University of Groningen
Artificial control of protein activity
Bersellini, Manuela
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Publication date: 2017
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Bersellini, M. (2017). Artificial control of protein activity. University of Groningen.
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Aknowledgements
I think it is time to acknowledge all the people who made these 5+ years an incredible journey, both professional and personal.
First, I would like to thank Gerard for his support and advice and for dealing with me all these years (I know I can be annoying at times). Mostly thank you for always believing in me, even when some projects were going terribly wrong, you never thought I was just not good enough to make things work and that was very important to me. And finally thank you for all the “what do you think?” questions! Despite being extremely frustrating, I think they helped me to grow as a scientist and as a person (still quite annoying, though).
I would like to acknowledge the members of the assessment committee, Prof. Browne, Prof. Merkx and Prof. Otto, for reading and approving this thesis. A special thanks to Wesley who was always available for any scientific question or doubt I had over the years. I am also grateful to Dr. Matteo Tegoni because without his push and motivation I would probably not have started this PhD.
Thank you to my paranymphs, Ana and Ivana, not only for being with me at the defense and organizing whatever you have in mind for the party, but most importantly for sharing all of these years with me. We have kind of done this PhD together from the beginning. We shared all of the craziness, the frustrations and the fun parts together, and much more outside work. All our coffee meetings, drinks and trips have been valuable. I think we have grown up a lot together and I have learned a lot from both of you. Ivana, your determination and optimism are inspiring. Thanks for all of your help in work and for always walking into the office with a smile, even early in the morning! Ana, thank you for always being the nice one of the three of us, for your positive attitude and for always trying to see the best in people and situations, I should totally learn from you!
Also a special thanks to the present and past members of the Roelfes group. It is quite awesome when a great part of your colleagues also become your friends. Dowine, I am so happy you came back for your PhD. Working and attending conferences with you are fun. You are an inspiration of efficiency and dedication. Also thank you for translating the summaries and helping with all the other Dutch stuff I had to deal with over the years. I wish you and your beautiful family all the best! Sambika, we have also shared this journey together. I am glad you eventually stopped hating me and we became friends! You are talented and full of passion and I really appreciate it. Liliana, thank you for helping me to colonize the waterlab with the Italian radio and for tolerating my constant mess on the bench. I really enjoyed our work and non-work related chats in the lab and outside, and your company in the gym. Nathalie, I enjoyed working with you and I appreciate all your help with
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spectroscopy, as well as our late night partying. I did miss you a lot in the last year. Raquel, you have also been missed a lot. I am happy to have shared with you so many parties and memorable moments. Annika, you are genuinely a good, smart and the most hard-working person I have ever met. I wish you all the best during your PhD. Lara, you are most certainly the example of organization and order I should learn from. Thanks for your help with the catalysis and for keeping me busy with looking for pipettes every once in a while. Cora, you are cheerful and fun (and a good neighbour after all) and I am happy you joined the group - good luck with everything. In general, girls thanks for being there, in work and outside, and for all our movie nights and dinners in which we regularly ordered ten times more food than necessary! From the Roelfes group I should also mention Jeffrey. Thank you for introducing me to biochemistry and for always being willing to answer my never ending questions. Ruben thanks for our beautiful arguments about the music in the lab (it was after all entertaining) and for tolerating me complaining about Dutch food, weather and whatever else I could think of. Clemens, thank you for proofreading my thesis, I think I have learned a lot from it and I believe it made Gerard’s life much easier. Also thank you for your work advice that is always (annoyingly enough) very useful and for your constant support in this rather stressful period. It is not that easy to find someone who understands you so much and with whom everything just seems to be easier. I am very happy about it.
Lorina, thank you for taking care of me and introducing me to the lab and to “Groningen life” in general. Meeting you made my transition here as easy as it could be. I will never forget your sentence “you should find your own friends because I am leaving soon”. More than 5 years later we are still friends and that means a lot to me! Emma, what to say, thank you for being my friend, for all the chats, the cigarette breaks, the “I need a drink” evenings (turning into many more drinks) and for our crazy nights out. Also thank you for listening to me complaining about more or less everything all the time and for tolerating my emotional “retardness”. You have been a great support for me over these years and I really appreciate it! María, I am so glad we randomly met that night and that Emma insisted on seeing you again. You are one of the funniest, craziest and most lively people I know. I am happy that distance is not getting in the way of our friendship.
I would also like to thank all the members of the Stratingh Institute, the bio people for creating an awesome working atmosphere everywhere and to all those who shared the countless number of borrels and parties: Carlos, Johnny, Pablo, Boris, Gael, Jort, Andrea, JuanFer, Mamen, Guille, Matea, Ravi, Seb, Kryś, Pat, Valentín, Ivica, Peter, Andreas, Nikola, Matt, Max, Elvira, Elisa, Thai, Alex, Hanna, Hemant, Mohammed, Milos, Cate, Mathias and the huge Italian community Giulia, Ciccio, Francesco, Davide, Patrizio, Tilde, Massimo, Vittorio, Simone, Francesca,
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Tiziana, Claudia, Giovanni, Pinto, Luca and Michele (I am glad you joined me here in the last year!). I have been complaining about this place for quite some time (I realized that the word complaining comes up quite a lot in these pages), but I will leave with the most awesome memories and friendships that are going to last and I am sure I will miss it a lot.
I would also like to thank all of my friends from home for always making me feel like I have never left. I consider myself very lucky to have such a group of friends. Leaving you guys was one of my biggest worries about moving abroad, but I am happy to see that nothing has really changed. You are just the best!
Finally, I would like to thank my parents for always being so supportive, for listening to me going on and on about work and related stories, for putting up with all of my craziness (I am sorry you always get the worst part of me), for always showing interest and giving me useful advice, in general for always being there for me despite everything.
