Student Research at Duke

Although initially it was a little depressing to return to school having been there less than a month before, now that classes have gotten underway and I have returned to the lab I am once again thoroughly enjoying my time at Duke.  My non-science classes this semester are extremely interesting - from a class concerning the leadership and institutional capacity in Africa to an English class analyzing bioethics and narrative.  As for genetics and molecular biology and organic chemistry, despite their bad reputations, I am really enjoying them as well.  The material is quite interesting and the concepts are relevant to the branches of biology that interest me.  Of course, we’ll see how my feelings change after exams begin!

This semester I am also continuing my research in Dr. Wang’s lab as an independent study.  While I am not working on the exact project that I did this summer, I will be assisting my graduate student mentor with his project, which is rather similar to mine.  I really enjoy being able to spend some time in the lab each week, as it is a nice alternative to sitting in lecture and I learn equally as much, if not more.  Well, that’s all for now but I will try to give updates as much as possible throughout the semester!