Linköping, Soft ‘K’

I think I am still saying it wrong. I have never in my life heard of a soft ‘k’ (SOS Djina*!?!)

For Core Course Week, my Medical Practice & Policy class had the pleasure of visiting the city of Linköping (that’s Lin-SHO-ping) in southern Sweden. Under the wings of Ryan, Cheng and our bus driver Kenth**, we visited a biotech company, a clinical chemistry lab and a drug research lab at Linköping University.

Our first stop was actually in Uppsala, about an hour north of Stockholm. We talked to Charlotta from Q-Linea, a company developing an automated system for sepsis diagnosis and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Charlotta talked about the business aspect of a biotech company, which was very cool!

We stopped briefly to walk through Uppsala Cathedral. Fun fact: this cathedral has claim to fame as the tallest cathedral in Scandinavia!!

The highlight of the trip definitely was going cross country skiing. There was a moment where I saw my precious life flash before my eyes as I beelined straight into my friend Kyle, who had fallen and was on the ground with his skis wavering in the air (Imagine a bug on its back). (If Kyle reads this he will be very very angry at me for disclosing this information).

Cross country skiing: Your inner thighs will feel a slow, painful burn for the next 5 days. Keep in mind that this was my first time and I definitely have very little potential in a cross country skiing career. I did not know the Swedish word for heat pack (Djina!!). It was really a lot of fun, though!

On our last day, we visited the Department of Medical and Health Sciences (IMH) Division of Drug Research at Linköping University. We talked to Stig and his team, who are working on a small molecule drug that works on the proteasome in hopes of inhibiting tumor growth. I am always interested in seeing where the future of cancer therapy is going, and to be able to talk to an expert was such a valuable experience.

That was our brief and exciting visit! We <3 Linköping!

-Mai

*Djina is my lovely Swedish Language and Culture faculty.

**Kenth played oldies the entire bus ride so it was a pleasant trip.