PRAO at SciLifeLab

My name is Stina Sjödahl, and I’m a curious student from IES Enskede allowed to complete my PRAO at SciLifeLab during the weeks 22-23. 

I wanted to do my PRAO at SciLifeLab because I am interested in all of the different areas in science and wanted to learn how research is carried out. I believed it would be a great opportunity to gain experience in how a professional environment operates and develop insight for a deeper understanding of my future studies and career paths. 

On my first day, I was taken on a tour around the SciLifeLab buildings. I have to say, the most interesting lab unit I got to explore was the Biochemical and Cellular Assay lab, which uses microplate technologies to analyze how new molecules and biologicals behave.

Early in my PRAO, I attended a seminar with my supervisor that highlighted the importance of communication and storytelling, especially when it comes to sharing and spreading research findings.

I found that seminar educational as well as exciting to be a part of, so I felt content knowing I was going to attend another one about how the next MSCA programme (2028–2034) can better support researchers in Europe by addressing the career challenges.

I also participated in several meetings with a large group, which deepened my understanding of perspectives in discussions and work orders. Being a part of the meetings gave me a sense of understanding of the importance of communication to have better work efficiency.

Additionally, I analyzed various news statistics and their content to compare and discover the conclusion on why some articles get more clicks than others. I also proofread a draft article and learned techniques for engaging writing, which came in handy when I was tasked with writing a post about an event exploring how research infrastructures and data management can better support science.

I also assisted in updating the website’s people card information to be more up-to-date by adding pictures to those who were missing photos, and editing multiple peoples universities and titles.

At the Cell Biology at Scale 2026 conference which I attended, my responsibilities included managing participant registration, distributing name badges, and welcoming attendees at the entrance. I also attended several hours-long presentations exploring how large-scale, multimodal data and predictive models are transforming biological research, which I found myself very interested in.

For another conference, I reviewed the participant registration lists to check for typos and duplicate names, and proofread upcoming speech notes. Furthermore, I implemented a numbering system for an event puzzle.

During my PRAO here at SciLifeLab, I saw how interesting life science can be when you look deeper into it and understand the details behind the research. The Operations Office gave me experience of how professional workplaces work, especially how important communication is. Seeing how one person’s work directly impacts another’s tasks really showed me how connected everything is.

I am very grateful for having such an opportunity to work here and I hope from sharing my experience I will inspire other students interested in the field of science.