These first months of 2025 were quite busy for the PI Jan Wijnholds who has been receiving DCs in his laboratory from the beginning of the year. In January Nathalie started her secondment at LUMC and while there, Ceren also arrived at the end of February 2025.
Now that the secondment finished also for Ceren, she is sharing below her impressions of her 2 months Dutch life:)
Lab experience
During my secondment in Leiden, I was involved in some exciting hiPSC CRISPR work. The main focus was introducing the mutation found in CACD patients into human iPSCs using electroporation. After successfully editing the hiPSC lines, I moved on to the differentiation process, trying to develop cone photoreceptor precursor cultures. We gained valuable insights, and it will be great to apply everything I had learned from the previous experiments back at my home lab. I’m especially excited to continue these experiments!
A huge thank you to Vaishnavi for helping with the mutation insertion, Charlotte for guiding me through the photoreceptor precursor cultures, and Xuefei for her expertise on AAV production.
Life in Leiden
Living in Leiden was an adventure in itself! I quickly adapted to the Dutch way of life; lots of bikes, lots of canals, and lots of cheese (not complaining about any of those). The Dutch people were friendly and easygoing, and I quickly felt at home in the vibrant atmosphere of the city. Of course, navigating my way through the canals and trying to avoid tripping over bikes was part of the fun.
I was expecting the weather to be more grey and dark, but to be honest, I think I brought the sun from Spain! I was incredibly lucky with the weather, almost all sunshine, which the locals even commented on. It made everything so much more enjoyable.
I have to send a huge thank you to Vaihsnavi (our precious DC6), who made all the difference during my time there. Even though I didn’t speak the language and it was my first time in the city, Vaihsnavi helped me feel at home in just a week or two. Her friendship truly made my time in Leiden unforgettable. Without her, this experience wouldn’t have been nearly as amazing. Her support and kindness were such a gift.
I also had the chance to sample some local delicacies, especially stroopwafels and Dutch cheese. If I could bring the cheese back to Spain, I would have filled my suitcase with it! Honestly, that carrot cake from Albert Heijn lives rent-free in my mind.
Greetings !