Living in another country for three months can really change a person. To step outside of your comfort zone and immerse yourself into another culture is something that everyone should do. For me, living in Sweden opened my eyes to a cultural mindset very similar, yet surprisingly different from the one in which I was raised.

Thanks to Carol Bender and the BRAVO! program, I was able to spend my summer doing research at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. I worked in the Integrative Physiology Laboratory headed by Dr. Juleen Zierath. The lab focuses on the causes of Type 2 diabetes in addition to developing possible interventions for the disease, which is quickly becoming a world wide epidemic. The Zierath group is known as one of the best diabetes research groups in the world and it showed. The group was comprised of twenty-five people representing eight different nationalities. The lab was equipped with state of the art technology and had an enormous amount of space dedicated to it. It truly was an intellectual milieu
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I worked on a variety of projects, but actually had two dedicated to myself. My first project concerned measuring the levels protein kinase C (PKC) activation. PKC has eleven different isoforms each with their own unique function. I examined the levels of activation for each isoform and attempted to discern a difference between Type 2 diabetics and control subjects. I was doing a preliminary inquiry for the group in this area and my results are being used to determine if this is a possible project for future funding.

The other project I was given involved genotyping subjects who had been used in a recent drug treatment study. According to the literature, there is a polymorphism in the interleukin-6 (IL-6) promoter region that is associated with metabolic syndrome. I was responsible for isolating genomic DNA from serum samples and then genotyping the subjects for this abnormality. I had never worked with DNA before so this project really got me excited. Unfortunately, the DNA extraction protocol did not work as planned, therefore we were unable to genotype any of the subjects. However, as I was the first person to perform this procedure in the lab, I was able to give my supervisors suggestions on how to improve the protocol for better results in the future.

In my time off, I tried to experience as much of the Swedish culture as I possibly could. The Swedish summers are amazing for a couple of reasons. First, the weather is absolutely beautiful. You get a high of about 80 degrees everyday, and when the sun is shining you can go swimming in the lakes after work. The second reason for the unbelievable summers is the daylight. In Stockholm during the summer, the sun sets around 11pm and rises at about 3:30 or 4am. You have so much daylight that you find yourself taking a walk in the park at ten o’clock at night because it’s too light to go to bed.

Additionally, the Swedes are extremely friendly people. I made a lot of good friends in my short stay and have even more unforgettable memories. The coolest thing I did while I was in Sweden was taking a rafting trip down the largest river in Sweden. The best part about the trip was that you built the raft yourself! Once complete, you jumped on your raft and floated down the river for over 30 miles. The peace and tranquility of the river coupled with the countryside made for the best trip I’ve ever been on.

While research abroad is very much like research back home, I would recommend it to everyone. I learned a variety of new techniques and became familiar with cutting edge technology that I do not have access to in my lab. I have taken what I learned overseas and am applying to my project here in the US. I cannot say thank you enough to all those who were responsible for giving me this opportunity.

Andrew Lemieux, UBRP alum in Dr. Erik Henriksen’s lab, Physiology and currently an MS student in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, UA