2022-05-30 Interview with PhD student Ekaterina Bogdanova

Can you describe the major finding/impact of your research in a couple of sentences?

My research area is solid-state formulations of biologics. I focused on interactions between excipients and water. We have shown that the disaccharide and polysaccharides interact differently with water vapor. Also, we study the impact of water diffusion on the phase transitions at sub-zero temperatures, which gives us a better understanding of freeze-drying process.

What are the advantages of doing a PhD as a part of a larger consortium as NextBioForm?

I feel really lucky, that I got PhD position in NextBioForm in 2018. I became a part of an international team of researchers in Sweden Tuan Phan-Xuan, Anna Fureby, Vitaly Kocherbitov, and Ann Terry. We traveled a lot around Europe at synchrotron facilities doing X-ray scattering experiments before MAX IV started operation. I gained a lot of experience in sample preparation/synchrotron beamline operations. Also I learned a lot about doing research on site, away from the ‘’house lab’’. The NextBioForm is a knowledge center that combines Academia and Industry professionals, so I have met so many people in the Swedish/Danish life science sector. I enjoyed a lot that casual environment at center meetings and discussions. 

Do you know what you’re going to do next?

I plan to do a PostDoc and learn the Swedish language. I would like to stay in Sweden and found a job in a Swedish pharmaceutical company as a formulation scientist. It would be nice for me to gain some hands-on experience in drug development and then become a business manager in the life science sector. I would like to be a person who makes decisions in the pharmaceutical industry before I retire.