Olatz Arnold Garcia traveled back to her home country for her master's thesis.

Interview with Olatz Arnold Garcia

Field of study: MSc Pharmatechnology
Stay abroad: MSc thesis
Host institution: Biodonostia Health Research Institute
Semester: Spring/Fall 2021

What made you decide, what motivated you to go abroad?
Gaining work experience, creation of network and future employment plans.

Why did you choose your host institution/country?
Because I speak Spanish and it would be easy for me in Spain.

What is your everyday life like? What does a typical day at the host institution look like?
Every day from Monday to Friday, I used to arrive at 9 o’clock in the morning to the institution. Then I used to start with the planned experiments until 13 o’clock. From 13 pm to 13:30 pm we used to have lunch at the same facility. And from 13:00 pm to 17:30 I continue with the experiments. Every Tuesday at 14:00 we had the lab meetings with all the group members and on Thursdays at 10:00 I met my supervisor to discuss about the results and the prospects.

Tell us about your research and your research findings during your residency.
I did the computational analysis of the alternative splicing in blood samples of patients suffering from Frontotemporal Dementia. I also did the gene expression profiling for the same samples. I finally did the molecular validation of the bioinformatic results.
On the other hand, I also worked with the optimization of the Cas13 system as a therapy for Frontotemporal dementia with a specific mutation in GRN gene.

What surprised you the most about your stay abroad?
The kindness and help I received at the host institution.

If I had known at the beginning that... What tip would you like to give to future exchange students.
Ask every question you have; everyone is prone to help.

Ab ins Ausland?

Unsere Studierenden profitieren von der internationalen Vernetzung der Hochschule für Life Sciences. Ein Auslandsaufenthalt bei unseren Partnerschulen ist bei Bachelor- wie auch Master-Studierenden sehr begehrt. Nicht nur, um den persönlichen Horizont zu erweitern, sondern auch, um neue soziale und kulturelle Kompetenzen zu erwerben.

Im Rahmen unseres Masterprogramms können ausgewählte Studierende durch ein zusätzliches Semester an einer unserer Partnerschulen, zwei Diplome erhalten. Das Double-Degree Programm ist besonders attraktiv für Masterstudierende, die anschliessend eine Promotion anstreben. Weitere Details zum Double-Degree-Programm finden Sie im hier.