Students’ impressions


The Scholarship Fund Igor Štagljar provided me with an opportunity to spend seven months in Toronto, at the University of Toronto, as an international visiting graduate student (15th March 2017 to 15th October 2017). I spent most of that time in Dr. Štagljar’s laboratory, working on two projects. One was Drug screening using a new live-cell drug discovery platform (MaMTH-DS), which enabled me to co-author an article currently undergoing a review in one of the leading international scientific magazines. The other project focused on mapping and characteristics of the receptor tyrosine kinase interactome, the topic I chose for my thesis. By working in the lab, I got an insight into the methods of molecular biology, like animal cell culture, cell transfection, PCR experimental design, SDS-PAG electrophoresis, Western blot, MaMTH test, cell viability tests, bacterial transformation, DNA extraction, etc. As a member of Dr. Štagljar’s lab, I attended group meetings every two weeks, where I presented the results of my experiments and discussed them with my colleagues. I had the opportunity to attend a two-day event Donnelley Centre Retreat, where colleagues form other laboratories at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, presented their work. In my free time I was sightseeing, visiting cultural and tourist attractions and museums, meeting different people and exploring different cultures. I made many friends, including the colleagues from the lab and other students I met on the campus. Toronto is fascinating: there are so many different people and cultures, but they all accept each other and get on really well. I used my days off to see New York and the Niagara Falls. My stay in Toronto contributed significantly to my academic development, but also to my personal growth.