Student’s view - Molecular and Developmental Genetics
- In vivo protein-proteins interactions
I knew it right away when I followed the course ‘Genetica’ in my second year. Molecular and Developmental Genetics had my interest, and at this section of the IBL I would do my bachelor internship.
My internship was really great. I set up my own project whereby I verified protein - protein interactions with the domesticated transposase DAYSLEEPER and visualized them with fluorescence in plant protoplasts. For my project I used a lot of molecular techniques like PCR to obtain the genes of interest, cloning to bring these genes into the right vectors and transformation of cells for the actual fluorescent protein expression. In the end, when I used microscopy to look for the interactions, I got results! That was the best moment of my internship, all the hard work had not been for nothing and the clonings, I had designed, worked.
Without my supervisors and the other people of our section this would never had happened of course. If you like working in a lab, but you are afraid of getting lonely there, you might consider the Molecular and Developmental Genetics section for your internship. It is a young section with a lot of nice and funny colleagues. There has not a day gone by that there was not someone who made a joke at the coffee break.
Afke Sietsma
