Our students are preparing for their Lab rotations

Fall starts with Virgilio students starting their lab rotations. They are required to spend 4 weeks in the lab.

Lab rotations each year permits students to gain familiarity with different labs, not only to learn concepts and techniques, but also eventually to select a lab in which they will complete their research thesis in the final year of the program.

Most students are doing their lab rotations within their own University, except a few who are on Erasmus and extra-EU exchange program abroad and are doing their lab experience in the host University.

Preparing for Rotations

Before beginning any rotation, the students are provided the list of labs and the various research projects currently being implemented in each lab. The mentor and the student discuss and reach an agreement about the student’s field of interest and the suitable lab and the research project. The mentor contacts the lab Principal Investigator, who in-turn puts the student in touch with the Tutor, under whom the student does his/her lab experience.

Our Tutors are bright, young research scientists working across varied fields, who have undergone training in order to support the student lab rotations.
In preparation for working in labs, all students at the start receive lab safety instructions as well as a lab safety orientation to be aware of the additional safety aspects pertinent to the specific lab they are placed in.

Completing Rotations

While doing the lab rotation, the students are required to maintain the lab diary, which is periodically supervised by the Tutor and in the end signed by the Tutor. Subsequently, at the end of lab rotation, the Tutor is required to evaluate student performance both by having a one to one feedback session with the student as well as sending in writing to the Program Manager.

The students are required to get the certificate of attendance signed by the Tutor and submit the same.
At the end of the lab rotation, the students are required to have a reflective session with their faculty mentor to share their learnings and provide feedback.

Sharing how our students have been enthralled by the scientific discovery process:

“I had never used a pipette,” Mattia Basile (1°cohort student) recalls, "my Tutor helped me understand and learn some basic lab techniques as well as understand the importance of lab safety. I learnt a lot from my 1st lab rotation in the Neurosciences lab. This year for my 2nd lab rotation I’m going to Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Germany and will be placed in the Centre for Neuroscience".

“I’m super excited to begin my 1st lab experience in the Laboratory of Metabolic Liver Diseases Research at the Policlinico hospital in Milan, led by my mentor Luca Valenti” - Marco Saracino, 2° Cohort student, Unimi

“I’m starting my 1st lab experience in Centro Ricerca Tettamanti, under the Tutorship of Dr. Fazio on the project - Identification of new genetic lesions in pediatric leukemia and in vitro/in vivo drug targeting.” – Beatrice Peselli, Unimib