Congratulations Vijay Varsheni from the School of Biological Sciences on her award as the Overall Winner for the 2022 Discover URECA Poster Competition in the Medical and Biomedical Sciences category. She has been selected to showcase her research online at the International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR) 2022, which will take place from 27 to 29 September.
In her LinkedIn post, Varsheni shared her appreciation towards her supervisor, Assistant Professor Li Yinghui and her mentor, Peng Chenchen for their guidance in her accomplishment.
Let us hear more from Varsheni, a Year 3 undergraduate in the Biological Sciences with Second Major in Biomedical Structural Biology programme.
How did your passion for biology start?
My early interest in biology stems from my enjoyment of crime stories as a child. I was fascinated by the various techniques the characters used, such as DNA fingerprinting and autoradiography. I was also gifted a toy microscope as a child and I used to observe everything from fungi on stale bread, to (freshly plucked) strands of my brother’s hair under it.
Why did you choose to do your B.Sc with NTU SBS?
I chose to study at NTU SBS because I liked the opportunities present here, like the summer lab attachment opportunities, professional internships and of course, the URECA programme too. As a school student, I always preferred hands-on learning, which made me feel that SBS was a good fit for me.
Can you briefly share about your research?
My research focused on identifying genetic factors contributing to chemotherapy resistance in patients suffering from DLBCL (Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma). I mainly did dry lab analysis of RNA-Seq and Microarray data from DLBCL patients and healthy individuals to calculate the differential expression and then visualized these differences.
Link to Varsheni’s Poster here.
Link to Varsheni’s Poster Presentation here.
How did your supervisor and mentor help you in your research?
Before joining the lab, I did not have any lab experience at all and just some very basic coding skills which got me through some of the courses in SBS. My mentor Chenchen helped me understand more complex coding concepts than I had been exposed to before, and guided me very slowly through them, especially when I was confused. Which I was. A lot. Professor Li helped me learn and understand more about the biology behind what I was learning, and helped me put into application the coding concepts I had learnt. I had regular meetings with both the professor and my mentor, which really helped me clear doubts and progress through my learning journey quickly and fruitfully.
Any advice you might have for others interested in URECA?
I think URECA serves as a great hands-on learning opportunity to perform research in university. If anyone’s wondering whether the research field is suited for you, URECA serves as a very good outlook into what it’s like working in the field. Plus, being a Pass/Fail module spread over the whole year, you can learn many new things without worrying about any academic pressure or influence on your grades too! So I encourage everyone to join the programme and learn new skills, regardless of whether you think you’ll end up working in research, because it’s a very unique opportunity to work directly under the experts of their respective fields.