Its been a while since I posted an update; here’s an overview of what has happened over the holidays! Cover art is a photo of my family on my 28th birthday.

Unable to “get out of Dodge”

I planned to visit my family during the Christmas holiday for about 8 days (returning on December 30th). I flew into the regional airport with no problems, and had a great time with my family. Unfortunately, my return flight (connecting in Denver) kept getting canceled (December 30th, 31st, and January 1st). At first, I was OK with it, and got some extra work done at a local café (shout out to Red Beard coffee co.) After 3 cancellations though, I asked to fly out of Wichita, which is 150 miles away, but has a large, reliable airport. Unfortunately, on our way there, we caught a flat tire, which caused me to miss my flight. Thankfully, I was able to get on the last flight to Los Angeles, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to be home (even if I’m borderline sleeping in the laboratory.)

We built a gingerbread house lol.

Celebrating my 28th birthday with my family

My mom’s world-famous green chile burritos.

I paid a quick visit to my first car, a 1986 Nissan 300zx. I’m hoping to restore it after graduation

After 3 canceled flights and a flat tire, I was beginning to think I was cursed.

My amazing girlfriend got me a science-themed cake for my birthday!

The company we get our oocytes from, Ecocyte, usually sends this Stollen around Christmas, with the final shipment of cells for the year. I missed the shipment, but found it online.

Its one of my favorite things.

Dissertation/Paper writing time

The dissertation/graduation countdown has officially begun, and its time to wrap up my project. Its impossible to include every study/experiment, but I’m happy with how my project has developed. For those unfamiliar with the PhD process, a dissertation is a comprehensive write-up of what you learned during your PhD. In biomedical research (“wet lab”) its comes from laboratory experiments. In addition to this write up, an additional requirement is a publication in a peer reviewed academic journal. I really enjoy writing, so that part isn’t tough; what I’m having trouble doing is putting down my micropipette and stopping my electrophysiology experiments, which is how I end up working 80+ hours a week.

Student awards/accomplishments

Jesse (right) came to lab to say hi to Wilson (left), myself, and the lab. Thanks for sharing the good news about pharmacy school!

Two of our undergraduate research assistants, Sharyse Watanabe and Cameron Chu, earned USC’s Provost fellowship for their undergraduate research projects! Sharyse is a senior in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and is interested in pharmacy school. Cameron is a senior in human biology, and is interested in attending Medical school. Finally, Jesse Chen, my first undergraduate mentee, recently interviewed at the USC School of Pharmacy PharmD program. Congratulations everyone! I'm very proud of you all!