Dovilė Bubnytė from Marijampolė, wasn’t the one who talked with parents about what she wanted to be when she grew up. Dovilė started learning to play the piano at the age of six. The alumna says that people around her used to joke that she would be an artist, although she herself considered piano lessons just a hobby. Later, as she grew up, the things that Dovile liked the most at school began to emerge little by little. As the alumna says, first she interested in English, then biology, and finally, in the eighth grade, she began to like chemistry. After obtaining secondary education, the alumna started studying at Sūduva Gymnasium in Marijampolė. In that school year, Dovilė considered studying medicine, but in the tenth grade she started attending the part-time school for young chemists, “Pažinimas”. This helped her become more interested in fields of study related to chemistry and biochemistry. We asked Dovilė Bubnytė herself to tell us about her success story.
– How did you choose to study at KTU? Was it the first wish? Or maybe the opportunity to dive into “unknown waters”?
– KTU wasn’t the first number on my wish list, but due to the very small difference in scores, I didn’t enter the Biochemistry study program at Vilnius University. Although KTU wasn’t at the top of my list of choices, I didn’t feel like I was diving into “unknown waters”. In the year when I was choosing where to enroll, my older sister studied in the master’s program at KTU. From her that good feedback was heard both about the university itself and about the Faculty of Chemical Technology. This prompted me to choose to study the bachelor’s program of Food Science and Technology at KTU.
– What were the biggest challenges during your studies? What would you do differently if you were a first-year student again?
– Perhaps as a common undergraduate student, I faced the challenges of planning my time and preparing suitable lecture notes. Since we were hit with the COVID pandemic during my undergrad years, I had to learn how to focus and listen to lectures and study in a home environment. If I were a first-year student right now, the first thing I would try to instill in myself from the beginning is self-discipline. You may not always have the motivation to study to achieve your goals. In such moments, having a strong internal discipline saves. Students are often told to try not to leave lab reports, papers or group work for the last weeks of the semester. This is the real truth. It was enough for me to do this in one semester of the first year, and then I started preparing for everything in advance all the following years. The stress that you have to experience later if you don’t organize those works properly during the semester and try to prepare everything in the last days, is really big.
– Another thing that I started to do myself later in my undergraduate studies, but I would recommend others to start doing earlier, is to prepare my own lecture notes or adapt the ones that are usually given by the lecturer. Advance preparation makes it easier and faster to memorize information. I have personally used the Cornell and Mind mapping outline preparation methods, but I would suggest that each of first-year student find the one that is most suitable for themselves individually.
– Another habit that should be made is to familiarize yourself with the information of the lecture before it happens, this makes it easier to follow the lecture itself and helps more with the aspect of understanding new information.
– What made you choose the Master’s study program in Medicinal Chemistry after the Bachelor of Food Science and Technology?
– During my second year in the undergraduate program, I realized that technological sciences wasn’t the field I really wanted to work in. Since I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to put things aside before finishing them, I set myself the goal of completing the Food Science and Technology studies and changing my field of study during my master’s year. I chose the medical chemistry study program knowing that it is conducted between two Lithuanian universities: KTU and LSMU. For this reason, students are given the opportunity to acquire knowledge not only in the field of chemical science, but also in biology.
– How were your master’s studies? Have you had the opportunity to go to other countries and gain international experience?
– In general, the year of master’s studies was very good, of course there were also challenges. I needed to fill in the gaps in my studies that arose because I changed my field of study after completing my bachelor’s degree. I also decided to choose the Department of Organic Chemistry to successfully complete my Master’s Thesis Project (MTP). On the day when I had to choose a MTP topic, I was interested in doc. topic proposed by Vida Malinauskienė, so the department had to be chosen accordingly. My choice was determined by the fact that I had to learn everything about organic synthesis practically from scratch. However, precisely because of the choice of this topic, after taking advantage of the ERASMUS+ Traineeship, I had the opportunity to go and gain international experience in Germany. My final project was carried out in collaboration with the Chromatin Marking and Imaging Research Group of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, led by Dr. Gražvydas Lukinavičius.
– Tell us more about what you are doing now?
– I am currently a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, working in the Department of Nanobiophotonics headed by Nobel Laureate Stefan W. Hell. In fact, it is in this department that the supervisor of my master’s final project, dr. Gražvydas Lukinavičius, who offered to join his Chromatin labeling and imaging research group after graduation. The research group I represent is focused on the development of biocompatible fluorescent chromatin markers that can be applied to super-resolution microscopy of living cells.
– The project I am currently working on is related to the labeling of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). In order to successfully label nucleic acids, it is necessary to develop biocompatible fluorescent probes, and one of the components of my project is the synthesis of such compounds. The new markers I am synthesizing have specific fluorophores in their structures, which enable imaging of live and fixed cells using super-resolution microscopy methods. These fluorescent dyes very often face the problem of permeation through the cell membrane, which I am trying to solve in my project. I also plan to expand the areas of targets that can be chromatically labeled. This would allow finding new methods for labeling biomolecules and provide information about the role of cofactors or their analogues in enzymatic processes involving nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).
– How is the knowledge acquired at the university useful in everyday activities?
– I could name a number of ways that I apply the knowledge I have gained at university, but there are a few that recur quite often in the normal activities of my daily life. Before I finished my undergraduate studies, I rarely decided to read food labels when shopping at the supermarket, but now I look at the nutritional value of products when I choose them. Now I know what the relevant food labeling symbols mean. The importance of a well-balanced diet for everyone’s body is one of the things my undergraduate studies instilled in me.
– Another habit that I have developed after completing my graduate studies is to read the entire package insert and other information related to the drug before starting to use it, which I think is important. Not only so that I know when and how to use the medicinal substance and how often, but what is its half-life, after how long can I expect the therapeutic effect of the medicine to appear, and what side effects can I expect and how often do they occur. All of this information is very useful to ensure that the prescribed medicinal substance will provide the therapeutic effect that is expected.
– What advice would you give to young people who are still studying at university and have no idea what they will do after graduation?
– First, don’t feel like you’re falling behind the rest of their group who know exactly or have already planned what they’re going to do after graduation. I would advise such young people not to forget to develop their soft skills, which are important no matter what career path they choose in the end. I would like to encourage them to join at least one of the many KTU organizations, because the acquaintances made and the experiences gained in them can be useful when trying to create their further plans after graduation. During my studies, I was a member and treasurer of the KTU Student Scientific Society, it was a place where I couldn’t only relax after lectures, but it was a place where I could improve my teamwork, leadership, problem solving and problem-solving skills.
– I encourage you don’t miss the “KTU Wanted” career days organized by KTU, because it is a great opportunity to get to know representatives of various companies and even discover a place where you can work. I would also recommend taking advantage of the KTU mentoring programs. I had an academic mentor doc. Vida Malinauskienė, who helped a lot in indicating the direction and how to take the first steps in the world of science. I recommend going abroad with ERASMUS+, whether it is a summer internship, a graduate internship, or a study semester. Finally, I recommend not being afraid to make decisions that might scare you, because it can lead you in the right direction.
Dovilės Bubnytės LinkedIn account: https://tinyurl.com/457rnb9a
More information about Bachelor of Food Science and Technology studies: https://tinyurl.com/5drpjwzp
More information about Master’s studies in Medicinal Chemistry: https://tinyurl.com/4chkh4xv
