Hello folks,

Long time no write you…I am very sorry for it because this blog is going to be the diary of this amazing experience!!!

However, now we are in the middle of the second quarter and in the heart of the internship…and it lasts only 2 months before going back to Italy……….NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….what a terrible thing to say…

Let me explain why we are so sad…it is not because we don’t want to go back to Italy (actually, we miss it a lot!!!) but because these months here were so exciting…and challenging…and busy…and funny…and…so on….that we haven’t really realized that the time was passing very fast and this program is going to end!!!!

By the way, today I am going to talk you about the company where I am performing my internship.

FivePrime Therapeutics, Inc. is a pre-clinical stage biotech company discovering and developing innovative protein and antibody therapeutics. FivePrime is using its world-class discovery platform to build a strong pipeline that currently includes products in development for cancer and diabetes and multiple leads in metabolic and immunologic diseases, oncology and regenerative medicine.

FivePrime is located in Mission Bay in San Francisco…

................yyyeeessss…it is exactly what now you are thinking….I

commute everyday from San Jose’ to the city…

.............fortunately, Elisabetta works in South San Francisco so we do carpool together and it makes the commute a little bit less heavy and boring!!!

I work with the business development team to figure out the potential market for a new protein the company is developing.

It is very interesting and stimulating working with the BDU team..I have always worked in the Academia and, in particular, in the lab, so you can image how everything is completely new and challenging for me!!!! I am really honoured and happy to have the possibility to join such a successful and competitive company!!!

Now, let me talk you about a party where we went a couple of weeks ago….the Yuri’s Night Party at the NASA research center…

Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into space on April 12th, 1961. The US Space Shuttle first launched on April 12th, 1981. Yuri's Night is like the St Patricks Day or Cinco de Mayo for space. It is one day when all the world can come together and celebrate the power and beauty of space and what it means for each of us.

The BEST!!!!!!!

It was a really funny and amazing party and it lasted until late!!!

Ok…that’s enough for today…write to you soon

Besos

Vally