Student testimonial
Alicia Marengo: NEMA also gave me the opportunity to develop myself as a student assistant
At the beginning of the summer of 2024, I started my master thesis at the Laboratory of Nematology (NEMA). During my bachelor study, I hardly learned anything about plant parasitic nematodes. At the start of my master, I followed some lectures about this type of nematodes and the more I learned about these parasites, the more my curiosity grew. I also wanted to learn more about plant parasitic nematodes, as they are relatively unknown compared to other plant pathogens. That is why I chose the Laboratory of Nematology to work on my master thesis, and it did not disappoint.
NEMA also gave me the opportunity to develop myself as a student assistant. This allowed me to apply everything I learned during my thesis to the practical sessions and to get new students enthusiastic about nematology.
The goal of my thesis was to characterize plant cell wall-related genes that play a role during the nematode feeding structure formation of cyst nematodes. This meant executing a lot of nematode infection assays where I could see the super-small worms and follow the whole infection process. Spending whole summer days in the lab was not a problem at all. NEMA has a lot of nice people who are genuinely interested in you and your project. They are also willing to help you by answering your questions or sharing their experience in optimizing a protocol. Alongside some serious research that was done in the lab, there was also room for fun. This made the environment at NEMA very enjoyable. Besides my thesis, NEMA also gave me the opportunity to develop myself as a student assistant. This allowed me to apply everything I learned during my thesis to the practical sessions and to get new students enthusiastic about nematology.
Ultimately, I am super grateful to the Laboratory of Nematology for the opportunities, the new skills they taught me, and of course for the amazing time!