Work, Work, Work.

While it may feel like we're on vacation, this trip really is about school. The flexible schedule and altered form of learning make for a much more interesting and exciting way to learn, though! So far we've already visited Cologne and the Eifel region, taking tours and learning more and more about German culture. In addition, much of our learning 'inside the classroom' is more independent too. While we all have A History of Medicine and Physiology classes, the majority of work, mine at least, are more personalized projects. I'm planning on writing a paper covering the effects of radioactive tracers on the body. The focus of this paper involves work being done by a company called Biovest. Biovest happens to be doing all of their research in this field at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, located in Magdeburg, Germany. If we can swing it I may get to peek at some of the ongoing research! While this trip is supposed to be focusing on Biosciences, I will still be able to incorporate my field of interest, radiology. We will also be working on another device design project this semester. This means that instead of just reading through the text book and memorizing names and processes, we are supposed to actually design something new. In the case of this semester, we are tasked with designing a prosthetic implantable kidney. By doing this we will learn all about the various kidney functions, not just dialysis, and also get hands on experience with engineering design. This project alone makes the trip much more interesting than your typical learn-at-a-desk style of class. Finally, and probably what I am most excited about, I will (hopefully) be writing a paper on the development of the heart transplant. The first heart transplant done in the United States was performed by Dr. Denton A. Cooley in Houston, Texas. Dr. Cooley asked my grandfather, along with another member of his team, to head immunology on this completely new medical frontier. Since no heart transplants had never been performed before, how to handle them was foreign territory. Studying the methods used to prevent rejection of a heart post-operation is exactly what my grandfather researched. While learning about heart transplants are interesting enough, I feel like I have the opportunity to get to know one of my closest family members on a completely new level. The book I have been reading, Hearts: Of Surgeons and Transplants, Miracles and Disasters, Along the Cardiac Frontier, has already cited him several times. Below is a picture of the book along with a card from family back home :)

It's nice to have a letter to look at now and again if I am feeling homesick. As of now, though, I don't want to have to go back ever.