Allegra! My name is Laura. I am a Computational Biologist currently finishing up my Master’s degree at ETH. For the past three months, I have been based at SIAF (Schweizer Institut für Allergie- und Asthmaforschung) working on an ETH Studio Davos project: building an isoform-specific database of the human proteome.

A Deep Dive into Immunology

Before the project even really started, I was invited to attend the World Immune Regulations Meeting (WIRM) organised by SIAF. It was an intense, whirlwind week of absorbing research from world-class immunologists, enjoying fantastic food, and networking with more people than I could keep track of. Especially the Gala Dinner on the last night was a lot of fun. I could not believe that a hundred immunologists would get up as soon as the music starts and dance for hours. I’m very grateful to my supervisor, Katja Baerenfaller, for inviting me to my first-ever scientific conference.

Life in the Alps

SIAF is located outside of the already remote mountain village of Davos. I was really excited to spend three months in the spring here to enjoy the change of seasons. I saw the mountains go from deep winter snow to the slow thaw that turns the landscape vibrant green. The Swiss Alps are one of my favorite places on earth and I think everybody should come here once in their life to go hiking and biking in the summer or skiing in the winter. During my time here, I managed to squeeze in some skiing with friends and went on some runs to explore Davos as the weather warmed up. The view from my office has gone from snowstorms in the middle of a really cold winter to beautiful snowy mountain tops and flowers blooming in the spring and early summer.

The Project

While the landscape was breathtaking, I spent the majority of my time in front of my computer. I was tasked with setting up a protein database—a challenge, considering I started with very little experience in database management. It was a steep but rewarding learning curve, offering me deep insights into how databases are structured and the nuances of proteomics data.

Once the database was ready, we re-ran data from previous lab experiments. The results are looking quite promising! I’m very happy with how the project has turned out and grateful for the time I’ve spent here.