The City Looks Pretty Again

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Dr. Marjolein W. J. Wentink spends her postgraduate internship at the laboratory of Childhood Leukaemia Investigation Prague (CLIP), Second Faculty of Medicine and Motol University Hospital. We asked her what brought her to Motol, what she does and how she likes it here.


I visited Prague as a teenager and three years ago; it's interesting to watch the differences: at that time a lot of buildings were not renovated, pavements broken, now everything looks pretty again and streets are clean. I like the city very much, it's beautiful and modern, with a good public transport.

But my decision to ask Docent Tomáš Kalina to be my supervisor was based on the fact they have a CyTOF that we do not, and that we do the same topic. One machine is located in the Netherlands, but that group does a different research. Also, we have had good collaborations with Docent Kalina in the past.

I work on primary immunodeficiencies or inborn errors that lead to a failing immune system. I focus especially on B-cells and patients who do not make antibodies and cannot fight infections. Together with the group here I study the development of those cells, especially in bone marrow.

The people here in the lab are nice and very helpful; although everybody has their place, we talk much to the other groups and have feedback. They could use a little bit more space – but it's everywhere the same, we faced this issue in our lab some time ago and now again.

For somebody as me whose background is more in theoretical knowledge, the advantage is in that this group has a lot of technical knowledge that we could share.

I received a two-month scholarship from EFIS, the European Federation for Immunological Societies. As it takes a lot of documents and the scheme is not much known, there are not many people applying, so with a good plan, you have a considerable chance!

Marjolein W. J. Wentink, MD,
Immunology Department, Erasmus Medical Centre, Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Created: 9. 11. 2016 / Modified: 13. 6. 2022 / Mgr. Petr Andreas, Ph.D.