HumasUPNVJ - UPN Veteran Jakarta has a lot of accomplished people in it, not only students, but the lecturers are also not far less accomplished and continue to be proud, one of them is Dr. Yudhi Nugraha. dr. Yudhi managed to become a COVID-19 monoclonal antibody researcher at the Salud Carlos III Institute (Instituto de Salud Carlos III) at CNIO Madrid, Spain.

The UPNVJ public relations team had the opportunity to conduct an online interview with Dr. Yudhi. In his interview, Dr. Yudhi talked a lot about how he started his career as a COVID-19 monoclonal antibody researcher and his activities while in Spain, "Actually, before being accepted in Madrid I had the opportunity to get a postdoctoral grant at NAIST where I studied before, but at the same time the border between Indonesia and Japan closed due to COVID-19 and the program was cancelled, a few months later I also got an LoA from the University of Oregon for joint research there, again that was also canceled due to the pandemic. During the pandemic, teaching activities were entirely online , I asked the Chancellor's permission to contribute to becoming a Senior Scientific Manager in a privately owned COVID-19 diagnostic lab. Then after it was running, the FKUPNVJ team and I also succeeded in including nine SARS-CoV-2 genomes in the world database , GISAID (at that time only a few agencies had succeeded in submitting one of them, UPNVJ). Still in a pandemic atmosphere, I keep thinking about being able to contribute more to the wider handling of COVID-19. Finally I tried my luck applying for this COVID-19 research project in Europe, I followed the usual selection process, I was interviewed directly by the professor who will be the head of the project . During the interview there were four candidates, thank God I happened to pass and immediately fly to Madrid at the end of March 2021 with the permission of the Chancellor and the Dean of FK," he explained

Although busy with many activities in the lab, Dr. Yudhi is still actively teaching at UPNVJ, “I am still actively teaching at FK-UPN, usually at three in the morning in Madrid I will teach, sometimes I will also test my thesis and thesis guidance. Thank God my guidance child was the first to graduate this year and last year. During the day I immediately went to the Lab to do research and came home at nine in the evening, fortunately my professor allowed me to work like that. I usually do research in Indonesia (by chance I got a simlitabmas grant with Mrs. Andri Pramono) I usually do on Saturdays. Several other grants are also still in process, such as one of which is the Rinov output patent which has now been successfully submitted on behalf of UPNVJ. For UPNVJ stem cell lab activities, cell culture activities have been running since last year, yesterday December 11, 2021 our lab was able to carry out bioviability and toxicity tests with MTTassay and is ready to carry out services according to BLU regulations, "said Dr. Yudhi

As we know, no journey is always smooth, and that's not the case with Dr. Yudhi, in his interview Dr. Yudhi revealed that the most frequent problem was communication, "I'm not very fluent in Spanish and sometimes that becomes the main obstacle in discussions," he said

Dr. Yudhi also shared his ups and downs while there with the UPNVJ Public Relations team, "In my opinion, I actually had more joy, I enjoyed doing research and being in the lab for a long time, maybe the sorrow is being away from my family, especially when someone in my family is sick. The rest, thank God, is grateful no matter how difficult the situation is. Apart from that, the support from the dean and the UPNVJ FK lecturers has made me feel better even though in the cold temperatures of Madrid, communication is warm and close with the help of today's technology," said dr. Yudhi in the story

Many messages given by Dr. Yudhi to all UPNVJ academics, as motivation, "I hope UPNVJ academics can choose to collaborate rather than compete. I think collaboration is a shortcut to progress and progress. Like a compass, cooperation shows the fastest way to unexpected research quality. Meanwhile, competition only wastes time with the resources and research infrastructure that we have. Communication with today's world's scientists can easily be achieved through direct e-mail, online conferences, or perhaps attending a webinar. Another message from me is to invite academics/colleagues/friends at UPNVJ to participate in our research activities. This is important, which aims to prepare quality academic regeneration and eliminate research quality disparities between lecturers at UPNVJ," he said.

In addition, at the end of the interview, Dr. Yudhi has hope for the condition of our country, "I hope that Indonesia through the current Government will increasingly implement Evidence-based policies by involving many interdisciplinary scientists in making decisions based on data and numbers. For universities, I think the direction is getting clearer with UPNVJ becoming a superior BLU and FKUPN accreditation and in my opinion the university and faculty leaders where I work already have a sharp and measurable vision," concluded Dr. Yudhi Nugraha, M. Biomed.