Wednesday 13 August 2014

Academic Background

I am one of the few lucky people who knew since elementary school I wanted to be a "scientist doctor not a medical doctor". Of course back then I had no idea what that truly meant except that I got to put this cool "PhD" tag behind my name. Nonetheless, this led me to attend a couple science seminars and conferences during my last two years of high school. 

Two of my favourite seminars include Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI)'s Mini Med School (http://www.cfri-training.ca/public-events/mini-med-school) which is a series of talks dedicated for high school students & the general public as well as the 2012 AAAS multi-disciplinary conference held at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It was at these events that I got a taste of what science means beyond your local science fair. A standout presentation for me was Dr. Colin Ross' talk about adverse drug reactions. This got me reading about immunology, adverse drug reactions, and transplantation. My "reading" involved a lot of flipping through Nature or Science journals looking at the pretty diagrams. I also applied for CFRI's summer studentship for high school students in 2011 (unsuccessful) and 2012 (success!). I worked in an immunology lab over the summer and I stayed in that lab as an undergrad until the end of my second year. 

In grade 12, I applied to UBC (only realistic choice) and Yale (random whim since a lot of my friends were applying to US schools). While I was waitlisted by Yale, I was accepted by UBC Sciences and UBC Science One. I chose to do Science One because I wanted to go to Bamfield and I liked the smaller class sizes. I went to Science One Term 2 conference and I liked the people and profs I met there which helped cement my choice. In Science One, I became interested in physics and math. While I continued working in the immunology lab from before, I liked how clean and precise math and physics were. 

Majors I considered included biophysics, microbiology & immunology (naturally), medical laboratory science, and biotechnology. In the end I chose MBIM because it was a topic I was comfortable with. The reason I didn't choose biophysics was because it seemed like the major consisted of mainly physics classes with some biology classes. I was not interested in quantum mechanics, but only the ways which physics/math would help answer some biological questions. In addition, biophysics is a rigorous program that didn't allow a lot of room for immunology courses/ seminars. If the entire program was an integrated program of physics & biology with a more biology focus, I would have probably chose that instead. I didn't choose Medical Laboratory Science because again it didn't allow me to take as many immunology courses as I would have preferred. The only reason why I didn't choose the biotechnology program was because I had to spend my second & third year at BCIT and I wanted to live near campus with my childhood friend. I regret not taking a CPSC course in first year because otherwise I might have chosen the MBIM + CPSC Combined Major route.  

Over the summer between my second and third year, I got accepted into the MBIM Honours and co-op program. I contemplated for a week about whether or not I should participate in the co-op program. In the end, I decided not to do co-op because I felt I had enough research experience to be able to find my own (non-industry) job without paying the extra co-op fees. I chose to do MBIM Honours rather than "regular" MBIM because there was a lot of MICB courses I wanted to take anyways, so I might as well get the little extra wording on my degree. I've heard there is little/no difference between Honours or not provided you do some type of independent research project. 


Until the end of my second year, I've been working in an immunology lab specifically on a project on Crohn's Disease. I went into this job as a high school student having never heard of T cells or gel electrophoresis before and lab meetings involved words such as "PCR", "IL-2", "iNOS" thrown around. I was a bit overwhelmed to say the least; however, after a crash course on immunology (read: having 2nd and 3rd year MICB textbooks placed on your desk for some "light" reading) I became more invested in the research around the lab. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the people in my lab and floor. As the baby of the group, I learned many skills and saw how real research slowly became those pretty diagrams I so carelessly flipped through back in high school. 

After second year, I decided to apply for a NSERC USRA (undergrad summer research award) at McGill University in Montreal. Why McGill? One, I wanted a chance to live in Montreal and practice my French. Two, McGill pays for travel to and from your home university (yes, I got both my flights paid for by the university). Three, it was an opportunity to learn how different laboratories worked and have my own project. Working in another immunology lab, I got to learn even more techniques, run an entire project by myself (with LOTS of help from my boss, the principal investigator), and experienced working in a smaller lab.

For third year, I decided to volunteer / work in the lab I was planning on pursuing my Honours thesis in. Having worked in two mucosal immunology labs, I decided to give neuroimmunology a try. The summer after third year, I received a Faculty of Medicine SSRP and was able to work full time in the lab. I even got to go to an international conference! For fourth year, I am working constantly in my Honours thesis lab while trying to balance extracurriculars and applying to graduate school.

After my undergraduate at UBC, I am off to Cambridge University in the UK for my PhD in immunology! I will still be monitoring this blog & its email, but probably not posting new material. :) 

Potential career paths I am still considering include academia (daunting path) and life sciences industry (ie. in the R&D department, or as a product specialist).