I am Valentina Agaga a staff of Zankli Medical Services, I enrolled under ARISE work package 3, which is aimed at enhancing the quality and capacity of laboratory diagnosis for population screening in SCD and improving overall laboratory quality assurance.
My hosting institution was Escola de Superior Tecnologia de Saude de Lisboa- Instituto Politecnico de Lisboa (Estesl-IPL), Lisbon, Portugal. In all sincerity I was worried about the language barrier but Professor Miguel Brito (the principal researcher at Estesl-IPL) and his team did their absolute best and delivered all lectures and trainings in English for English speaking secondees and Portuguese for Portuguese speaking secondees, that in itself is a lot of work and they went about it gracefully.
The first phase of my secondment involved trainings and certifications in
– Good Clinical Practice (GCP);
– Good Laboratory Practice (GLP);
– Basic Molecular Biology;
– Nucleic Acid Extraction;
– PCR and Real-time PCR modules from the Clinical Trial Network, National Institute of Health, and the Centre for Disease Control, respectively. It was in-depth and rewarding.
During the course of my secondment, I was opportune to attend a training organized by PerkinElmer, centered on the Migele IEF unit. This 3-day training included both classroom and laboratory sessions, and covered installation and use of the Migele Hb unit, Resolve Hb Neo kit, JB-2 staining system procedures and interpretation of IEF Hemoglobin bands, the training was delivered by Anniina Lehto and Fred Meindl joined virtually providing expert knowledge on haemoglobinopathies and IEF results interpretation. In general, my time at the institute was impactful.
My deepest gratitude goes out to ARISE for this rare and career advancing opportunity, To Dr Funke Lawson and the management of Zankli Medical Services thank you. A special shout out goes to Catarina and Carolina you made Lisbon a second home for me, and to my fellow secondees Adriano, Leonor, Jovany and Evelyn you will all be missed but I am excited for what comes next for all of us.
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