An overseas internship is helping Katrin Montzka of Aachen, Germany, fine-tune her research and English skills.
Montzka, a student at the University of Applied Sciences of Aachen in Juelich, Germany, has been working in the UNMC laboratory of Claudia Kappen, Ph.D., since September 2004. She will return to Germany at the end of February.
“It’s been a great experience,” Montzka said. “People are very friendly. When they learn I’m from Germany they tell me their grandparents or ancestors are from Germany.”
When she returns to her homeland, Montzka, who is studying for a master’s degree in bioengineering, will begin work on her diploma thesis and search for a job. “In Germany, if you want to get a good job in research you need to perfect your English skills and show that you’ve been abroad,” she said.
At UNMC, the goal of Montzka’s work was to identify a novel gene. “In one of our mouse strains, we had found that male embryos do not survive to birth while the females developed normally, and we now wanted to find out which genetic change was the cause of this sex-specific effect,” Dr. Kappen said.
Understanding the processes that are different between the sexes may shed light on why certain birth defects are more common in males than in females and vice versa. Dr. Kappen said Montzka’s attempts to clone the unknown gene lays the groundwork for a new research project in the laboratory.
The fellowship Montzka received from Germany allowed her to come to the United States before completing her first university degree “and gather valuable skills that will put her on track for a research career ahead of her peers,” Dr. Kappen said. Visas to train in the United States generally are not available without an academic degree.
“Katrin has made many friends here that will follow her progress over the years, and may even persuade her to come back at some later point,” she said. “We enjoyed having her in the laboratory and hope she will always keep her visit to Omaha in good memory.”
During her stay, Montzka has explored Omaha venues, as well as driven to South Dakota to “see the faces” (Mount Rushmore) and the Badlands.
After obtaining a scholarship for the internship, Montzka met with Dr. Kappen while she was in Germany. “That was nice,” Montzka said. “I got to ask her questions about what experience I’d have here so I was not totally afraid of coming here. I knew one person.”