Report for the Research in Science For Life Laboratory (Stockholm)

Hiromi Takahashi
 PhD Student, Department of Biomolecular Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University

On March 2– 9, 2019 I visited Mats Nilsson Laboratory at Science for life laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden. Our objective was to collaborate on the project between Baba Laboratory and Nilsson Laboratory. We aimed to integrate the knowledge of nanotechnology (nanowires – microfluidics device) and molecular biology to develop a novel molecular analysis device.

Science for life laboratory is located in Stockholm, where takes approximately 20 minutes by bus from the central station. Here, there are many graduate students and researchers from various countries and schools. This a national center for molecular biosciences is comprised of various laboratories with a focus on environment and health research, which is interesting for me. In Sweden, there are interesting traditions, for example, having a coffee break (Fika) as well as there is a pancake on a menu in every lunch restaurant on Thursday and people will have lunch together.

In our collaboration, I worked in a team of 4, which was composed of a researcher, a postdoctoral research fellow, and an undergraduate student. We have performed experiments about capturing rolling cycle amplification product (RCP) on nanowires embedded in microfluidics device for the development of portable and integrated analytical devices. During the experiment, I have learned about new experiments and observed how other researchers work and solve the problem. Every day we had a discussion both before and after doing the experiment to plan a task and solve problems that we had. In the end, although, we need to continue for better and more significant results, but we were quite satisfied with results that we had done for a week.