At 11 p.m. PST on July 5 — less than three hours after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rattled my home in Southern California — shock waves also went through the sports world. Basketball superstar Kawhi Leonard, who had just delivered Toronto its first ever NBA championship, surprisingly announced he would return to his native Los(...)
Learning to Run with Imposter Syndrome
Posted by | A Day in the LifeAs a college student, I had set my sights on making a difference in the research world. I was ecstatic when I was accepted to Johns Hopkins to pursue my graduate degree. However, starting graduate school was difficult for me. I felt constantly behind everyone around me, and it was clear that I was slowly(...)
A Blood Test for Alzheimer’s Disease? Breakthroughs and Limitations
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchRecently, researchers at Washington University, St. Louis made a significant breakthrough in developing a blood test for early indications of Alzheimer’s disease. But what exactly is Alzheimer’s disease, how prevalent is it, and why do we seem to be so far away from a treatment or cure? In this post, I provide an overview of(...)
Representing Diversity on Portrait Walls Around Johns Hopkins: One Stride Taken, Many to Go
Posted by | A Day in the LifeLast week, NPR published “Academic Science Rethinks All-Too-White ‘Dude Walls’ of Honor” on its website. This article addresses the message that walls of honor that mostly feature white men may send to nonwhite and nonmale trainees. Several academic institutions are dismantling or relocating their “dude walls” to send a more inclusive message, and this has(...)
How Mentoring a High School Student Helped Me Plan for My Future
Posted by | A Day in the Life“Don’t you ever get bored?” It wasn’t a question I’d expected from my high school summer student on her second day in the lab. And I was equally surprised when I found myself saying “all the time.” My recent experience mentoring a student has been rich and rewarding, but not for the reasons I anticipated.(...)
Tackling Twitter as a Graduate Student
Posted by | A Day in the LifeI grew up during the rise of social media. Born in 1995, I have watched social media transform from inconsequential platforms for storing your random thoughts to a multi-billion-dollar industry in which influence serves as a form of currency. I have had to learn how to navigate these changes on my own, and I have(...)
Finding the Medicine in Historical Drama
Posted by | A Day in the LifeEvery evening when I get home from campus, I put on the teakettle, get out my cross-stitch and flip on a TV show. Sawing noises and screaming come from the TV set as I stitch church steeples into blank linen. You may think I am watching American Horror Story or Hannibal, but the show is(...)
A Primer on Platelets — Tiny but Mighty
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchWhen I tell people I study platelets, I am not often met with excitement. Most people know platelets as those tiny things that form clots, and if they have a fully functional clotting cascade, they aren’t bothered that much about them. When I mention that I study how platelets play a role in the immune(...)
Meditation: Building a Community Across the Hopkins Campus
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Events and Happenings“Kidneys…relax…” I know where my kidneys are located thanks to my anatomy classes, but how would I make them relax, and do I even want them to relax? They fulfill a pretty crucial physiological role. These and many other thoughts came to mind as I sat during a guided, progressive relaxation mediation organized by medical(...)
Summer Transitions: Learnings from Residency
Posted by | A Day in the LifeEvery summer, a fresh crop of physicians enters the workforce. Overnight, trainees begin new roles and take on new responsibilities. You could imagine that we transition gracefully, like caterpillars turned butterflies, wings beating with effortless aerodynamics upon emerging from the chrysalis. Truthfully, we are more akin to baby birds, pushed off a branch and made(...)