SICS related stuff.
Je m'appelle Hélène: should become the new SAD theme song. The 'no matter who I am no other fellow human being ACTUALLY cares about me and loves me' feeling is overpowering in the song.How many of us actually have that feeling? That is, the feeling that your whole person is supported only by who you are in the eyes of others, and once that is gone, there is nothing else of you - and it's the end.
I know where to run to though, and I am extremely thankful...
Anyway, spoke to Prof. Swain from SICS - will be meeting her when I come back to Singapore to discuss opportunities and also will be asking her for some opinion and advice. Will also be meeting Prof. Gluckman on another occasion, waiting for the administration side to reply...
She also referred me to a Cambridge professor dealing with epigentics who was newly appointed as an adjunct professor in SICS. I went to chat with her on Wednesday (which seemed strangely like a Tuesday to me the whole afternoon when I was out); it was a pleasant meeting - and she told me about what they were hoping to achieve in SICS through the growth, development and metabolism programme.
One exciting aspect of it is that they are moving from rodent models to non-human primates - long-tail macaques - as they study the sustained metabolic effects (type II diabetes mellitus) of early epigenetic changes within the foetus even before it was born. Literature is dotted with data from rodents - rats and mice; Prof. Anne uses imprinting as the model, I am not sure what Prof. Gluckman does though.
I was telling her, it would be good for me if I can do a project in that area for my one year - because, despite my coursework in molecular biology and development (there will be more...), I have NEVER touched anything remotely resembling a ChIP assay, a bisulphite PCR, and designing any experiment that has anything remotely related to epigenetics. I don't even know how they actually study the acetylation or methylation status of the lysines in the histone tails - protein sequencing? Structural analysis? There must be cleverer ways. Actually the answer lies in the methods section of a paper that I have - too lazy to read it now :P
So now comes the question - what should my PhD be. Since I am interested in translational research - should I go get myself properly trained as a basic scientist as I do my MD (if I ever), or should I just go straight and learn the business of translational research right as I start graduate school? Haha if doing both is possible of course that will be awesome :D
I can think about it later - it depends on whether I can get my medical training done though...
And she asked me to apply for Gates. Errr I will definitely try, but whether I can get it is another problem... Anyway I will need to become a Singapore citizen first!
Sushi is coming tomorrow!! :) :) :) And Midsummer Night's Dream is hilarious :D
Labels: Life, Studies and Career
