Amira Idrizovic
My name is Amira Idrizovic and I come from Montenegro, a small county in the heart of Balkan. Since I was very curious child and my childhood dream was to study science, that dream led me to obtain my BSc degree in Genetics and Bioengineering in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2 years later, I obtained my MSc degree in Genetics and Molecular biology in Pavia, Italy.
Furthermore, following my passion and curiosity for science and research, I applied for a PhD position within EVIDENCE project.
Reason for joining
During both my BSc and MSc studies, I was always very interested in molecular biology and genetics and I assumed that both my educational background and work related duties qualified me for joining this team.
The research toward novel discoveries in the field of RBCs, improvement of treatment strategies, better and easier diagnostics and the genetic approach were all combined in the project that I am now part of.
In addition, in my opinion, MSCA is one of the best opportunities to succeed in scientific world. It gives us many opportunities as young researchers to travel and learn from the best in this field. Different collaborations and strong international networking are amazing for preparing us for further career and scientific maturation.
Expectations
I am part of the team based in Barcelona, specifically at the Vall d´Hebron University Hospital. The objective of my study is to combine various methods and approaches for stratification of patients, for personalized medicine. In addition, I hope that with my secondments in different scientific sectors, I will learn a lot and apply that knowledge to reach my goal.
At the end of my project, I hope that my results will make an impact and improvement in science, for both healthcare system and the patients´ quality of life, to make it easier for them to bear with the complications that come with the disease.
Finally, I want to be ready to enter the scientific world and make big contributions for its improvement, since I do not see EVIDENCE only as a research project, but also a career development fellowship.
Updates
My PhD journey started in October 2020, so it´s been one year and a half full of different experiences that hopefully, one day will be just small steps that led me to my degree. During this period, I had an opportunity to learn many new things and I have changed a lot both personally and professionally.
Working abroad and learning from the best in your research field, being involved in completely different culture than where you come from, exploring the science in different ways are only some of the things that make this experience outstanding and very exciting. I strongly believe that this is the opportunity that will prepare me for the future career in many different aspects.
As I am working in a hospital and research center, I have an opportunity to experience science in one way. Nevertheless, as part of my fellowship, I will do the internships in the engineering companies and that is something I am really looking forward, because I will have another insight to science from completely different environment. I am working in a young prosperous team and since the day I started working here, I gained so much knowledge and I experienced only support from each member of the team.
As the research group I work with is well-connected to scientific community doing research in Sickle cell disease, many collaborations were made during this past period. Therefore, this has been a great opportunity to hear opinions and ideas from scientists and specialists from all over the world.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic I could not travel and do the collaborations planned with other ESRs within the network, but I am looking forward to these as soon as the situation gets under control.
To be honest, this journey has not always been easy and smooth. There were many situations when I worked under pressure, many experiments gone wrong and frustrating protocols repeated indefinite number of times until standardized. However, all these challenges made me better worker and more organized person who learned how to face and approach the challenge and how to overcome it easily.
The last, but not the least, I am very happy that I met all the people in this consortium. We as the ESRs have monthly meetings where we gather and talk about our projects, we share different ideas and support each other. I am happy that after this experience I will be not only ready to work and apply my knowledge and skills in a successful career, but I will also have great memories that we made during these years.