Spending three months in Spain is something I never imagined myself doing. I had never been abroad on my own before, but my time in Barcelona allowed me to learn so much more than new laboratory skills. I immersed myself in a culture completely different from my own and along the way learned some new language skills as well, a dash of Catalan and quite a bit of Spanish. Although, I would make many mistakes in my Spanish, people were very good about teaching and correcting me along the way. From the beginning, I found Spaniards to be very friendly and open, which made adjusting fairly easy.

I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Albert Bosch at the University of Barcelona. With its friendly atmosphere, the lab group felt like a family. With not everyone in the lab speaking English fluently and my mediocre Spanish, we found ways to communicate and taught each other along the way. At the end of the summer, they joked that their English was probably better than mine! I found creative ways to bond with all the lab members from taking samba dancing classes, cooking dinner; and, of course watching "futbol" (Catalan people are very fond of FC Barcelona, and we were right next to the stadium!). Dr. Bosch and his wife were also very welcoming as they invited me over for dinner and had me try some of the best Spanish wines.

My research project involved adapting a cell culture system to propagate norovirus. Noroviruses are associated with greater than 90% of non-bacterial, acute gastroenteritis cases worldwide. Transmission of these viruses occurs mainly through the fecal-oral route and contaminated food and water are thought to be the likely environmental reservoirs for these viruses. Illness is characterized by the acute-onset of vomiting, watery diarrhea with abdominal cramps, nausea and in some cases malaise, headache and a low-grade fever. Understanding the pathogenesis of human Noroviruses has been limited by the inability to propagate them in laboratory cell culture.

Originally, we planned to use a three-dimensional rotating wall vessel to culture the cells, but decided to try other methods of propagating the intestinal epithelial cells (INT 407), which included roller bottles and a cell suspension device. The rotating wall vessel is somewhat impractical in price and availability. In the media we used for the cultivation, we also added collagen coated micro carrier dextran beads for the cells to adhere to. This allows for three-dimensional growth of the cells to expose the appropriate receptor for the virus, this is also why a cell monolayer cannot be used for infection with virus. The biggest problem was that although INT cells did have a fast generation time, it still took close to 30 days for the cells to form sufficient aggregates on the beads. The results were not quite what we expected since the cells formed aggregates amongst themselves and not actually on the beads. This could be attributed to a number of reasons from the larger volume of the apparatuses compared to the rotary system as well as the speed of the systems. Thus, we decided to wait to infect the cells until they grew, as we needed. The next step in the project, which a postdoctoral student will continue, is to take the cell and bead supernatant and transfer it to 24 well plates for infection with norovirus. This will be tested by RT-PCR to confirm infection and will continue to be passed in cell culture.

Outside of the lab, I was able to see so much of Barcelona and take part in many local traditions such as San Juan, which was an annual celebration of the summer solstice where we spent all night at the beach along with hundreds of other Spaniards and watched the sun rise the next morning. Within Spain there are many differences in culture and language amongst the different regions. Barcelona was the most chic and cosmopolitan city in the country and the primary language is Catalan. Whereas Sevilla, in the south, actively partakes in a daily siesta and they are very passionate about their flamenco dancing as well, which I was fortunate to experience. Spanish culture emphasizes spending time with family; work always came second, which I found to be a wonderful aspect of the culture. It was great being in a place where it seemed as if stress didn't exist, which made leaving even harder. My experience in Spain was quite a memorable one from the people I met to the amazing sites I have seen and everything I have learned from living on my own.
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I'd like to thank Carol Bender, Director of the BRAVO! Program, for allowing me the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful program. Also Dr. Charles Gerba, for helping me coordinate the research project, and Dr. Albert Bosch and all the members of the enteric virus laboratory for hosting me and providing such a great experience.

Nikita Patel, BRAVO! student, with Dr. Albert Bosch, Department of Microbiology University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, and UBRPer in Dr. Charles Gerba's lab, Soil, Water, and Environmental Science