Ambassador Reception(s)

One of the most exciting events thus far has been our visit to the United States Embassy to meet the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, Ms. Cynthia Stroum.  There was a group of about 30 students currently involved in some form of studies with the Fulbright-Schuman Program as well as close to 20 Fulbright-Schuman Alumni that night.  The Ambassador was very friendly and expressed her excitement about our particular program during her speech to the group.  The special recognition of our program by Ambassador Stroum truly meant a lot to us as the inaugural CanSys class.  Although there was a large crowd, we all managed to meet her near the end of the evening to further discuss our studies and how our transition (as well as her own) to Luxembourg has been going so far.  Pictures of this event will be available shortly and I will be sure to post them here.


As if that wasn't enough, the six of us were also invited to a reception on the University of Luxembourg's Limpertsberg Campus. Some of those who joined us for this event were: 

Ms. Cynthia Stroum: United States Ambassador
Dr. Rolf Tarrach: University Rector

Dr. Lucien Kerger: Academic Vice-Rector
Dr. Lucienne Blessing: Vice-Rector for Research
Dr. Franck Leprevost: Vice-Rector for International Relations and Special Projects
Professor Paul Heuschling: Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Technology, and Communication
Jenny Hallen-Hedberg: International Relations Officer


We all had a great time during this reception and were very excited to share some time and conversation with all of those listed above. Needless to say it was an incredibly generous invitation that we all truly appreciated.


A short article about the reception from the University website along with some pictures are attached below:
http://wwwen.uni.lu/newsletter2/articles/systems_biology_first_us_students_arrived_in_luxembourg/%28language%29/fre-FR 

Team CanSys with U.S. Ambassador Cynthia Stroum

 

Members of Team CanSys speaking with University of Luxembourg Rector, Dr. Rolf Tarrach.

That is all from us for now. Please visit the blog again soon as I am sure we will have more to share throughout the course of this program!!

Best,
Team CanSys 

Program Strengths/Weaknesses

So we thought we would start a list of things that the program has done well and things that could improve for the next group of students, this is obviously not going to be too extensive at first...but we will add to it as the time passes.

In terms of pre-departure:

• We received the first portion of our stipend after we arrived in Luxembourg. We all seem to agree that it would have been more convenient to receive this money prior to our departure. This way, we would have sufficient funds for booking our flights, paying for additional travel (and baggage) expenses, and getting ourselves situated with living supplies that Peter discussed in the previous post. We will try and provide a detailed list of expenses to date sometime soon.

• Another pre-departure suggestion involves how you pay for living here. The University requires a wire transfer of 325 euro (about 430 dollars) by the 20th of each month. This can be done through online banking quite easily, but we would suggest you arrive at least a week before the 20th (monthly deadline) or pay the first months rent before you leave the US. This way you will not be at risk of missing the monthly deadline. We opened a European bank account to do these transfers in order to avoid the 40 euro fee PER transfer that is charged to US based accounts. This has seemed to work fine so far as long as you deposit cash, checks have been a little different...we will post more about banking as we learn more about the best possible options to take. 

• Although the rent payments were initially a bit of a hassle...it has been completely worth it. Our residence is in the best location we could ask for. It is literally 5 minutes (walking) to our campus and right next to the bus stop that can take you almost anywhere you want around the area (more on the buses/trains soon). We have seen a few of the other residences and seem to all agree that ours should continue to be a home to any future incoming CanSys students.

That's all I have for now. Much more to come.
Have a nice day
~Team CanSys

First Couple of Weeks

Hey Ya'll its Peter,

Sorry about the lack of updates these last few weeks, life in Luxembourg has been surprisingly busy.  I'm going to start from our arrival and talk about the first couple of days, so you're aware of the chronology of this post.

As some of you know, I arrived the day before everyone else and had very few problems.  I flew from Buffalo to New York, New York to Zurich, then finally Zurich to Luxembourg.  Everything went relatively smoothly as I had no problems with overweight bags or carry on luggage*.  I did have a flight get cancelled, my last leg from Zurich to Luxembourg, but I was able to get a seat on a flight later that same day.  I arrived in Luxembourg around 18h30 and caught a taxi to the Résidence des Dominicaines (≈20€, Driver spoke French and German), where Dr. Carsten Carlberg meet me and gave me the keys to my room.  The rooms here are equipped like most dorms, with a mattress, some storage units/book cases, a desk with chair, and one light attached to the wall. I advise bringing a travel pillow and a blanket for the first night if you can, as the store where you can buy them closes by 20h00.  There is also a  kitchenette equipped with your own personal mini fridge and bathroom with shower that you share with one of your neighbores.  On each floor of this Résidence is a big kitchen with 8 burners, a TV, table and chairs, and large refrigerators.  This is where you can cook when you want to.

Food when you first arrive is sort of tricky.  There are a couple of places to eat further down Avenue Pasteur towards the city center where you can catch a bite to eat your first night, but they are only open until a certain time.  There is a kebab place (sort of like a gyro, but better, ≈5€) that is open until 23h00 M-F I think, and some restaurants that cost a bit more that have variable hours.  There is a small grocery store right on the street too called Cactus, which is a luxembourg chain.  It has slightly elevated prices, but if you need to grab something quick its a decent place to go. It is only open until 18h00 however, so if you arrive after that you need to just buy dinner for that night. 

The next day I went to Auchan, a giant grocery store that is sort of like super-walmart located in an area of Luxembourg called Kirschberg.  The company is based out of France, and sells everything from sporting goods to electronics to cell phones to food to clothes.  It is one of the cheapest places to buy food in the area, and also any sort of furnishing goods that you might need.  I set aside about 200€ - 300€ to buy the goods I would need like pots and pans, silverware, coffee pot, etc and I stayed within my budget.  The first couple of days we were here we went to Auchan a lot because you can only buy as much as you can carry. Ben and I went in on a wheeled cart that they sell, and it has turned out to be a lifesaver.  With it we can carry a lot more stuff than would otherwise be possible.  We bought cell phones at Auchan, from the carrier Orange.  They have a good deal where you get unlimited texting for a month when you buy a 10€ recharge card.  We try to do most of our shopping there, since food stuffs in general are much cheaper than at Cactus.   At each of the cash registers (caisse in French) there are little flags hung up that indicate the languages that the cashier is able to speak.  They come in French, Luxembourgish, German, and British.  We were unaware of this at first, so I played translator as much as I could. 

I think one of the others is going to post about University and Admin. stuff from when we arrived, so until next time!

@+
Peter

*At the date of this post, international flight regulations generally allow for 1 checked bag weighing less than 22 kg or 50 lbs, and one carry-on + Personal Bag for free, with additional baggage or additional weight costing extra.  I was aware of these regulations and therefore had no problems, but I think some of the others were not and had to pay additional fees. Chances are good that for the next round of students, these regulations will have changed so its a good idea to check the baggage rules for whatever airline you end up flying.

Blog Intention

Hello everyone,
Thanks for showing an interest in the CanSys Integrated Systems Biology program.

As you may know, the six of us are the first to participate in this brand new program. We therefore thought creating a blog would provide a beneficial resource to those who organized this program as well as to any students who may be interested in participating in the future.

That being said, we would like to express that our intention with this blog is to provide constructive feedback towards bettering the CanSys program along with a few stories concerning our academic experiences abroad and helpful suggestions to future CanSys students.

We encourage anyone and everyone to ask questions related to the program if there is a topic of interest that we have yet to discuss and would appreciate that the subject material be kept professional.

If you would like to contact us directly at any time please feel free to do so:

Peter Cheney: peteracheney@gmail.com
Mark Long: mark14226@yahoo.com
Emily Malinowski: Emily.Malinowski@RoswellPark.org 
Nelson (Tony) Morales: nmorale@wou.edu
Ben Switzer: Benjamin.Switzer@RoswellPark.org
Henry Withers: Henry.Withers@RoswellPark.org

Enjoy and take care,
Team CanSys

Team CanSys

 

Team CanSys - from L to R:  Peter Cheney, Benjamin Switzer, Henry Withers, Mark Long, Emily Malinowski, and Nelson "Tony" Morales

Tony Bio

Mark Bio

Well hello there...

My name is Mark Long.  I am originally from Buffalo, NY (a great place by the way) and have lived there most of my life.  I graduated from SUNY Geneseo with a Bachelors of Science in Biology in 2008.  After graduating, I took a year off and moved back to Buffalo where I worked out of the field, just earning money towards my next move.  I originally was thinking dental school and applied to several, along with my application at Roswell Park Cancer Inst.  I had heard of the program from an acquaintance who has been at Roswell for many years. He spoke very highly of the program, claiming it as both a well respected academic institution and as an opportunity to participate in fascinating research that could someday lead to a rewarding career.  After viewing my options (and lots of personal thought), I chose the program at Roswell Park.

At the time I was living in Allentown in downtown Buffalo, not too far from the Institute.  I enjoyed my first semester there, and found the material to be very interesting and stimulating.  Cancer biology is a fascinating field and is one in which there is still much to be learned and understood.  I was looking forward to joining a lab, and expected it to be a welcome, albeit new, addition to my education and life.  However, something unexpected happened.  I heard about the CanSYS program through Roswell Park, the University of Luxembourg, and the Free University of Amsterdam, a new program just developed.  After some research into the program, I knew that it was something that I had to be a part of.

I did not expect to be in Luxembourg in just a few short months, yet here I am, and I could not be more excited about the opportunity that Roswell Park has offered to me.  Integrated Systems biology is a budding field, and one which I still know little about. However, I find myself in a unique position to learn about it, along with cancer biology, in a way that no one has before.

Even as excited I am about the academic implications of the program, it is the experience itself that excites me the most.  I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to do a bit of traveling in my life, and have found that experiencing other people and cultures really has opened my mind in so many ways.  Having this chance to live in Luxembourg and Amsterdam (not to mention all of the other places I will get to see while in Europe) will without a doubt be a time that I will remember fondly and never regret.  The experience will not only make me a better scientist, but more importantly, a better person.

Honestly, I am not sure what I want to do as a career, and I am not sure what my future holds.  However, I know that this program will give me an incredible chance to explore the world, meet new people, learn new things, and have a lot of fun doing it.  What more could I possibly ask out of a Masters Program?

Emily Bio

Hey everyone! My name is Emily Malinowski and I am 22 years old (soon to be 23 in a month).  I recently graduated in May from the University of Memphis with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry.  Through the duration of my undergraduate career, I got a lot of experience working in a lab on skin cancer and shadowing doctors in the field of oncology.  I have always wanted to go to medical school and I thought the program at Roswell Park would be an ideal program for me as a start to pursue both of these dreams.  I had such a great start to my graduate schooling in the city of Buffalo.  I lived in the Elmwood Village area and really enjoyed everything about the city!  I really enjoyed the classes I took while at the University of Buffalo and Roswell Park as well.
When I got in contact with Moray Campbell, the director of the CanSys Program, in early fall, I was instantly excited about this great opportunity!  I thought it would be such a great opportunity to get the most out of my masters- spending a year in Buffalo and spending a year abroad.  The joint masters program offers a great way to expand my knowledge to new and unfamiliar areas.  I think this program will provide me with a wider variety of skills that will be of great value in my future. It also gives me the chance to live in a great location in Europe so that I can travel and see other parts of the world! I am so excited to see all that this program has to offer!

Henry Bio

Hello, my name is Henry Withers and I am 24 years old.  I grew up in Syracuse, New York and graduated in 2007 from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario) with a BScH in biology.  Throughout my undergraduate years I had the opportunity to work on multiple cancer related research projects, including a manuscript at SUNY Upstate Medical University and a fourth year honours thesis at Queen's University.  Much of this work focused on the metabolic flux of specific cancer cell lines under various treatments and environmental conditions.

In search of some adventure (and income), I decided to try my hand at field work after graduating.  I ended up working a couple of contracts as a biological observer for the National Marine Fisheries Service onboard commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea.  It was a great experience in which I was able to see an amazing part of the country while living and working with interesting people from all over the world.  After a good amount of hard work and time at sea, I was ready to return to life as a student.  In particular, I was eager to return to the ever growing field of cancer research.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute appeared to be the right place for me to pick up where I had left off.  I started the Natural Sciences Masters program at Roswell Park this past September ('09) and assumed that I would be spending the two years in Buffalo completing my masters.  As the semester progressed, I received word about the new CanSys program being established by Dr. Moray Campbell and his colleagues.  Despite our many questions about details and logistics, I quickly decided it was an opportunity I could not pass up.  Now I am living in Luxembourg, one of the major cultural centers of Europe, and I have the privilege of studying as part of an international cohort of students and established scientists.

Expectations:
I believe my personal expectations for the program are closely aligned with the CanSys program mission itself.  First, I hope to further develop my skills as a scientist, particularly in the discipline of Systems Biology and its application to cancer research.  As our understanding of cancer is rapidly growing in both complexity and breadth, I am quickly realizing the appeal of Systems Biology as a powerful new approach in addressing important questions of the cancer "black box".  Second,  collaboration is an integral part of the scientific process and so I look forward to developing productive relationships with fellow students and researchers in an international setting.  Finally,  I am very excited about the opportunity to experience the many cultures found across Europe.  I have plans to travel extensively and brush up on my French.

Look forward to posting more soon!

-Henry

Peter Bio

Hello Everyone!

So to follow in Bens footsteps....

My name is Peter Cheney and I am 22 years old (soon to be 23). I lived for 8 years in Albuquerque, NM before moving to Buffalo with my family in 1995. I have spent many a summer and/or winter in either Albuquerque, Buffalo, or Boston visiting family. I am recieving a B.S. in Chemistry with a certificate in the Foundations of Medicine, and a B.A. in French (possibly with an African Studies Certificate) from the University of Pittsburgh. I originally applied to the Roswell Masters Degree Program because of its reputation as a great cancer research hospital, my previous research experience there in the Repasky lab during high school, and its affiliations with UB and its classes/facilities. Unlike the others in this program so far, I have not had the chance to experience the classes at Roswell firsthand since I just started this semester, but I do not believe I will be disappointed.

I have had a very interesting undergraduate experience. I have had opportunities to travel to South America as a freshman and China as a Senior on singing tours with my University Choir. I have also spent 2 months in Nantes, France followed by 5 months in Paris, France to finish my Undergraduate Degrees (Thats why I joined the CanSYS program in the Spring).

When I was applying for Masters programs I tried to find something that would fit both my love of science and my love of foreign language and culture, but without success. I eventually settled on pursuing science. After applying to Roswell Park/UB, Dr. Michalek brought this program to my attention, as it was so new that there was no information online to be found. Needless to say I could not have designed something more suited to my interests, and immediately said yes.


My Expectations from this Program:

Since I am part of the first round of students to take part in this exciting new program, I have various expectations. I expect there to be some kinks to be worked out, in terms of arrival timing, class correlation between the States and Europe, various other logistical items, etc. I also expect very high calibar work from both myself and my fellow classmates while we are abroad. That being said I also want to keep in mind that the schooling system in Europe is different and things that we have covered in the States might not have been covered here, and vice-versa. I hope to learn many new skills and new insight into old skills that can be applied to our classes and labwork back in the States. Outside of lab and Uni classes, I hope to continue to perfect my French, and to become conversationally able in German. I hope to learn more about the linguistical background here in Luxembourg in general, as I am very interested by language evolution.

Today was our first day of classes, so I cant detail what I like or dislike about the classes, but I promise to detail that as the program progresses. I also promise to detail steps that I personally took before and since arriving here, to improve the experience of future students to be. I think this program is going to be an amazing opportunity, and well worth any "tweeking" that might be part of our experience.

Let me know what you'd like to know more about, I promise to try to be as indepth as I can be!

@+
Peter

Ben Bio

hello!

We thought it may be a good idea to insert a little bio about all of us to see how our backgrounds differ prior to this experience in Luxembourg.

My name is Ben Switzer. I am 22 (about to be 23) years old, grew up in Buffalo, and have a bachelors degree in Biology with minors in psychology and neuroscience from Ithaca College. I signed on board to the Roswell Park Masters program because I had heard many positive things about the classes and research opportunities. After one semester I learned all of these rumors were true. I was able to construct a course schedule that appealed to my interests and managed to essentially choose the lab I wished to attend.

I was exited to be back home in Buffalo. I was even about to put down a deposit for an apartment off of Elmwood near the Roswell area. The Integrated Systems Biology program in Luxembourg (and Amsterdam) sounded intriguing but I didn't think I was ready to leave the city again that soon. But as you can see my plans changed as I realized this was a VERY new and exiting opportunity of which I had never been offered before.

Expectations:
Being one of the first CanSys students, and also being in Europe for the first time, I have many expectations. I hope that this program in Integrated Systems Biology provides all of us some new knowledge and technical skills in the lab which we can utilize and incorporate into our respective labs back in Buffalo once we return. I am interested in the field of bioinformatics because it holds the potential to really improve the ease and accuracy of present day research techniques, which will be help develop our knowledge in every scientific category. In terms of the trip in general, I hope to learn MUCH more French (and German) as well as try to document as much as I can involving cultural differences (fashion, food/coffee/bakery comparisons, attitudes, city living & transportation, musical tastes, class work, and plenty more that I'm not thinking of).

Being only the first day of classes today, I will not be able to describe what parts of the course I have enjoyed/disliked, found useful/found redundant...but I hope we can all provide as much feedback as possible in order to assist in the evolution of this program in a positive manner so that many future students may receive this amazing opportunity!

More from me soon. Please feel free to add any comments or questions involving the program as I'm sure we would all be happy to hear from you and discuss what's new!

Take care,
Ben