Work!
The lab that I am in now is a translational lab - excluding students on rotation, there are more doctors in the lab than scientists.This is not the easiest lab to work in - because, since a large proportion of them are doctors and they do the main work, when they start talking about doctor stuff, I can only listen. And in journal clubs they present clinical papers.
But this is the kind of work that I am interested in! This is what I want to do!
I actually see clinical relevence in what I am doing - my job is pretty routine at the moment (what can I expect for the first 4 weeks...), involving loads of Q-PCRs while still waiting for antibodies. But I know why I am doing it - the lab wants to identify genes and proteins that can be used as biomarkers for Barrett's oesophagus from a second microarray screen they have previously done. They are going to apply those as possible diagnostic markers for samples taken using a novel, non-invasive technique (vs. endoscopic biopsies) that they developed.
And I see how basic biomedical science fits in - two graduate students (both are doctors already) are working currently on 2 groups of genes that are obviously upregulated in the screen; in the screen there is also a third group, another very interesting, functionally-diverse, yet poorly-studied group of genes, that currently no one in the lab is studying yet.
The lab is working on actual human samples - people from the lab routinely go to theatre to get specimens to bring back to the lab. There are boxes of slides on the shelves with those samples on them (I hope I can eventually lay my hands on them). I am currently using cDNA made from samples provided by patients recruited for the study.
When I go for forums and seminars, people analyse clinical trials, statistical methods, diagnostic and treatment techniques and options. There are going to be great people coming to talk too; they brought in Tim Hunt 2 weeks ago, and they are going to bring in Andrew Wyllie and David Lane next Friday for the Cambridge Cancer Centre Symposium.
To be fair - not all talks are good, there are some I can't help falling asleep. But there are ones that are brilliant; like Tuesday's presentation on Bayesian analysis was great.
I am actually learning valuable things!
I am also given the chance to observe what exactly are the roles of doctors and scientists in such a setting. At this point it seems like scientists play the role of 'advisors' or 'collaborators' - advising and helping on the techniques and knowledge and procedures - but they don't set the direction of where the research goes.
Fundamental fact: there are things that scientists cannot do - even if we know how to do it we cannot do it. But there is no restriction the other way round - as long as the medics are willing to learn, they are can do anything a scientist is capable of doing.
Which means, if I were to go into this field without a MD, I have to be contended with a secondary role - which is making me rethink whether it is worth it to make the MD thing happen (with specialisation obviously). Most probably I will still do my PhD first, and I am NOT going to stay in Singapore for that - but this make speeding up the PhD an extremely good idea. Anyway, medical students who have PhDs are common both in the US and the UK.
This is what I want to do - and I have picked a long route towards it. I won't say that I am happy about it (I have tried hard but I have never really sucessfully gotten over this), because my decision then was partially driven by inconsistent A*Star policies (at least microscopically-speaking) and information that was fed to me then (people were so very extremely sure that there is no way of getting a medicine scholarship except the ridiculous SAF one, they were also so very extremely sure in drilling into me that getting a medical degree in the UK will cost my parents at least £200,000, and people were trying to convince me that a medical degree is not necessary in translational research - yes it is not indeed, of course, in an administrator's point of view), but well, if I could have done what I think to be optimal now, my life might have been completely different.
And now even I am determined to pursue what I think is worth doing there are still layers and layers of obstacles for me to overcome. I have real stories from seniors with me.
Honestly, I think asking my dad for advice is better than asking A*Star for advice.
I'll see where God will lead me to next :P
Labels: Studies and Career
