(From Tammy Chin)
Our stay in Vietnam this weekend was eye-opening. Before we went, my supervisor was telling me about his stay in Ho Chih Minh for a conference. He told me how busy the streets were and how crossing the road takes audacity. When we got there, I could see exactly what he meant. Scooters occupied places where cars couldn't and stop lights were rarely seen. The cyclists had face masks to keep from breathing in the very polluted air. People buzzed by about five inches from the taxis, and the best way to cross roads, we learned, was to walk steadily and confidently, not stopping or running so that the vehicles could see us passing by. We couldn't believe that Ho Chih Minh was one of the more developed and modernized cities of Vietnam because its living conditions were not the best. The streets were more crowded, less clean, and construction went on in the middle of the roads. The place was definitely more local and had fewer tourists. I saw many cripples hobbling on the streets and the housing looked more cramped. It seemed that health care there needed to be greatly improved on. The people also frequently stared at us, not used to seeing tourists around, and when we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Vietnamese troops hid during the Vietnamese War, we saw a very prejudiced video about "cruel" Americans. We definitely felt out of place. Mary and I did touristy things and visited historic buildings/tunnels. We also ate delectable Vietnamese food, of course: pho, Vietnamese pancakes, spring rolls, salad, sugar cane juice, etc. I definitely enjoyed my time there. Seeing the rural countryside on Sunday, the rice plantations, and the farmers with conical hats during the two-hour drive back to the airport really provoked a peace of mind, and it was a great end to our venture to Vietnam.
I am about to finish my work in the lab. My last day will be Tuesday. All the work that I've done will be presented to my colleagues and supervisors Monday morning during our biweekly lab meeting. I have slowly but surely learned much about researching in an infectious disease lab, and I have grasped the methods of basic lab procedures. Hopefully by Tuesday we will have two samples sequenced. This week, we were having trouble seeing the PCR products for all five fragments of the Dengue virus genome on the gels, but things are looking good now. A recently graduated Duke alumni, Joseph, came on Monday to replace me in the lab. He will be spending a year here before going to medical school. I am busy teaching/supervising Joseph and writing a protocol and template for all the work that I've done so that Joseph will have no problem sequencing the rest of the Dengue 2 viruses.
Outside of work, this week I tried stingray for the first time. It tastes a lot like fish. I also tried a uniquely Singaporean dish called Bak Kut Teh, a peppery soup with pork ribs, pig trotters, and a tropical fruit here called Rambutan. When you've finished your bowl of Bak Kut Teh, the waiters come by and pour you more, which I think is an amazing service. The look of rambutan is very strange. It's small, red, and has lots of spikes, but it tastes pretty good. It's very similar to lychee. Singapore's independence day is in the beginning of August, but people apparently begin preparing very early. Singaporean flags are draped all over the condos and tjavascript:void(0)he streets have been decorated with lights. It's very pretty here at night. Walking through another dorm on the way to/from work every day, I see students building these very elaborate wooden floats, and it's been fun seeing the progress done on them. Tomorrow, some Duke friends and I will be going up to the north of the island to wakeboard. It will be my first time wakeboarding! Later on, there will be a dinner for incoming and current Duke students that I'm attending. Hopefully I can make the incoming Dukees more excited to come in the fall!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
A Vietnam Trip
(from Mary Bohan)
We found a very reasonable flight to Vietnam last week, so we went for a short trip overnight over the weekend. It was really interesting, it definitely made me realize a lot of the things I take for granted in Singapore but the people were all very friendly and happy. I definitely stuck out a lot more there, strangers would come up and say hello or just stare at me all the way down the road, little children would come up and wave, and I even saw the tour guide of a vietnamese tour guide speaking Vietnamese to the group and pointing to me, and they were all giggling, we still have no idea what was going on. We went to some caves that were from the Vietnam War, but what we didn't realize was that they were where the Americans had massacred a village, and the presentation was a bit biased, talking about the "brutal Americans" who murdered their innocent mothers and children, and bragging about the booby traps that killed the soldiers, it was definitely interesting to hear from their perspective. In terms of healthcare, it was clear that they didn't have the same level of care as in Singapore, there were no major modern hospitals that we saw, and even within an hour of the city everything got very rural.
This week I've been working on a powerpoint of all of the different strains of Dengue and Yellow Fever, looking into what enzymes can be used to cut the sequences to study the desired regions, which has been very tedious. My supervisor Azlinda is going to use this next week when she begins to clone the cells and the actual experiments start. Apparently I came at a bad time in terms of actual work in the wet lab, within the next month they will be running real experiments, but I definitely learned a lot from the work that I've been doing, and I've found that I'm much better at analyzing things and researching than I am at performing actual work in the lab.
In terms of my work in Singapore I'm done as of today, I'll be stopping by for a few hours tomorrow before my flight and then hopefully the Friday or Saturday when I return as well, just to say goodbye to everyone, I'm actually sad I'm leaving, everyone has been so great here! In India I'm hoping to work in Shishu Bhavan, which is an orphanage run by the MC, or Prem Dan, a convalescent facility, both of which were recommended by a friend from Duke as well as some family friends who had gone before. I was told to also try to spend a day in each of the facilities, just to get a taste of each, so I'll try to do that if I can. Apparently at the orientation on 3pm on Friday they explain everything to you and you can pretty much work wherever you want, but sometimes they will try to lead you towards working at a certain place that is understaffed that week so we'll see.
We found a very reasonable flight to Vietnam last week, so we went for a short trip overnight over the weekend. It was really interesting, it definitely made me realize a lot of the things I take for granted in Singapore but the people were all very friendly and happy. I definitely stuck out a lot more there, strangers would come up and say hello or just stare at me all the way down the road, little children would come up and wave, and I even saw the tour guide of a vietnamese tour guide speaking Vietnamese to the group and pointing to me, and they were all giggling, we still have no idea what was going on. We went to some caves that were from the Vietnam War, but what we didn't realize was that they were where the Americans had massacred a village, and the presentation was a bit biased, talking about the "brutal Americans" who murdered their innocent mothers and children, and bragging about the booby traps that killed the soldiers, it was definitely interesting to hear from their perspective. In terms of healthcare, it was clear that they didn't have the same level of care as in Singapore, there were no major modern hospitals that we saw, and even within an hour of the city everything got very rural.
This week I've been working on a powerpoint of all of the different strains of Dengue and Yellow Fever, looking into what enzymes can be used to cut the sequences to study the desired regions, which has been very tedious. My supervisor Azlinda is going to use this next week when she begins to clone the cells and the actual experiments start. Apparently I came at a bad time in terms of actual work in the wet lab, within the next month they will be running real experiments, but I definitely learned a lot from the work that I've been doing, and I've found that I'm much better at analyzing things and researching than I am at performing actual work in the lab.
In terms of my work in Singapore I'm done as of today, I'll be stopping by for a few hours tomorrow before my flight and then hopefully the Friday or Saturday when I return as well, just to say goodbye to everyone, I'm actually sad I'm leaving, everyone has been so great here! In India I'm hoping to work in Shishu Bhavan, which is an orphanage run by the MC, or Prem Dan, a convalescent facility, both of which were recommended by a friend from Duke as well as some family friends who had gone before. I was told to also try to spend a day in each of the facilities, just to get a taste of each, so I'll try to do that if I can. Apparently at the orientation on 3pm on Friday they explain everything to you and you can pretty much work wherever you want, but sometimes they will try to lead you towards working at a certain place that is understaffed that week so we'll see.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Responsibility, Simplicity, and Construction
(From Tammy Chin)
In the lab, I’ve been trying to find the right conditions for thermal cycling of the PCR reactions for the fifth fragment of the Dengue DNA. I had a meeting with my supervisor, Eng Eong, another principal investigator of our lab, Subhash, and some colleagues at the Genome Institute of Singapore Wednesday afternoon. They gave me more efficient primers and enzymes to work with and through their supplies, today I finally successfully amplified all the fragments (there are five total) of the Dengue genomes. With only about two weeks left, I will not be able to finish sequencing all the 50+ DENV 2 isolates but will certainly have a methods report done and some isolates sequenced. This entails doing as many DNA amplifications, gel electrophoreses, DNA extractions, and sequencing forms as possible before I go, all while wrapping up my work in a report that Eng Eong will guide me with next week.
Over the weekend, we went to Pulau Ubin, a nice little island to the north of Singapore. Cycling through the terrain was something I missed from childhood. Biking downhill with the wind in my hair and just letting the wind guide me, was such a relaxing feeling, and it reminded me of how places stripped of urbanity and technology are just as refreshing as bustling cities and how simplicity is still such a welcome concept. Our three hour long trek through the dirt trails and granite roads of the Singapore that used to be, of the last few “kampongs,” or villages that originally populated Singapore, was breathtaking. It was a nice piece of lived history, with its rubber plantations, durians along the road that people picked and placed in their baskets, wells for water, and noisy electrical generators. Many elderly people sat in stands alongside the road, offering “refreshing cold drinks” to us exhausted bikers. I admire these people who have lived on this seemingly deprived island and live without material luxuries that people only a 10 minute bumboat ferry ride away probably would never imagine being able to survive without. The people on the island are friendly and cater to you, whether in selling their food or their bikes or in providing you with a basket when they see you with purses (which I definitely thought was a nice gesture).
I’ve noticed that there is an enormous sense of community here in Singapore. People graciously give their seats to the elderly and to the stressed out moms with their tiny children on the MRTs and buses. From the posters of statistics plastered around construction sites, I know that the workers also believe in safety first and pride themselves on the minimal number of accidents and lost hours at the sites. MRT stations also repeatedly show clips that remind Singaporeans to keep Singapore safe by doing their part in watching out for suspicious activity on the trains. With adages such as “Low crime doesn’t mean no crime” on the walls of the MRT stations, Singapore knows that unity is essential for a prosperous country. People are actively helping make Singapore better. A sense of responsibility is well-established here, from the “act responsibly signs” on the tracks of the MRTs, the daunting ads that illustrate what could happen (a world of darkness) if we consumed all the energy/natural resources of the earth, of course the infamous fine signs for littering, chewing gum, spitting, smoking, and the list goes on. Souvenirs with the tagline, “Singapore: a fine city” and the red “no” symbols, crowd the shelves of every tourist location here.
A few nights ago, Mary and I ventured off into the city after working in the lab. We went to Lau Pa Sat, “the largest remaining Victorian filigree cast-iron structure in Southeast Asia” with stalls galore, selling from stingray to stinky tofu, all at affordable prices. Right next to it was Satay Street where meat kabobs were sold with cucumbers and onions and a peanut dipping sauce. The signature satay was delicious. We also went to see the famous Merlion, but unfortunately it was covered in green due to construction. It seems like Singapore is constantly being remodeled. Everywhere you look, you see cranes and workers in hats and boots with pedestrian walkway signs pointing to the allocated pathways. Every day, we walk past a construction site where a new MRT station will be built. It is located right next to wear we live (and we sigh at the government for not constructing it sooner). Here a new MRT station, there a new shopping mall. Here a new casino, there a new Universal Studios. It seems the country is trying hard to revamp its older buildings and attract tourists.
In other news, Mary and I will be soaking up more of the Southeast Asian culture. We're getting up before the sun rises Saturday to visit Ho Chi Minh. Exciting! I'm sure there will be many experiences/cultural similarities & differences to share.
In the lab, I’ve been trying to find the right conditions for thermal cycling of the PCR reactions for the fifth fragment of the Dengue DNA. I had a meeting with my supervisor, Eng Eong, another principal investigator of our lab, Subhash, and some colleagues at the Genome Institute of Singapore Wednesday afternoon. They gave me more efficient primers and enzymes to work with and through their supplies, today I finally successfully amplified all the fragments (there are five total) of the Dengue genomes. With only about two weeks left, I will not be able to finish sequencing all the 50+ DENV 2 isolates but will certainly have a methods report done and some isolates sequenced. This entails doing as many DNA amplifications, gel electrophoreses, DNA extractions, and sequencing forms as possible before I go, all while wrapping up my work in a report that Eng Eong will guide me with next week.
Over the weekend, we went to Pulau Ubin, a nice little island to the north of Singapore. Cycling through the terrain was something I missed from childhood. Biking downhill with the wind in my hair and just letting the wind guide me, was such a relaxing feeling, and it reminded me of how places stripped of urbanity and technology are just as refreshing as bustling cities and how simplicity is still such a welcome concept. Our three hour long trek through the dirt trails and granite roads of the Singapore that used to be, of the last few “kampongs,” or villages that originally populated Singapore, was breathtaking. It was a nice piece of lived history, with its rubber plantations, durians along the road that people picked and placed in their baskets, wells for water, and noisy electrical generators. Many elderly people sat in stands alongside the road, offering “refreshing cold drinks” to us exhausted bikers. I admire these people who have lived on this seemingly deprived island and live without material luxuries that people only a 10 minute bumboat ferry ride away probably would never imagine being able to survive without. The people on the island are friendly and cater to you, whether in selling their food or their bikes or in providing you with a basket when they see you with purses (which I definitely thought was a nice gesture).
I’ve noticed that there is an enormous sense of community here in Singapore. People graciously give their seats to the elderly and to the stressed out moms with their tiny children on the MRTs and buses. From the posters of statistics plastered around construction sites, I know that the workers also believe in safety first and pride themselves on the minimal number of accidents and lost hours at the sites. MRT stations also repeatedly show clips that remind Singaporeans to keep Singapore safe by doing their part in watching out for suspicious activity on the trains. With adages such as “Low crime doesn’t mean no crime” on the walls of the MRT stations, Singapore knows that unity is essential for a prosperous country. People are actively helping make Singapore better. A sense of responsibility is well-established here, from the “act responsibly signs” on the tracks of the MRTs, the daunting ads that illustrate what could happen (a world of darkness) if we consumed all the energy/natural resources of the earth, of course the infamous fine signs for littering, chewing gum, spitting, smoking, and the list goes on. Souvenirs with the tagline, “Singapore: a fine city” and the red “no” symbols, crowd the shelves of every tourist location here.
A few nights ago, Mary and I ventured off into the city after working in the lab. We went to Lau Pa Sat, “the largest remaining Victorian filigree cast-iron structure in Southeast Asia” with stalls galore, selling from stingray to stinky tofu, all at affordable prices. Right next to it was Satay Street where meat kabobs were sold with cucumbers and onions and a peanut dipping sauce. The signature satay was delicious. We also went to see the famous Merlion, but unfortunately it was covered in green due to construction. It seems like Singapore is constantly being remodeled. Everywhere you look, you see cranes and workers in hats and boots with pedestrian walkway signs pointing to the allocated pathways. Every day, we walk past a construction site where a new MRT station will be built. It is located right next to wear we live (and we sigh at the government for not constructing it sooner). Here a new MRT station, there a new shopping mall. Here a new casino, there a new Universal Studios. It seems the country is trying hard to revamp its older buildings and attract tourists.
In other news, Mary and I will be soaking up more of the Southeast Asian culture. We're getting up before the sun rises Saturday to visit Ho Chi Minh. Exciting! I'm sure there will be many experiences/cultural similarities & differences to share.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Queue and Vectors
(from Mary Bohan)
In going to quite a few doctors to try to get my malaria pills and TB test, I definitely found some differences between the Singaporean healthcare system and ours in the US. In Singapore, they have "queues" everywhere, when you walk into the clinic you get a number from an automated machine, and then wait in a waiting room until your number pops up on an electronic screen so that you can even speak with the receptionist. Then you "register" with the clinic, tell them what you need or who you need to see, and then are given another ticket with another number, and wait for that number to be called. Then you have your "consult" for under ten minutes, and then you're given another number to wait for your test or your prescription. Finally, you wait in line again to pay for the services, in cash, which turned into a problem when I didn't have over $150 cash to get my malaria pills yesterday, hopefully I'll get them today. In the clinic for the TB Test, I waited for three hours to see the doctor for about 5 minutes, and then to have an injection which took about 3 minutes. I asked the receptionist a few times whether my number had been lost or forgotten, but she insured me that it would come up, I just had to keep waiting. Everyone else seemed pretty calm about the situation, I guess that's what it's like everywhere. Since most of their services are paid for by the government, they're willing to wait in line for a few hours to get them. The two physicians that I saw were on par with doctors at home, although the one at the TB clinic admitted she knew nothing about malaria pills after I explained my situation to her, and tried to convince me to go to the emergency room, but after returning to work my boss reassured me I'd be fine.
This week I've been preparing for cloning of the Dengue and Yellow Fever samples, using the pGEM-T Easy Vector and the PBluescript II SK(+) Vector. I've been researching the places where the enzymes bind to the samples, as well as the enzymes that bind to both vectors, so that we can choose the appropriate enzymes to use in the cloning of specific regions. I've never studied anything about the subject, except for a day or two in AP Biology nearly four years ago, so I've been pretty much learning as I go along. I'm continuing to maintain and grow my cells in the wet lab, changing the media and checking the cells under the microscope to ensure that they are healthy and haven't become "contaminated," a word I've been fearing for the past few weeks, as not only my work but everyone else's would have to be thrown out.
Next week is my last week at work, except for the friday afternoon and saturday when I return from India, when I'm going to try to make it into work to say goodbye to everyone. I'm continuing to work in the wet lab on my cells, so that they can be used after I leave when the actual wet experiments start. I'm also finishing my work on determining which enzymes to use for the cloning, information that can also be used after I leave. I'm going to have to teach all of what I've been doing to Yinglin, a Singaporean girl who started working in the lab a few weeks ago and who will be taking over my work once I go and using in the next stages of the research, so just showing her where everything is, how it's organized, how I found it, and how to use it will take quite a bit of time.
In going to quite a few doctors to try to get my malaria pills and TB test, I definitely found some differences between the Singaporean healthcare system and ours in the US. In Singapore, they have "queues" everywhere, when you walk into the clinic you get a number from an automated machine, and then wait in a waiting room until your number pops up on an electronic screen so that you can even speak with the receptionist. Then you "register" with the clinic, tell them what you need or who you need to see, and then are given another ticket with another number, and wait for that number to be called. Then you have your "consult" for under ten minutes, and then you're given another number to wait for your test or your prescription. Finally, you wait in line again to pay for the services, in cash, which turned into a problem when I didn't have over $150 cash to get my malaria pills yesterday, hopefully I'll get them today. In the clinic for the TB Test, I waited for three hours to see the doctor for about 5 minutes, and then to have an injection which took about 3 minutes. I asked the receptionist a few times whether my number had been lost or forgotten, but she insured me that it would come up, I just had to keep waiting. Everyone else seemed pretty calm about the situation, I guess that's what it's like everywhere. Since most of their services are paid for by the government, they're willing to wait in line for a few hours to get them. The two physicians that I saw were on par with doctors at home, although the one at the TB clinic admitted she knew nothing about malaria pills after I explained my situation to her, and tried to convince me to go to the emergency room, but after returning to work my boss reassured me I'd be fine.
This week I've been preparing for cloning of the Dengue and Yellow Fever samples, using the pGEM-T Easy Vector and the PBluescript II SK(+) Vector. I've been researching the places where the enzymes bind to the samples, as well as the enzymes that bind to both vectors, so that we can choose the appropriate enzymes to use in the cloning of specific regions. I've never studied anything about the subject, except for a day or two in AP Biology nearly four years ago, so I've been pretty much learning as I go along. I'm continuing to maintain and grow my cells in the wet lab, changing the media and checking the cells under the microscope to ensure that they are healthy and haven't become "contaminated," a word I've been fearing for the past few weeks, as not only my work but everyone else's would have to be thrown out.
Next week is my last week at work, except for the friday afternoon and saturday when I return from India, when I'm going to try to make it into work to say goodbye to everyone. I'm continuing to work in the wet lab on my cells, so that they can be used after I leave when the actual wet experiments start. I'm also finishing my work on determining which enzymes to use for the cloning, information that can also be used after I leave. I'm going to have to teach all of what I've been doing to Yinglin, a Singaporean girl who started working in the lab a few weeks ago and who will be taking over my work once I go and using in the next stages of the research, so just showing her where everything is, how it's organized, how I found it, and how to use it will take quite a bit of time.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Gift of Love and Palau Ubin
(From Mary Bohan)
"Peace begins with a smile" - Mother Theresa
Every day on my way to and from work at the fifth floor lab of the Brenner Center, I read this quote on a small poster in the elevator. It wakes me up me as I walk in early in the morning and relaxes me after a stressful day at work. But, surprisingly, it also led me on a trip to Calcutta, India.
Upon coming to Singapore, I had booked my flight home three weeks after my work was done, planning to travel and explore the area before returning to America. Speaking with one of the girls on my hall, a native of Calcutta, or Kolkata as it is now called, I learned how easy it is to fly to India from Singapore, and she encouraged me to plan a trip to India. But one day, on the way to work, I saw the poster in the elevator in a completely different light, and everything clicked. I immediatly emailed my parents, hoping to convince them to let me go to Calcutta to volunteer. Having grown up in a Catholic family and attending the Convent of the Sacred Heart for 13 years, I had always thought it would be amazing to work for the Missionaries of Charity, the organization by Mother Theresa. It would tie in perfectly with the work that I was doing in Singapore, bringing a more personal and real life experience to the medical research that I was doing in the lab. This was my chance.
At first my family was skeptical, as I would be traveling alone as a young American girl to the chaotic country of India. But the more they heard about it, the more they liked the idea. A few weeks later, I now have a flight, a visa, six shots in my arm, and I'm just as excited as I am terrified. Before I left Singapore, my parents insisted that I meet with Sister Luke, the colleague of a friend of my parents who is a member of the order, and was a personal friend of Mother Theresa's in Calcutta, who is now working in Singapore.
On Saturday afternoon, I headed off to the church associated with the order, for a service called a Novena that is held hourly from 1 until 7 weekly. It was an amazing experience, an open air church with a thousand people coming each hour to participate in the service. There were people of every race and ethnicity, some whom were wearing traditional Indian clothing, others in Chinese dress, and I was the only American or European individual. After the service was over, I asked the receptionist for Sister Luke, but she responded with a blank stare, and after we searched the directory for a few minutes, I learned there was a convent down the road where she might be.
I started walking, and two hours and a two liter bottle of water later, I came across a small faded sign that read "Gift of Love, Missionaries of Charity." I walked past the empty security booth of the gated compound, and came across three buildings, a home for the blind, a health center, and the "Gift of Love." I was surprised to be greeted by a middle aged overweight Asian man wearing only a towel, who confirmed that this was in fact the home of the Missionaries of Charity, but that Sister Luke was in Cambodia for the month. He brought me to another nun to speak to, a Filipino woman who knew both Sister Luke and our family friend very well, and was very excited about my trip to Calcutta. I later learned that the Gift of Love is a center for individuals who had been neglected by their children and had no where else to go. The center is staffed by volunteers, who take the residents to services of their respective religions, and cook, clean, and bathe them while the nuns visit others in their homes and the hospital. The home had a wonderful sense of calm about it, everything seemed very peaceful despite the apparant illness and poverty of the residents. My visit to the Gift of Love made me even more excited for India, I can't wait to go!
On Sunday, Tammy and I were a bit adventurous and ventured out to Palau Ubin, a remote island ten minutes off the shore of Singapore. We took a bumboat ferry across the water, and upon reaching the other side it seemed like we had gone back forty years in time. There are very few cars on the island, the principle mode of transportation is by bicycle. We set off to explore the island, and ended up biking for nearly three hours straight, on roads, sandy paths, and dirt roads. The island had many coconut and rubber plantations, mangrove swamps, and enormous granite quarries. Unlike mainland Singapore, in which nearly all agriculture and manufacturing is exported to Malaysia, this island was very rustic and natural. But Tammy and I were surprised to find that one of the isolated beaches was covered with litter above the water line, a strange sight given the fact that we have probably seen a grand total of three pieces of litter since arriving, given the severe fines for breaking the law. Somehow every piece of litter in Singapore had managed to wash up on this beach. We continued to bike around until we the sound of thunder and the threat of rain led us to head for the mainland. We were completely exhausted, and couldn't even speak a word the entire trip home. We definitely got our exercise for the week!
"Peace begins with a smile" - Mother Theresa
Every day on my way to and from work at the fifth floor lab of the Brenner Center, I read this quote on a small poster in the elevator. It wakes me up me as I walk in early in the morning and relaxes me after a stressful day at work. But, surprisingly, it also led me on a trip to Calcutta, India.
Upon coming to Singapore, I had booked my flight home three weeks after my work was done, planning to travel and explore the area before returning to America. Speaking with one of the girls on my hall, a native of Calcutta, or Kolkata as it is now called, I learned how easy it is to fly to India from Singapore, and she encouraged me to plan a trip to India. But one day, on the way to work, I saw the poster in the elevator in a completely different light, and everything clicked. I immediatly emailed my parents, hoping to convince them to let me go to Calcutta to volunteer. Having grown up in a Catholic family and attending the Convent of the Sacred Heart for 13 years, I had always thought it would be amazing to work for the Missionaries of Charity, the organization by Mother Theresa. It would tie in perfectly with the work that I was doing in Singapore, bringing a more personal and real life experience to the medical research that I was doing in the lab. This was my chance.
At first my family was skeptical, as I would be traveling alone as a young American girl to the chaotic country of India. But the more they heard about it, the more they liked the idea. A few weeks later, I now have a flight, a visa, six shots in my arm, and I'm just as excited as I am terrified. Before I left Singapore, my parents insisted that I meet with Sister Luke, the colleague of a friend of my parents who is a member of the order, and was a personal friend of Mother Theresa's in Calcutta, who is now working in Singapore.
On Saturday afternoon, I headed off to the church associated with the order, for a service called a Novena that is held hourly from 1 until 7 weekly. It was an amazing experience, an open air church with a thousand people coming each hour to participate in the service. There were people of every race and ethnicity, some whom were wearing traditional Indian clothing, others in Chinese dress, and I was the only American or European individual. After the service was over, I asked the receptionist for Sister Luke, but she responded with a blank stare, and after we searched the directory for a few minutes, I learned there was a convent down the road where she might be.
I started walking, and two hours and a two liter bottle of water later, I came across a small faded sign that read "Gift of Love, Missionaries of Charity." I walked past the empty security booth of the gated compound, and came across three buildings, a home for the blind, a health center, and the "Gift of Love." I was surprised to be greeted by a middle aged overweight Asian man wearing only a towel, who confirmed that this was in fact the home of the Missionaries of Charity, but that Sister Luke was in Cambodia for the month. He brought me to another nun to speak to, a Filipino woman who knew both Sister Luke and our family friend very well, and was very excited about my trip to Calcutta. I later learned that the Gift of Love is a center for individuals who had been neglected by their children and had no where else to go. The center is staffed by volunteers, who take the residents to services of their respective religions, and cook, clean, and bathe them while the nuns visit others in their homes and the hospital. The home had a wonderful sense of calm about it, everything seemed very peaceful despite the apparant illness and poverty of the residents. My visit to the Gift of Love made me even more excited for India, I can't wait to go!
On Sunday, Tammy and I were a bit adventurous and ventured out to Palau Ubin, a remote island ten minutes off the shore of Singapore. We took a bumboat ferry across the water, and upon reaching the other side it seemed like we had gone back forty years in time. There are very few cars on the island, the principle mode of transportation is by bicycle. We set off to explore the island, and ended up biking for nearly three hours straight, on roads, sandy paths, and dirt roads. The island had many coconut and rubber plantations, mangrove swamps, and enormous granite quarries. Unlike mainland Singapore, in which nearly all agriculture and manufacturing is exported to Malaysia, this island was very rustic and natural. But Tammy and I were surprised to find that one of the isolated beaches was covered with litter above the water line, a strange sight given the fact that we have probably seen a grand total of three pieces of litter since arriving, given the severe fines for breaking the law. Somehow every piece of litter in Singapore had managed to wash up on this beach. We continued to bike around until we the sound of thunder and the threat of rain led us to head for the mainland. We were completely exhausted, and couldn't even speak a word the entire trip home. We definitely got our exercise for the week!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Singapore: The Lab, The Culture, and the (Quasi) Natural Wonders
(From Tammy Chin)
I've still been very busy in the lab from 9-6 every weekday. My goal, as part of a collaborative effort between all the fifth floor Duke-NUS GMS lab members of the Brenner Centre for Molecular Medicine, has generally been to advance the knowledge of Dengue in this area where Dengue is so prevalent. From the start, my head supervisor has been Dr. Eng Eong, an epidemiologist who spends most of his time about 10 minutes away at the DSO National Laboratories. The focus of my research studies changed from what I was told at the beginning, which was to investigate how IP-10, a chemokine that potentially promotes viral replication, interacts with dengue virus. It turns out that Eng Eong and his colleagues were so eager to find out more about it, that they had already started the project before I came to Singapore. Duane Gubler, the head of the Duke-NUS GMS effort to further Dengue research, had brought back many virus isolates from Puerto Rico and Indonesia, and Eng Eong, after discussing with fellow teammates, decided to let me sequence the complete genome of these virus strains and see if, we can see a correlation between human response of Dengue and the sequencing. So, that has been my target since day one here (actually day two since adjusting to the Singapore heat and catching up on sleep took away a day). Presently, I've been working on extracting DNA out of the gels that I made and finding all the measurements of the extracted DNA. I will be sending out some DNA samples and primer sets for sequencing tomorrow. It's exciting news, but there's still a long way to go. I've only done PCR/gel extraction of two strains of the Puerto Rican Dengue 2 Virus. There are still plenty more strains to finish sequencing.
During my work in the lab, I have developed a copious amount of respect for my supervisors and colleagues. Being a scientist involves having much patience, the ability to work under pressure, and being able to keenly handle all possible scenarios while also mixing in good teamwork and communication skills. The person who supervises my work in the lab every day was talking about how tired she was today. Her daughter was sick yesterday, and she had to leave work early to get her. She also told me how she hasn't slept in the last few days because she has been under so much pressure to finish her paper and have it published. Extracting DNA out of the gels, making PCR master mixes, and isolating RNA from the viral supernatants takes a lot more time and concentration than most people will think, I have realized and experienced. Take for instance, our progress was delayed because it took us days to figure out the best cycling conditions for the PCR mixes since the melting temperatures for the primer sets of the complementary DNA were so different. Thank goodness we found the temperature gradient on the thermal cycler machine, and I've been keeping track of all of my progress in a notebook in the lab. My supervisors tell me how important jotting down every detail of every activity is in the scientific research world.
Aside from the every day labwork, I have had time to enjoy Singapore's incredible goodness. On Saturday, my friend from India and I went to the MacRitchie Reservoir to get away from the hustle and bustle of typical Singapore life. We hiked about 10 kilometers through beautiful greenery and the peacefulness of nature and ended up at The TreeTop Walk, a suspended bridge connecting the two highest points of the nature reserve. The view was amazing. Tall trees and monkeys, fresh air and a cool breeze replaced the concrete buildings and construction sites, pollution and heat that I was so accustomed to. It's worthy to note that we saw quite a few people running up and down the trail. We couldn't believe how fit these people were, especially at the ages they were at, while we were barely surviving our slow paced walk up. We only wish we will be as fit as they are when we grow old. After living here for a good amount of time now, I know how much Singaporeans value good health and fitness. It's rare to see obese people here, and the fresh fruit/fruit juice stands are always crowded with people. The food is always made fresh, and I notice many healthy options at the eateries here, like vegetables and healthy booster juices. Milo, a popular nutritional drink, is sold everywhere, and I am a huge fan of it, as Mary can testify.
While we we trekked up the trail, we passed a country club, and my friend said that only the richest of rich can afford to be a member of the country club, and that it was the desire of every person here. She said every Singaporean wishes for the 5 C's: country club, car, condo, credit card, and cash, and that really resonated in me. Golf courses and country clubs are very rare amenities here in Singapore because of the lack of land. A car is also incredibly expensive (evident from the fact that Singaporeans have to bid on a Certificate of Entitlement which ends up costing more than $15,000 separate from the car costs). A person is lucky to find a condo in such a small country where every inch of space is a fortune. Even though it's distinctly part of the "Singlish" lexicon, these are things that almost every person living in the world wants. It's interesting, after spending these past five weeks focusing on a virus that takes so many lives here, that these material things seem trivial compared to good health and care of the body. Later that night, we relaxed from our day of hiking by going to Sentosa, a man made beach nearby. The artificiality of the place was clear after we stepped onto the rocky sand, but the place was still great for an evening of tranquility.
Since my friend was going back to India soon, we decided to take advantage of what Singapore had to offer and bought a $40 park hopper for the Jurong BirdPark, the Singapore Zoo, and the Night Safari. The Birdpark is a great place to go during the day. They have the largest man made waterfall there, and the Night Safari is the first of its kind. I saw animals that I had never known existed, and there's nothing like being driven around the safari in the cool evening and listening to fascinating facts about creatures from all parts of the world. We also enjoyed the closing ceremony of the Singapore Arts Festival at a lake over the weekend. It was a spectacular and eccentric show done by Europeans on the water, with fireworks and amazing props (like the HUGE creature made out of water bottles). I can already tell that I will miss this place greatly when I go back home in a couple of weeks.
I've still been very busy in the lab from 9-6 every weekday. My goal, as part of a collaborative effort between all the fifth floor Duke-NUS GMS lab members of the Brenner Centre for Molecular Medicine, has generally been to advance the knowledge of Dengue in this area where Dengue is so prevalent. From the start, my head supervisor has been Dr. Eng Eong, an epidemiologist who spends most of his time about 10 minutes away at the DSO National Laboratories. The focus of my research studies changed from what I was told at the beginning, which was to investigate how IP-10, a chemokine that potentially promotes viral replication, interacts with dengue virus. It turns out that Eng Eong and his colleagues were so eager to find out more about it, that they had already started the project before I came to Singapore. Duane Gubler, the head of the Duke-NUS GMS effort to further Dengue research, had brought back many virus isolates from Puerto Rico and Indonesia, and Eng Eong, after discussing with fellow teammates, decided to let me sequence the complete genome of these virus strains and see if, we can see a correlation between human response of Dengue and the sequencing. So, that has been my target since day one here (actually day two since adjusting to the Singapore heat and catching up on sleep took away a day). Presently, I've been working on extracting DNA out of the gels that I made and finding all the measurements of the extracted DNA. I will be sending out some DNA samples and primer sets for sequencing tomorrow. It's exciting news, but there's still a long way to go. I've only done PCR/gel extraction of two strains of the Puerto Rican Dengue 2 Virus. There are still plenty more strains to finish sequencing.
During my work in the lab, I have developed a copious amount of respect for my supervisors and colleagues. Being a scientist involves having much patience, the ability to work under pressure, and being able to keenly handle all possible scenarios while also mixing in good teamwork and communication skills. The person who supervises my work in the lab every day was talking about how tired she was today. Her daughter was sick yesterday, and she had to leave work early to get her. She also told me how she hasn't slept in the last few days because she has been under so much pressure to finish her paper and have it published. Extracting DNA out of the gels, making PCR master mixes, and isolating RNA from the viral supernatants takes a lot more time and concentration than most people will think, I have realized and experienced. Take for instance, our progress was delayed because it took us days to figure out the best cycling conditions for the PCR mixes since the melting temperatures for the primer sets of the complementary DNA were so different. Thank goodness we found the temperature gradient on the thermal cycler machine, and I've been keeping track of all of my progress in a notebook in the lab. My supervisors tell me how important jotting down every detail of every activity is in the scientific research world.
Aside from the every day labwork, I have had time to enjoy Singapore's incredible goodness. On Saturday, my friend from India and I went to the MacRitchie Reservoir to get away from the hustle and bustle of typical Singapore life. We hiked about 10 kilometers through beautiful greenery and the peacefulness of nature and ended up at The TreeTop Walk, a suspended bridge connecting the two highest points of the nature reserve. The view was amazing. Tall trees and monkeys, fresh air and a cool breeze replaced the concrete buildings and construction sites, pollution and heat that I was so accustomed to. It's worthy to note that we saw quite a few people running up and down the trail. We couldn't believe how fit these people were, especially at the ages they were at, while we were barely surviving our slow paced walk up. We only wish we will be as fit as they are when we grow old. After living here for a good amount of time now, I know how much Singaporeans value good health and fitness. It's rare to see obese people here, and the fresh fruit/fruit juice stands are always crowded with people. The food is always made fresh, and I notice many healthy options at the eateries here, like vegetables and healthy booster juices. Milo, a popular nutritional drink, is sold everywhere, and I am a huge fan of it, as Mary can testify.
While we we trekked up the trail, we passed a country club, and my friend said that only the richest of rich can afford to be a member of the country club, and that it was the desire of every person here. She said every Singaporean wishes for the 5 C's: country club, car, condo, credit card, and cash, and that really resonated in me. Golf courses and country clubs are very rare amenities here in Singapore because of the lack of land. A car is also incredibly expensive (evident from the fact that Singaporeans have to bid on a Certificate of Entitlement which ends up costing more than $15,000 separate from the car costs). A person is lucky to find a condo in such a small country where every inch of space is a fortune. Even though it's distinctly part of the "Singlish" lexicon, these are things that almost every person living in the world wants. It's interesting, after spending these past five weeks focusing on a virus that takes so many lives here, that these material things seem trivial compared to good health and care of the body. Later that night, we relaxed from our day of hiking by going to Sentosa, a man made beach nearby. The artificiality of the place was clear after we stepped onto the rocky sand, but the place was still great for an evening of tranquility.
Since my friend was going back to India soon, we decided to take advantage of what Singapore had to offer and bought a $40 park hopper for the Jurong BirdPark, the Singapore Zoo, and the Night Safari. The Birdpark is a great place to go during the day. They have the largest man made waterfall there, and the Night Safari is the first of its kind. I saw animals that I had never known existed, and there's nothing like being driven around the safari in the cool evening and listening to fascinating facts about creatures from all parts of the world. We also enjoyed the closing ceremony of the Singapore Arts Festival at a lake over the weekend. It was a spectacular and eccentric show done by Europeans on the water, with fireworks and amazing props (like the HUGE creature made out of water bottles). I can already tell that I will miss this place greatly when I go back home in a couple of weeks.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The 9 to 6
(From Mary Bohan)
Work has kept me quite busy the past few weeks, as I spend every day in the Brenner Center for Molecular Medicine, working on the computer or in the lab. For the first half of my stay in Singapore, I was unable to start my work in the wet lab, due to the fact that I had not received my work permit. It worked out perfectly though, as I completed an analysis of the bioinformatics of Dengue.
I first read up about the disease, attended a seminar given by a prospective member of the Duke-GMS Medical School staff, and was given an overview of my work by my supervisor, Azlinda. Then I set to work on the computer, finding RNA complete genome sequences and aligning them using quite complicated software to visualize the differences between different strains of the virus. I eventually found enough data to be able to look at changes based on geographic location, as the virus is located in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, serotype, as there are four not mutually exclusive serotypes, namely Dengue 1, 2, 3, and 4, and severity, as there are two types of Dengue that can be diagnosed, the typical Dengue Fever, and the severe Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. My eyes would ache every day after staring at the multicolored sequence analyses. I eventually completed my task, and I even taught the other members of the lab how to use all of the programs as well as what I had found, so my work was definitely quite useful.
Last week I finally received my green card from the Ministry of Manpower, along with a stamp in my passport, and began my work in the wet lab. Another girl joined our lab, Yinglin, a recent graduate from Singapore, who had previously been conducting research on developing more nutritious genetically engineered forms of rice. Once Yinglin arrived, Azlinda matched the two of us together, and for the first two days I watched as she worked in the lab, but after that I was on my own. To be honest I don’t fully understand what I’m doing, changing media and performing cell cultures. I just do what I’m told and hope for the best, as if I do something incorrectly, my cells will become contaminated, which means the work of everyone else in the lab will have to be thrown out. It’s been quite stressful, and I’ve reminded my lab supervisor that perhaps this isn’t such a good idea, as they’re gambling the entire success of the lab on my beginner skills, but she’s convinced it’s a good idea, so I trust her. So far I’ve been lucky, but my immediate supervisor, Daniel, had to go to mandatory army training for the week, so without him to watch over me I’m a bit worried.
The basic idea of the work is to prepare cells for the use of the lab in the next few weeks, in experiments to look at the genetic makeup of the Dengue virus. The lab is comparing the genetic makeup of the Dengue virus to the similar Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, and Hepatitis C viruses. By comparing the responses of certain proteins, they are hoping to find out more about the virus, information that can hopefully help in finding a vaccine. It’s very interesting work, but at times it’s hard to see where my immediate cell culture work will play a part. In terms of the most interesting things to learn so far, I would say its been fascinating to see how changes in the structure of the sequences of these viruses can be correlated to different types of disease, geographic locations, severity, etc. I find it much easier to identify with things that pertain to real life and health, so I think it's really interesting to see the huge effects that one small change in a sequence can have.This experience has definitely taught me to understand how much time and effort goes into one experiment, one paper.
Work has kept me quite busy the past few weeks, as I spend every day in the Brenner Center for Molecular Medicine, working on the computer or in the lab. For the first half of my stay in Singapore, I was unable to start my work in the wet lab, due to the fact that I had not received my work permit. It worked out perfectly though, as I completed an analysis of the bioinformatics of Dengue.
I first read up about the disease, attended a seminar given by a prospective member of the Duke-GMS Medical School staff, and was given an overview of my work by my supervisor, Azlinda. Then I set to work on the computer, finding RNA complete genome sequences and aligning them using quite complicated software to visualize the differences between different strains of the virus. I eventually found enough data to be able to look at changes based on geographic location, as the virus is located in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, serotype, as there are four not mutually exclusive serotypes, namely Dengue 1, 2, 3, and 4, and severity, as there are two types of Dengue that can be diagnosed, the typical Dengue Fever, and the severe Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. My eyes would ache every day after staring at the multicolored sequence analyses. I eventually completed my task, and I even taught the other members of the lab how to use all of the programs as well as what I had found, so my work was definitely quite useful.
Last week I finally received my green card from the Ministry of Manpower, along with a stamp in my passport, and began my work in the wet lab. Another girl joined our lab, Yinglin, a recent graduate from Singapore, who had previously been conducting research on developing more nutritious genetically engineered forms of rice. Once Yinglin arrived, Azlinda matched the two of us together, and for the first two days I watched as she worked in the lab, but after that I was on my own. To be honest I don’t fully understand what I’m doing, changing media and performing cell cultures. I just do what I’m told and hope for the best, as if I do something incorrectly, my cells will become contaminated, which means the work of everyone else in the lab will have to be thrown out. It’s been quite stressful, and I’ve reminded my lab supervisor that perhaps this isn’t such a good idea, as they’re gambling the entire success of the lab on my beginner skills, but she’s convinced it’s a good idea, so I trust her. So far I’ve been lucky, but my immediate supervisor, Daniel, had to go to mandatory army training for the week, so without him to watch over me I’m a bit worried.
The basic idea of the work is to prepare cells for the use of the lab in the next few weeks, in experiments to look at the genetic makeup of the Dengue virus. The lab is comparing the genetic makeup of the Dengue virus to the similar Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, and Hepatitis C viruses. By comparing the responses of certain proteins, they are hoping to find out more about the virus, information that can hopefully help in finding a vaccine. It’s very interesting work, but at times it’s hard to see where my immediate cell culture work will play a part. In terms of the most interesting things to learn so far, I would say its been fascinating to see how changes in the structure of the sequences of these viruses can be correlated to different types of disease, geographic locations, severity, etc. I find it much easier to identify with things that pertain to real life and health, so I think it's really interesting to see the huge effects that one small change in a sequence can have.This experience has definitely taught me to understand how much time and effort goes into one experiment, one paper.
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