Shen-Han Lee

I’ve decided to use a new blogskin from HarvardBlogs. One interesting feature of this new blogskin is that it lets readers customize the background from a range of selections. Just click the ‘background tiles’ underneath the blog title, on the upper left-hand corner of the page to select whichever background you prefer. I’ve been experimenting around and my current favorite is the one with clouds against a blue sky.

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Summer break this year has been pretty fun, albeit the fact that this is my first full summer in Malaysia. Granted this summer has been relatively uneventful compared to my previous two summers, I feel that it has more fulfiling in terms of renewing old friendships and making new ones. Above all, the opportunity of spending this summer with my family matters more than anything else in the world. 🙂 

And what have I been up to for the past 5 weeks? I’ll save the answer to that question for another post till I get all the pictures.  Stay tuned!

On a different note,  another 3 weeks till I start my clinical school! I’m not sure whether to laugh (new life! new place! new course! new people! :D) or to groan (this is my last long summer break:P). 

Whatever it may be, it’s definitely gonna be a start of something new! Clinical school, here I come! 

It has finally come to an end. Three years of undergraduate studies. Gone now are the days of lectures, practical classes, labwork, punting, library-hopping, cookouts, formal halls, black tie, medieval Colleges, the frantic rush to meet essay deadlines, and eccentric professors.

On June 29th, 2007, I was admitted to my BA degree from the University of Cambridge, with a Part I Medical & Veterinary Sciences Tripos (MVST), and Part II Natural Sciences Tripos (NST Pharmacology).

It has been an eye-opening three years thus far. And the fun part being that the journey toward becoming a doctor has only just begun.

To all of you (you know who you are), thanks for being part of my Cambridge years. Here’s a toast to our times together, and I wish you best in the long road of life ahead 🙂

Mum, if you’re reading this, happy mother’s day! 🙂 You’re the greatest – my source of strength, guidance, and the light of my life. I don’t know where I’d be without you. In the brightest day, in the darkest night, you were always there for me.
And to all mummies (and I don’t mean the ones in the pyramids) around the world, happy mother’s day!!!!

As the Malay saying goes: ‘syurga di telapak kaki ibu‘. (translation: heaven is at a mother’s feet) Ok, not literally, but you get it.

🙂

…. and so I wish to acknowledge my lab PI and research fellow who had been so helpful in guiding me during my two months of research.’

And now, the fun part. Q & A time. Where the professors try to screw you over.
I stood in front of everyone in the theatre,  ready to be arraigned with a salvo of questions from the audience.

First question from Dr Barrand. Something about the receptor activation and downstream cellular pathway to which it couples. No problemo.

And then….

Prof Taylor and Prof McNaughton shot up their hands eagerly at the same time. Dr Hiley, the chairperson cued Prof Taylor to voice his question.

‘How do you explain the difference in magnitude of EC50 values obtained from your in vitro pharmacology experiments and Lindemann et al. (2005) that showed EC50 values within the nanomolar range?’

Half-expecting that question, I replied ‘Lindemann et al. expressed human TA1 genes in recombinant heterologous cell based assay, measuring cAMP production as an index of TA1 activity. In this study, I used human vascular tissues, measuring vasoconstrictor response’

‘Then why did you measure vasoconstriction? Are you sure that what you see is a result of TA1 activation?’

crap. Why did I measure vasoconstriction? Well, simply because my supervisor asked me to do it! haha. I thought to myself.

Then, Prof McNaughton interjected. ‘I think the vasoconstriction that you’re getting may not be an effect of TA1 activation.’

‘No professor. Earlier studies in our lab showed vasoconstrictor activity EVEN in the presence of classical biogenic amine antagonists. Besides, we used human umbilical veins, which do not have neurogenic innervation, thus precluding the effect of trace amine in displacing classical biogenic amines from the perivascular nerves.’

Shit. What am I saying? The professor is saying that the vasoconstrictor response might not be mediated via TA1 activation, while here I am, talking in a total tangent to what I’m trying to claim. And what I said actually didn’t do anything to rebut the professor’s suggestion that my results were crap. Too late to do anything.

‘Well, that is a well-founded…’

‘OK that’s all the time we have. Next.’ Dr Hiley interrupted.

Back in my seat, Dr Venter turned to me and said ‘I think you did well’.

Yeah, right. 😛  Did well in giving a dumb answer to a good question.

So, a checklist of countdowns….

-3 days before my research presentation at the Part II Students Departmental Seminar. [done!]
-10 days before my Final Honors Examination (a.k.a. the Tripos Exam!) [done!]
-4 weeks before I finally get something that I’ve been working for this whole three years. (if I pass my Tripos exams, that is)[graduated!]
Need to muster everything in my reserves in this last few weeks…
A quote from a can of an energy drink (well, I’ve been drinking, haven’t I? heh)

It’s GOODBYE to SHORTCUTS, HELLO to the GRIND

NOBODY ever said it would be an easy ride. Suffer for your art!

Hardcore, eh? 😀

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Update: conditional offer states that place is subject to satisfactory performance in the Cambridge final exam.
My thoughts: Right. Nothing beats the fact that satisfactory is totally arbitrary. 😛

I’m now officially a Cambridge BA graduate.  

And…… I’ve completed all the requirements to be a registered full time medical student at Barts & The London! Yay! 🙂