BiocatCode Expander Stories:

Beyond the Bench #8

Lauren Quintero

Hello everyone!!! My name is Lauren Quintero, and I am a PhD student working on Project 4 of the BiocatCodeExpander consortium. Two years and two months ago, I changed my entire life and moved from the other side of the Atlantic to Europe to begin my PhD. Fortunately, my university, Rovira i Virgili, is located in a city in Catalonia (Tarragona), in the south of Spain, on the Mediterranean coast. This means it has very favorable weather, and in that sense, it reminds me a lot of my homeland. Although the change was drastic, little by little over time, I have adapted and started to see it as my second home.

The change has not only been personal but also professional, because although I graduated in Chemistry, I had never worked in organic synthesis before. Now, in the SINTCARB lab in Spain, I focus on the synthesis of silicon non-canonical amino acids for genetic code expansion, which is one of the objectives of our project. Working in an organic synthesis lab is tough: you spend many hours setting up reactions, testing conditions, and then studying column behavior or performing purifications. It can also be very frustrating at times, because despite putting in a lot of effort, you don’t always obtain the results you want or the best yields. However, in the end, a solution to the problem is always found. As part of the reward, I have had the opportunity to meet wonderful people, make new friends, and enjoy the beautiful landscape of this region and its beaches, which, although they are not the Caribbean, are still stunning, as well as its incredible gastronomy.

As if that were not enough, in August of this year I moved again, this time for four months to Vienna, Austria, to carry out my first secondment at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, where another of our colleagues, Andrea Borgonovo, is working. Here, once again, I shifted from gram-scale reactions and flash chromatography column purifications to Eppendorf tubes and micropipettes. In other words, a completely different kind of science. I am now studying the genetic incorporation of the silicon ncAAs synthesized in Spain. This is my last week here, and part of me does not want to leave, because I must say that I have learned a lot, I love the working environment, and I have received excellent supervision. On the other hand, the city is beautiful, one of the most beautiful in Europe, in my opinion, and life here truly fascinates me. I have thoroughly enjoyed these four months discovering its majestic palaces, interesting museums, and lovely squares—here, even everyday life feels like art!!! I have also been fortunate to be here at this time of year and to experience the magic of Christmas in this wonderful city, especially through its traditional and charming Christmas markets. In addition, I have had the opportunity to visit other charming cities near to Vienna, such as Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, and Ljubljana.