Thanks to the student exchange program between their Erasmus University (EhB, Brussels, Belgium) and Bellevue University, two new students are currently working at Bellevue University as Science Lab Assistants. For the past three years students visiting from EhB have had the opportunity to gained practical experience aligned with their Erasmus studies in the area of biomedical lab technology. This year the lab is joined by Alyssia Lespes and Solenn Bosmans, who are performing a 4 week long research internship.

EhB each year has ‘international days’ and Dr. John Kyndt yearly gives a presentation to the second-year students about the ongoing research at BU, as an invitation for them to join for an internship. Dr. Kyndt is originally from Belgium and earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Ghent and build the connections with EhB through former colleagues that are Faculty at that University.

Both Solenn and Alyssia have been involved in several projects during their research stay at BU and spent countless hours performing DNA extractions and completed many library preparations for Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing. In particular, they have played a crucial role in helping with the mushroom sequencing and identification project in collaboration with NE Game and Parks, and they have helped to complete the skin microbiome study and the NE salt marsh microbiome study for which Dr. Kyndt has an grant from EPSCoR Nebraska.

Alyssia, who originates from the Limburg region in Belgium, and Solenn, who calls the Brussels region home, will be at Bellevue University until May 11. They live in student housing and also attend some of the BU science classes during their stay to compare the educational differences between the two universities. They also participated alongside Bellevue University students at the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 2025 annual meeting at UNL on April 25.

“Coming to Bellevue University and learning from Dr. Kyndt has been an amazing opportunity so far! We have learned a lot about various sequencing techniques, and working on different research topics has been incredibly educational” said Alyssia & Solenn.

The students are graduating in June, and Alyssia plans to pursue her master’s degree in forensic sciences. Solenn expects to work in industry or a hospital in a biomedical technology role after graduation.

Having students from other countries work and learn at Bellevue University enhances the overall student experience and benefits both students from other countries as well as students enrolled at Bellevue University.

“Since have signed an inter-university agreement with Erasmus this will also allow our science students the opportunity to travel to Belgium and study there, and we are actively looking at funding support for such efforts” said Dr. Kyndt.