Many central European students underestimate their scientific value. We think we are not educated enough because our labs lack modern equipment or do not use the most recent techniques. That is why we search for additional sources of learning.

I found a way of measuring myself against international students when I applied for a traineeship at one of Poland's most renowned institutes: the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Protein Engineering at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (IIMCB).

I chose bioinformatics because it is a relatively young science, not yet as popular in Poland as in other countries. It is a good fit for central European scientists because it does not limit you to experiments in the wet lab, where we lack equipment, and it lets you teach yourself, to some extent.

Studying at the IIMCB will help me improve skills I gained during my master's project, when I worked on protein homologue modelling. I had to learn how to do this on my own because nobody at my university worked on this kind of bioinformatics problem. I've always been ambitious, so I anticipate that learning from the best in Poland will help me be as good a scientist as those in cutting-edge Western labs.