How/Why Research? After I decided to study Biology, I realized that doing research could be one of my career pathways. When I tried to find a lab that studies the field I am interested in, I asked several friends for some useful advice. Besides that, I also made an appointment with one of the OUR student ambassadors. From that, I learned about how to get involved in doing research by taking classes, how to find interested labs from the database website, how to write emails to PIs with appropriate language, and how to talk and ask questions to PIs during interviews… Later, I started searching for my interested labs from the BBSP website and emailed PIs. Fortunately, I got an opportunity to be interviewed and joined the lab later.
Research Experience: I worked in Alan Jones Lab as an unpaid intern in my first year. In the lab, I learned a lot of techniques and skills that will be mostly used in a plant lab, including screening Arabidopsis transgene via herbicide spray and transferring Arabidopsis and tobacco seedlings from sterile plates to soil with well-spaced growth conditions. Later, I joined Jill Dowen lab which investigates the relationship between genome organization and gene regulation. I haven taken one semester of BIOL395 in my sophomore year. In the lab, I practiced lots of molecular biology techniques, including culturing cells, extracting RNA and making cDNA library from it, performing PCRs, cloning, and transformation.
Student Organizations/Clubs: Biology Ambassadors Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, Asian Health Advocacy Alliance
Also Happy to Chat about: Emailing Professors Talking with Professors, Networking, Fitting Research into a Busy Schedule, International Student Experience and Study Abroad
Random Fun Fact: I have a very cute British Shorthair cat!