During the period 1 May 2017 – 31 December 2017, Eurolife announced a call for 9 grants to support travel and living expenses for junior scientist that hold a PhD degree to travel to another Eurolife institution and perform research for a period equal or longer than 2 weeks.

In this call, 7 Eurolife researchers received the grant. These junior scientist received 1,500 €.

“This grant allowed me to learn new techniques and to exchange materials as well as knowledge to advance PAH and CTEPH research in the Netherlands”

By Konda Bau Kurakula, Eurolife Short-term Research Exchange (2017-2018) from Leiden University Medical Center at the University of Barcelona

Thanks to the short term Eurolife Research exchange grant, I am able to learn a novel techniques in the lab of Dr. Tura-Ceide and Prof. Joan Albert Barbera at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Uni. of Barcelona, Spain. I have successfully initiated a new collaboration for obtaining unique lung and right ventricle tissues as well as vascular cells from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) patients. Currently, an MTA and other consent forms are being signed by both institutions to start obtaining these materials for PAH research at LUMC. Due to the exchange of protocols and knowledge/experience with isolation of these unique cells, it will save time and money for optimization of difficult protocols in the near future. Furthermore, we would like to work together on the existing and future projects to publish our research in high ranking journals in the near future. Importantly, we also discussed the plans to write (inter)national grants together in 2018. As a first step, we will discuss our plans together over a Skype meeting in the 2nd week of December 2017. We will also apply for funding to organize PAH research meetings in 2018. I got the opportunity to meet other fellow lung researchers from their department which is helpful for my networking as a lung researcher in Europe. I have received some valuable suggestions and remarks to improve my current research. Obtaining this grant not only helped me to do quality research but also to learn from their careers to become successful researcher in the future. In conclusion, this grant allowed me to learn new techniques and to exchange materials as well as knowledge to advance PAH and CTEPH research in the Netherlands.