Tag: Research

Making the Best of a Scientific Conference: Ate Octopus, Isolation Tank, Passport Stamp and More…

I was fortunate to be 1 of 12 abstracts chosen for a conference in California (Minority Trainee Research Forum). I was actually a part of the scientific summer program that hosted the conference since 7th grade through most of college. Every summer, I worked in laboratories all over the US and Canada to develop skills that pretty much got me where I am today. It is an amazing program that has grown over the years to help minority students excel in Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine, and Math. I do recommend anyone interested to take a look at the website and apply. It has dramatically changed my life and I will definitely do a post about TMARC/PSTP (now called STEMPREP) in the coming week. Either way, the conference ran from March 9-12th, and everything is covered. So let me begin my full coverage.   Travel, Presentation and Lodging The wonderful thing …

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Bug Chasers: People that Actually Want to be HIV+!

We all tend to have the understanding that HIV is NOT something anyone would want to have… at least that was my understanding of the virus. In my years of research in the field, hosting Safer Sex Socials, promoting being tested every year… never did I imagine that someone would be out there not only wanting to have HIV (Bug Chaser) but those with HIV willing to give it to someone (Gifter). When on earth did HIV become a GIFT?? As I opened my view of HIV research to understand not only my lab work and how it affects the central nervous system, I started taking a course on Coursera. For those who do not know, Coursera is a online classroom (free!) for individuals to acquire knowledge and information from a large selection of fields (math, science, finance, public health, you name it). What is even more exciting is that classes …

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From Bench to Bedside: What Does Your Research Mean in the REAL WORLD?

One of the greatest task of anyone bench researcher (meaning work done in the laboratory on cells/mice etc) is the clinical relevance to what is actually happening in the real world (aka translational research). You may find yourself overly consumed with getting results day in and day out. You keep reading endless papers about what is going on in your specific field, BUT never lose sight of why you do research in the first place. While it is great to push out tons of articles, go to mind stimulating conferences and reach your research goals… I have found there can be missing aspects of the PhD process. In the summer of 2013, I set out to Kisumu, Kenya (East Africa) to better my understanding of HIV pandemic, as well as to truly venture into the neurological impact of HIV and the drugs. For those who do not know, 69% of …

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Fall in Love With Your Research

“Love what you do, and you will never work a day in your life!” I have no idea who said this, but it is especially true in research. In a field where experiments go wrong all the time, you may begin wishing more and more there was a Journal of Negative Results. This is where loving what you do is crucial. So I searched on Google “How do you know when you are in love” and tons of articles came up, 10 Definitive Ways To Tell You’re In Love With The Right Someone 7 research-based indicators that you’ve found the real thing. 9 Signs You’re Really in Love Now while these are all articles focused on one person falling in love with another… ‘Til death do us part kind of shindig… it should be no different as you fall in love with your research. So here are 7 ways to …

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8 Ways to Make Weekends in the Lab Fun

While working on weekends is not a must… research is ongoing and the desire to find out more often gets me to work on the weekends (especially if I don’t have a trip/adventure planned). However, the weekend does not have to be counted like a total loss.  Most people just hear “I’m going to work!” and assumes my day will be sitting inside my lab or analyzing data 9 am – 5 pm. THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG! First, a lot of what I do includes LONG incubation period/treatment times… so I do not have to sit there and watch my cells the entire time. While, you could sit in lab staring at the many posters that you really only have up because it looked pretty, or scrolling through Facebook to pass time… Get up and do something. Here are some ways how!! 1) Overdrive: FREE BOOKS! FREE AUDIOBOOKS! FREE MOVIES!! I found …

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