On Friday, after our internal clocks finally adjusted to Central European Time, we drove from Amsterdam to our hotel in Noordwijk. The countryside was picturesque, dotted with farmhouses, bicyclists, canals and windmills. But no tulips, unfortunately. The four of us are hoping that the warm weather comes soon.Today was our first day on the ESTEC campus. We arrived early this morning for our badges and safety orientation. We also met some of our European collaborators in person for the first time -- we have been talking with them in teleconferences for several months, and it was very nice to have faces for all the voices.
After orientation we walked around our lab, which will be like our second home this next week. While the space seems very big now, it will be crowded during the test run on Thursday when all the teams are in the room. After a short lunch break, we started unpacking. About a month ago, we shipped all of the supplies for our test run - no small task. Everything needed, from our pipettes to our media to our collection tubes, had to be packed and sent from our lab in San Francisco to the lab here. All told, we had 17 boxes and a suitcase.
As we unpacked, we made sure that everything arrived in one piece - we still have time to find replacements for some supplies if needed, whereas it would be disastrous to find something broken or leaky in the middle of our test run. Thankfully, everything arrived in good condition. Unpacking also gave us time to familiarize ourselves with the lab and find where everything is. We need to be fluid on Thursday, so today was the day to get the "Do you know where...?" questions out of the way. We would have had a lot more trouble settling in without the help of Alan Dowson, lab manager for our space at ESTEC, who helped us round up glassware, carts, and bleach. We are very lucky and thankful to be working with such an exceptional team here.
There is now a towering stack of empty boxes in the corner. We will use some of them to ship supplies back to San Francisco once we finish with EST, though that feels a lifetime away. Tomorrow, we will test the centrifuges to make sure we can isolate our T-cells properly. On Wednesday we will prepare all of our supplies and solutions for the test run. And then, showtime.
