I do research in molecular and cellular oncogenesis. I work on breast cancer research.

EDUCATION | I have two Medical Degrees, one from the University of Chongqing in China and one from University of Geneva in Switzerland.

HOW TO GET STARTED | Study science, read science journals, even in high school or college. But the actual process of research is very different from what you learn in books or even college lab courses. Try to get experience working in a lab, even if it's just washing the dishes when you start out. We have high school students who volunteer in our lab just to learn and see what it's like to be in a laboratory environment.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | Abstract, analytical thinking. And lots of patience. Be meticulous and careful but open-minded at the same time. If one experiment doesn't work, you keep going. You try and figure out what's wrong, what you can change, and then you run it again.

how I got started | I started out working as a doctor in internal medicine. When I had my first child, I switched to medical journalism. When I left China, my home country, and was raising my daughter in Geneva, I got a second medical degree at the university there. Finally, when I came to the States, I started doing medical research, first part-time and then when my two kids were older, full-time. My research has focused on immunology, cardiovascular wound healing, and now breast cancer.

why this job?| I was trained in medicine but I was interested in the health and science professions in general. It's a meaningful career. Research in particular is stimulating and always changing.

why I love this job!| It's intellectually challenging. You work with some of the best scientists in the field. In my research in particular, I've been very lucky in being able to apply some of the same scientific theories to different research and different diseases. For example, I worked on angiogenesis, which is the growth of new blood vessels from old ones. Wound healing. So when you're injured, your body's normal repair mechanism has to function correctly or you might bleed to death. In diabetes patients, angiogenesis is impaired. On the other hand, it's the same process of blood vessel growth and development that contributes to benign tumors becoming malignant. So using the same theories, if we can reverse the process, we may be able to fight something like breast cancer. That's pretty cool!

my typical day| I get up, I make breakfast, I send my son to school, I go to the lab. In a given day, I run about two or three experiments, and experiments also overlap. I may be getting results back from something that I did yesterday. One of the great things in research is that I have flexibility to plan my schedule, when I want to do certain experiments.

what they are | It can be frustrating if your experiment doesn't work. Sometimes people say that 99% of research doesn't work, but the 1% that does work make it all worthwhile. Well, that 99% can be rough (the number is not really that high). But no matter what, you keep trying until you get it.

all about growth | I had an MD but most scientists get their PhD's. After you get a doctorate, you become what's called a post-doc. Research is tough and often doesn't pay very much. Some people choose to go into industry, meaning that you'll work for a pharmaceutical company instead of in a university. Industry pays more but academic research is usually more exciting with more freedoms.

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