Here’s what Orsi had to say about the programme:

“My journey with the Laidlaw Scholarship has come to an end after two exciting years of research projects and leadership training.

I completed two summer internships abroad, exploring different topics and methods. First, I went to Würzburg, Germany to work on the generation of a clock mutant fly strain using CRISPR. This summer I travelled to the sunny Barcelona to perform behavioural experiments and immunohistochemistry focusing on hippocampal learning in a microexon knockout mouse model. You can out more about my research projects here.

Although I never completed my original project supervised by Lena due to the pandemic, it was also through the Laidlaw programme that I got involved with the Insect Neuro Lab.

The scholarship opened many doors for me and allowed me to get involved with science early on. I’m very grateful for Lena and the programme coordinators for all their help along the way!”