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.