similar project in the United States.

Peter, UBRP alum from Dr. Robert Erickson's laboratory in Pediatrics, traveled to Helsinki, Finland to work for a summer in Dr. Elina Ikonen's biochemistry laboratory at Finland's National Public Health Institute. His presentation, "Niemann-Pick Type-C Research with 24 Hours of Daylight in Helsinki," included information about the research he conducted as well as his life in Finland. Even though it was colder in Helsinki during the summer than it is in Tucson during the winter, Peter still managed to travel almost exclusively by bike. He took a trip above the Arctic Circle (not on his bike, of course), plus witnessed the Finnish obsession with warm workplaces. Because of the cold, Peter would bundle up for the bike ride to the lab, but would be forced to remove his heavy clothing upon entering the building (the temperature inside often approached 90 degrees). If nothing else, Finland taught Peter the advantages of wearing layers.

Peter researched Niemann-Pick Type-C disease, an inherited metabolic disorder in which harmful quantities of a fatty substance accumulate in the spleen, liver, and brain, ultimately leading to death. Peter studied the case of a young Finnish patient who had recently died of the disease in order to elucidate the disorder's genetic basis. While the questions Peter was investigating are still mostly unanswered, his overall experience in Finland was outstanding.

The final presentation, "An Introduction to Chinese Universities: Scan and Rank," was given by Ye Ying, a Fulbright Scholar visiting from China. His talk provided a very interesting introduction to the Chinese system of higher education, as he explained how Chinese universities are ranked in various categories. Mr. Ying showed websites and photographs from China's "top" and "famous" universities. The crowd let out a collective gasp, when he showed the Chinese version of Microsoft Windows. Although he is still learning English, Mr. Ying was kind enough to field questions from the audience at the conclusion of his talk.

The November 9 BRAVO! Datablitz was truly an adventure in culinary and cultural awareness. For additional information about the BRAVO! program; contact Carol Bender in the UBRP Office.

Andrew Edmonds, UBRP alum, Dr. Bowden's lab, Radiation Oncology