Natálie Šelleová is a student in the master's program in Environment and Health at the RECETOX center. During the first semester, she decided to take the opportunity to go abroad through the ERASMUS program. Her chosen destination was Finland, where she spent one semester at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) in Joensuu. The number of tempting courses was too great and the semester too short, so she eventually decided to stay for another one. One semester became two and from those two semesters she even pursued another magister's degree.
Natálie planned to go on Erasmus already during her bachelor's studies. But when covid came, these plans had to be changed. Fortunately, it wasn't lost at all, just postponed.
“I found the University of Eastern Finland among other partners of RECETOX already during my bachelor's, mainly because of the courses it offers. Many of them are about environmental policy and law, which is also my subject of interest. That was also the reason why I eventually stayed in Finland for another semester. It gave me more time to attend all the courses I wanted” explains Natálie.
But it still wasn't enough. Natálie was so thrilled that she finally decided to start at the entire magister's program at UEF. So now she is beginning two simultaneous studies - one at RECETOX and one at UEF.
“Just like in the Czech Republic, in Finland the typical length of master's study is two years, but it is possible to extend it to four years. So I will see how it goes and possibly use this extended option. In my future, I would like to combine my research experience from RECETOX with more humanitarian knowledge from UEF,” describes her plans Natálie.
For Natálie, her experience from Erasmus was very positive, she didn't even have any problems with the formal process and arrangement before her departure.
“I was surprised at how simple it all was. I had heard from other students that there is a lot of paperwork and that the process before departure is stressful, but I received great support from the study department, and the Center for Foreign Cooperation was also helpful. Our study assistant, Tereza Nováková, set up a meeting for me with other students from RECETOX who went to UEF, so I got a lot of information thanks to that,” says Natálie.
Support in Finland was also important. UEF arranges a workshop for foreign students to help them acclimate to a new country, and it goes far beyond the university environment.
“They explained the rules for driving cars and bikes, and also, for example, how to communicate in Finnish. Again, there was significant support in making contact among foreign students. They even helped us with accommodation, which is guaranteed for new students and is very affordable,” recalls Natálie.
he main differences between the Czech and Finnish educational systems that Natálie noticed were in the structure of lessons, the approach of teachers, and the overall way of working.
“The hierarchy at school is more horizontal; teachers and students are more like partners. On the other hand, the study is very much about individual preparation. The main method of work is writing essays, even in the biological field. Each subject has a different schedule, so it is not easy to establish a routine or manage your time effectively, which is something I had problems with,” explains Natálie.
The main difference between the Czech and Finnish educational system Natálie felt was in the structure of lessons, the approach of teachers and in the way of overall work.
“The hierarchy at school is more horizontal, the teachers and students are more like partners. On the other hand, all study is about individual preparation a lot. The main way of work is writing essays, even in the biological field. And every subject has different periodicity, so it is not easy to make any regime or manage your time effectively, which is something I had problems with,” describes Natálie.
Erasmus, which led her to a whole new field of study, is something Natálie would definitely recommend to anyone considering it.
“It was truly a valuable experience that taught me many things, and I am happy to pass on this knowledge to those who are about to embark on Erasmus. Personally, I didn’t get to travel as much as I would have liked during my stay, so my first recommendation is to definitely travel, as it is a great opportunity. I also think it is good not to stick to one group of people but to meet more, so you don’t end up in just one bubble. And if someone chooses Finland, it is good to be prepared for the fact that it is really cold there, and by that, I mean around twenty degrees below zero and snow from October to May. That is a really long winter,” Natálie laughs.
A new bioinformatic tool, BGC Atlas, was developed by a consortium of bioinformaticians. It identifies and clusters biosynthetic gene clusters from publicly available datasets, offering a centralised database and a web interface for metadata-aware exploration of BGCs and gene cluster families (GCFs).
Jan Velecký is a researcher at the RECETOX center. In the interview, he explains what protein engineering is about, why it is important to study protein solubility, and how machine learning can be crucial for human knowledge.
