Hi, my name is…

…Paulina and although I am of Polish origin, I grew up moving between Japan, Australia and Poland. After studying biomedical sciences (BSc) at University College Utrecht in the Netherlands, I continued with an MSc in Experimental and Clinical Neuroscience at Utrecht University and the University of Oxford. Subsequently, I worked as a research assistant at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan and, more recently, I defended my PhD thesis on Parkinson’s disease at the University of Cambridge. Having spent my entire research career in academia, I wanted to find out more about research in industry and see whether this would be a feasible career path for me. The Roche Internship for Scientific Exchange (RiSE), which is uniquely catered towards PhD and MD students, enables me to gain research experience within the pharmaceutical industry and early development, whilst developing a better understanding of the workings of a global pharma company.

My typical day at work is…

…interesting and challenging; it is usually split between planning, conducting experiments and analysing data. A typical week includes reading research papers, keeping lab records up-to-date and lab meetings. Currently, I am researching novel myelination regulators in multiple sclerosis. Usually, my day-to-day experiments include a lot of cell culture and various molecular biology techniques. Additionally, I try to attend as many seminars, divisional meetings and journal clubs as I can to keep up with the current research findings in the field and within Roche.

The location I am working at is…

…the Roche headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. Basel is a dynamic and international city located right on the borders of Switzerland, France and Germany. It is also a hub for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. I live in the city centre and it takes me about 10 minutes to cycle to the office. The Roche Basel site is by the Rhine and boasts the tallest building in Switzerland, the Roche Tower, with a lovely café on the top floor!

My work helps Roche to…

…shed light on the fundamental pathogenic mechanisms of multiple sclerosis (MS) and has the potential to identify some new drug targets that Roche can develop in the future. In MS, neuronal cells lose their insulation (myelin sheaths), which disrupts the communication within the nervous system and causes symptoms such as muscle weakness, problems with coordination and vision, cognitive problems, and fatigue. This kind of early-stage exploratory research into identifying novel regulators of myelination is vital in order to gain more insight into MS disease pathology.