Good day!
I am just wondering about the fact that I am now in the process of being a scientist. I'm doing a research. I'm doing cancer research. I'm working on the treatment of leukemia since leukemia is one of the common cancer in Malaysia, my beloved country. Leukemia has high incidence especially among children. Acute lymphocytic leukemia is the most common leukemia among Malaysian children. It happens rapidly and require immediate treatment. It will cause accumulation of non-functional blood cells in the blood circulatory system. Low count of normal white blood cells can cause weak immunity in a person's body. Low platelets count can lead to easy bleeding and bruising to the patient.
So, I'm doing the gene expression analysis on leukemia patients to find out the genes that are responsible in causing leukemia. Once the genes are identified, it will be targeted to be treated so that it won't cause leukemia. I will find the 'bad' genes in leukemia and 'kill' it off.
In order to achieve this objective, I have to understand the causes of leukemia. I have to learn and to investigate the molecular pathway that involve in leukemia which is caused by the gene expression.
However, I'm worried because it is not an easy task. There are so many genes in human body and every individual expresses genes differently to each other. But, it has been already found out that leukemic cells expressed genes uniquely compared to the normal cells and to other cancer cells. That's a relief for me. So, I really hope that I will be able to find that 'bad' genes in these 2 years of my Master study.
I have no experience in the method of this study which is by using microarray analysis. So far, I know the principle, but I'm still quite confuse with the data analysis. How am I going to interpret the data? Seriously, there are so many things to study. Hopefully, I will always be keen to study about this topic because it is very interesting. It is just a matter of time to get the understanding and the hidden knowledge about this research. Of course I have to be patient and focus on my study.
One more thing that is lingering in my mind is, now I'm a grown up. Apart of being a student, I also have other responsibility and that is for my family. Before this, I was also a student, but I'm younger, I am the child. But, in the future, I'm gonna have my own children. I will have a husband. Not to forget, my parents. I think that it is very challenging. But, that's life. Everybody at my age will face the same, whether they pursue their study or their career. Our responsibility becomes bigger. So do the challenges.
I pray that I will be able to do my best, to give my best to everyone and everything around me. I want a happy family, as well as a successful thesis. I want to be a successful scientist!
InsyaAllah....
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| A successful scientist.... InsyaAllah This pic is taken 4 years back if I'm not mistaken. Alhamdulilah, I'm still here... =) |
