Prevention and Remediation of Insulin Multimorbidity in Europe

PhD student Dorothea Schall from Heidelberg visited her collaborators in Budapest for a 2-month secondment, supported by the PRIME project

Due to the PRIME project I had the opportunity to visit our collaboration lab in Budapest beginning of this year. We are both working in the same work package within PRIME, both working with iPSC-derived neurons. The group of János Réthelyi, together with Ágota Apáti and Katalin Vincze, is working with diabetic patient lines to investigate how these neurons behave during early neuronal development compared to a healthy control. During my stay in Budapest I was able to learn two techniques: calcium imaging and MEA measurements. Especially MEA measurement was very interesting for me, because you can basically watch the cells live communicating with each other. Moreover, we could clearly see how the neurons mature over time and communicate more and more the older they got. It was every time a lot of fun to measure the cells and see their behaviour!

Fortunately, I did not only have a great time experimental wise, but also with the people. All lab members were extremely nice to me, I was integrated very fast and had a great time! I’m very happy I was able to get to know all these people. Last but not least I fell in love with Budapest, one of the most beautiful and versatile cities I have visited so far. I can warmly recommend a visit!