Some things never change… Since my college years, which were not so long ago, trains have always been a constant in my life and it seems that no matter where I want to go in Italy, Bologna FS is a nearly inevitable stop. This is one of the many things I’ve learned in this first year living in Italy.   ...

Reading my own headline, I can’t believe that an entire year of my PhD has almost passed. 52 weeks, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525 600 minutes or 31 536 000 seconds have passed since I moved here. It feels like yesterday that I arrived but so much has happened and changed in this year that my brain tells me, logically ...

I vividly remember coming to Copenhagen last year — it’s like it was yesterday. I remember it being quite cold (even though it was April…), and having a nose swollen and itchy from several PCR tests. Despite these massive setbacks (the Danes like sarcasm more than Swedes for sure), I was ready to start my new journey here, although now ...

This story starts some time ago, around May 2020. I’ve just successfully defended my master thesis online, amidst the pandemic, so no there will be no graduation ceremony, let alone any trip. Still, I have a joyful time for one day before reality hits hard: I am unemployed. Well, speaking of employment, I really want to continue on with PhD ...

It was a typical day, and everyone was working from home or enjoying so-called holidays at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Universities were closed, and I was trying to finish my masters’ project from home (How? It was based on 90% simulations and the remaining 10% in-vitro studies). Moreover, I was optimistic about a Ph.D. position abroad. However, when ...

irst of all, congrats. We made it: 2021 is finally over! I am super grateful to still be standing after another year of living COVIDly. So much seems unchanged, yet almost everything has pretty much changed. I’ve learned a lot during the last year, but in my mind, there is one lesson that cannot be ignored: how we communicate is ...

A big dream of mine has always been to study for some time abroad. After finishing my pharmacy studies in Germany, the time for the practical year came and I had the chance to spend half of it at the Infectious Disease and Pharmacokinetics Laboratory at the University of Florida in the US. This time was a determining point for ...

Ever since I was a teenager, I knew science was going to be my life partner. I remember myself being intrigued by biological phenomena and diseases and researching about them (the outbreak of Influenza virus back then certainly played a role). I would always ask myself, even at that young age, why antibodies act the way they do, why some ...

Looking out of my window and at the weather forecast for the coming days, it is undeniable that my recent decision to buy a better rain jacket was a good one. Unfortunately, it  can sometimes be a little more difficult to tell in advance whether a decision will be right or wrong, especially compared to buying a rain jacket when ...

I was pondering how to begin my first blog. And I suddenly went back in time to a bit earlier than the beginning of my COLOTAN story. During the last year of my master study, I decided that continuing in academia would suit me better. For this reason, I was already looking for a PhD position in the pharmaceutical area ...