One week with Mette Ludwig
My name is Mette and since March I have been a PhD student at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen. I’m a hybrid between a Bioinformatician and a Molecular Biologist and I study the central mechanisms controlling energy and glucose balance using single cell transcriptomics, epigenetics and human genetics. Recently, a research group in Seattle headed by, Professor Michael Schwartz, showed that a single injection of fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF1) in the ventricles of the brain induces sustained diabetes remission in mice. This finding has brought me to Seattle where I am spending this fall and winter to collaborate with the Schwartz lab on deciphering the molecular changes leading to improved glucose homeostasis.
Monday 9/12
My Monday starts off with the usual bus ride crossing the lake that separates my apartment from downtown Seattle where the lab is located side by side with the Allen Institute, Google, Novo Nordisk and the Amazon headquarters. The view of the lake is beautiful and the bus drivers are always friendly so I can almost say that I enjoy the ride. On Mondays, we have our weekly lab meeting. Today, Jarrad, an associate professor in the lab, presents his work on identifying the physiological effects of FGF1 – very interesting and highly relevant for my project. After the presentation, we coordinate all the experiments that will take place during the week. The rest of the day I spend finishing the method section for our upcoming paper that builds on work I and collaborators initiated in Copenhagen.
Tuesday 10/12
The Christmas vibes have arrived in the lab. I start the day with our journal club that takes place every second week. However, today the discussions are spiced up with a holiday bake-off competition. This means six different delicious cakes to taste and way too much sugar before 10 o’clock! Luckily, my Danish Christmas cookies are a success too. Later we are all going out for the annual Christmas lunch at a Mexican restaurant downtown. Michael Schwartz says some nice words on this year’s achievements of the lab and we finish the event with a gift exchange game. Whereas Greg at the other end of the table is the lucky new owner of a set of speakers, my seatmate Kayoko and I are not as fortuitous and end up with a device to make the toilet bowl glow in neon blue and a vase shaped like a cat, respectively.
Wednesday 11/12
Today is surgery day! Our cohort of mice has arrived. These mice lack the leptin gene, and they are therefore hyperphagic and will most likely develop type 2 diabetes. The objective of today is to implant a cannula into the lateral ventricle of the brain of each mouse whereby we are able to inject FGF1 centrally to induce diabetes remission. The open access to the brain is sealed with a cap and the mice can thrive for months with this implantation. I have been trained to do these cannulations by a postdoc from lab and a close collaborator on the project, Marie. Though, this work requires a lot of concentration for me, I feel like I am improving.
Thursday 12/12
We still have some mice left to surgerize today. 1, 2,…, 5 hours, done! We will let the mice recover over the weekend before we will start recording body weight and blood glucose. When the mice have developed type 2 diabetes, expectedly within the next two weeks, we can start the FGF1 injections. The remaining part of the day I spend catching up on some exciting newly published articles relevant to my research. In the evening, I meet up with my neighbour Derek for game of ping pong at a local bar. Though, it occasionally can feel a bit lonely being new in the city, I enjoy the openness of the people here a lot as well as the cool atmosphere of Seattle and the beautiful nature surrounding it.
Friday 13/12
With no laboratory work today, I continue preparing for our manuscript. Figures need to be polished. I mainly use the programming language R for data analysis and figure generation. Luckily, I think this is a lot of fun. In the afternoon, I meet up with Marie to discuss an interesting upcoming project involving human brain samples which the Schwartz lab recently has been gained access to. Since the majority of the experimental protocols in the lab have been optimized for mice and rats, there are lot of open questions regarding human sample handling that we will have to answer during the next months. Before I leave work, I receive an email from our collaborator in Michigan with new data for our manuscript. Exciting! For tonight, I have been invited to a Danish Christmas party hosted by a half Danish/half American couple, John and Becky, for a lot of American friends. It is a fun evening with Christmas songs, rye bread, herring and schnapps. Time flies and yet another good week as a PhD student abroad ends.