About Me

(in about 325 words)

Intro

I am a last year PhD candidate at ULB Center for Diabetes Research under the supervision of Prof Miriam Cnop.

 

I graduated in 2020 with my medical degree from The Second Xiangya Hospital,Central South University, where I was advised by Prof Zhiguang Zhou (周智广). Though being trained as a physician, however, my medical education has cultivated my keen interest in basic research of disease mechanisms.

 

Leveraging clinical and omics resources, my current work utilizes iPSC-derived islets to understand disease mechanisms in a variant-specific model that replicates β cell phenotype seen in individuals with rare SNP-associated and monogenic diabetes.

 

Meanwhile, I've been very lucky to be able to actively participate and been extensively exposed to and got hands-on experiences with both bioinformatics and phylogenetics studies during the past years.

 

In this regard, I am cultivating an interest toward a genomics-driven understanding of disease development, hoping to generate some evolutionary insights.

These experience fostered my interest in the following areas, toward which I would like to pursuit in my future.

1) Molecular Genetics and/or Bioinformatics Discovering and interpreting genetic variants and regulatory elements.

2) Stem Cell Biology Deciphering mechanisms of pluripotency and lineage commitment.

3) Translational Studies and/or Product Development Moving bench discoveries into clinical and everyday life.

4) Phylogenetics Studies Reconstructing evolutionary histories of genes, pathways, and species. (My lucky bonus if I got the chance!)

I Like

  • Rope Climbing and/or Bouldering (Highest priority: safe and soft descending.)
  • Hiking (Lite version.)
  • Fossil hunting (Usually find Belemnoidea instead of Ammonoidea.)
  • Star gazing (I've seen the most beautiful Venus.)
  • Procreate (I know how to draw an Ichthyosauria.)
  • Podcasts: 凡事不烦, 天才捕手FM, 博物志, among others.
  • Series: Person of Interest beyonds everything.
  • Things that I am ignorant about.

Extras

  • My stage/cafeteria name is "Bagel", but that hardly work in Brussels, so I adopted "Iris".
  • I have a Podcast 七小时后 for bedtime stories.
  • This website is an extended version of my CV, so you need to read more.