PROM: Travelling broadens horizons and teaches new molecular techniques!

The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) was established in 2017. Its main goal is to support international mobility of students, academics and researchers and promote Polish science and higher education.

International scholarship exchange of PhD candidates and academic staff called PROM; enables participation in short forms of education (lasting from 5 to 30 days) which are aimed at increasing competences and qualifications. Our team obtained funding from PROM to attend ICRS and share our most recent data with worldwide web of scientists in the cannabinoid field but we also had a chance to give an insight into what we do in the lab (and outside!) to two students from abroad and to host the former lab member Magda for a couple of days.

First, we had a chance to welcome Magda in August. Magda was an essential part of Painlab team from 2013 to 2017 and now she is working under the supervision of prof. Alessia Ligresti in Endocannabinoid Research Group, ICB CNR, Pozzuoli, Italy. She visited us in order to review the most recent data regarding novel CB2 ligands, data obtained in collaboration between her new lab and us.

Later on, with the beginning of September, Nicole Stone from prof. Saoirse O’Sullivan lab at the University of Nottingham visited us in order to learn immunocytochemistry. Don’t worry, we didn’t spend all the time in the lab!  There was also time to explore Krakow. We took Nicole to some of the Cracow’s most remarkable hotspots like Krakus Mound or Forum Przestrzenie club café – a place where contemporary art meets with a bar.

After that, our lab was visited by Alberto Cánovas Cabanes, who is working under the supervision of Javier Navarro Zaragoza and Pilar Almela Rojo at University of Murcia. He spent the week working with Kuba Chwastek and performing Western Blots and ELISA. They have also spent some time outside of the lab, as Kuba have shown him some of the Cracow’s finest cuisine and liquor bars.

Science is not only in the laboratory; it’s also the thoughts, experiences and visions of people who make it. We did our best to share our knowledge and the greatest of polish culture with our guests. We hope that this experience will stay for long in their memory and make up for good connections when our roads crosses their paths again. It was a pleasure to have you here, see you again, Magda, Nicole and Alberto!