So here it is, my blog about my adventure week in the greater Denmark area. Every core course goes on a study tour in Denmark or surrounding areas. Most courses go to locations west of Copenhagen, which is exactly what we did.
As a student in the Biotechnology and Drug Development class we experienced a little bit of the life and culture of Odense and Åarhus Denmark. In each location we experienced both cultural and educational studies. The trip was great and filled with many interesting talks to help us both further understand the happenings of biotechnology in Denmark, but to also grasp cultural differences in research and development as well as business aspects. This post will focus on the academic studies versus the cultural aspects
To begin our trip, we took a short bus ride to visit the Science and Innovation Network Manager and Communication Director for Biopeople. Biopeople is a publicly funded partnership. It is funded by the ministry of Science and Higher Education within the National Danish Innovation System. They facilitate and promote collaboration, innovation and education within health and life science fields. This is super important as sometimes because of the competitive nature of the science world, people are less likely to share their ideas, but we all learned growing up that having two heads working together is better than one. They take this principle and use it to network organizations. Their members can connect and share ideas. Biopeople works as the facilitator in this process, but the actual research is still done by the individual companies.
Then we made our way to the Center for Clinical Proteomics. As my world revolves around food, I just want to say that we were pleasantly surprised when they had cake and coffee for us here!
But back to what we were there for: the center is known for their research in proteomics. Their main selling point is the mass amount of technology they have to analyze proteins. The main machine used is the mass spec, in which they have 13 different models.
Though at points the current research went over my head, it was nice to see the facility and to hear about the job opportunity for research that is available in Denmark.
If anyone is looking to do a PhD in this field, this is the place!
The second day of our core course week included a visit to the PUMPkin Center for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease. At the Pumpkin Center they are involved in collaborative research on many different types of membrane pumps at Åarhus University. We had the opportunity to hear from many different people within the company. First we heard the overview and goal of the research by the director who is a professor at the University. We also had the opportunity to hear from a research assistant working in one of the labs, a PhD student from the US, and a postdoctoral and project leader. Something to note is that the Pumpkin center works directly with Dandrite which looks at transports and receptors in the brain. Both companies employ relatively young researchers, so ideas are current and flowing.
With a new day we had an academic visit with the Director and CEO of AH Diagnostics. This visit was different from the rest as AH Diagnostics is the middle man between universities and other research institutions and companies that develop research equipment. They like to hire people with the science background, so that they can provide a quality assurance and help to their customers.
The fourth day of our study tour consisted of two lectures and a talk at the University of Copenhagen. The talk was from the VP of Strategic Development for NNE Pharmaplan. It was mostly about the future of pharmacology. From what. I understood patents will expire and small molecule drugs will no longer make the money in the industry. Money will be made in biopharmaceuticals, which was fun to hear as that is what our class is all about!
We were lucky to get two additional talks on the final day. One was particularly special as we had the opportunity to hear from the Vice President of Novo Nordisk!!!
One of the leaders in insulin production and administration! We also took a short trip to Lund, Sweden where we heard from a researcher for Alligator Bioscience, where research for antibody drugs is done.
Overall the experience from my short study tour during core course week was nothing short of awesome! We learned a lot about the field and even more about many different job opportunities! Nothing like making my experience abroad a networking chance!
DISembark To Denmark 