Learnt so much when not everything went as planned. Léa Vuiart (Master internship at IDIBAPS)
Léa Vuiart held a biomedical engineering degree and she collaborated with 4-DBR project through her master intership performed at the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS).
Léa Vuiart
We had the pleasure of interviewing Léa and know her experience.
How has the experience of participating in the European 4DBR project been? What would you highlight?
My experience in the 4DBR project has been truly rewarding as I was able to discover more about a subject I never dived into before. I found the research itself to be very exciting, I was most importantly pleased to be able to interact with many people to discuss and get some new insights on my latest experiences and results. I felt that the environment was overall very caring and supportive which was truly appreciated throughout my internship.
What encouraged you to do the internship with the 4DBR project?
I was deeply interested in the fields of research the 4DBR project partakes in. Indeed, ever since my exchange semester in Universitat de Barcelona where I pursued classes in Regenerative Medicine, I have become deeply interested in the tissue Engineering field, especially applied to Neurodegenerative disorders. I wanted to discover more.
“Not only did I gain confidence as I realized I was capable of carrying these experiments but also I enjoyed every bits of it, even more so during the most difficult moments"
Léa Vuiart
How do you think you will be able to use the acquired knowledge?
I have learnt a lot during my internship, thanks to the training I received and the bibliographical research I led. I don’t have a strong background in biology, so everything was fairly new to me. I was able to carry many experiments such as stem cell culture or immunocytochemistry which I had never done before. Moreover, by the end of my internship, I could carry my experiments in a fairly autonomous manner which is very valuable for my future career. All the acquired knowledge gives me a better understanding of the concepts and techniques used in this field, and I intent to put it at use in my future career. Moreover, working in Barcelona was a great opportunity to me language-wise as I was surrounded by Catalan and Spanish speakers. This did help me improve my Spanish and pick up a bit of Catalan, which I would definitely love to dive into a bit more.
Would you encourage other students to carry out an internship?
If there are any Biomedical Engineering students interested in the field of Tissue Engineering, I would definitely recommend to pursue an internship of this type. Indeed, I was not only able to carry new experiments, but also able to dive into the topic more, giving me a better understanding of the concepts surrounding this field and overall biology knowledge which is deeply valuable if you want to further pursue this career. Moreover, doing so in Barcelona was the opportunity to discover more about the catalan culture, language and traditions which was very enjoyable.
Do you think this experience will influence for choosing your studies and professional career? What are your plans for the future?
Definitely. I first pursued this internship as an intent to see if Tissue Engineering was a field I would enjoy working in, and the answer was YES ! I am now searching for my Master 2 internship, still in the field of Regenerative Medicine, with the hope of pursuing a PhD in the same field. While I would love to pursue an internship similar to the one I have led in the 4-DBR project, I am also trying to orientate my career in the development and study of bioreactors.
If you had to sum up your experience in one sentence, what would it be?
This quote summarizes pretty well my feeling about the internship: “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”. I am a pretty anxious person, and diving into this internship, considering that I had very little knowledge in biology was a bit scary. Not only did I gain confidence as I realized I was capable of carrying these experiments but also I enjoyed every bits of it, even more so during the most difficult moments, and learnt so much when not everything went as planned.