[:en]2017: HeeYung Woo[:]

[:en]HeeYung Woo
Hometown in Japan: Tokyo
University in Japan: Kyushu University
Major & School Year: Bioresource & Bioenvironment, B3
Host Advisor: Prof. Natasha Kirienko, Dept. of Biosciences
Host Lab: Kirienko Lab

Why TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University?

While I had lived in the US for a year and a half, since I was so young, I hardly remember my life there. Ever since I left America in 2000, I had always wanted to go back to the States to study. It wasn’t until I found this TOMODACHI STEM program that I was able to get a chance to go back and make new memories of America that I will not forget so easily this time.

Academically speaking, I wish to experience the research environment in the US, as I am interested in continuing my studies in the biology related field. I wish to conduct an experiment in a biochemistry laboratory, one of the fields offered by TOMODACHI, so that I will be knowledgeable when choosing the course of my own research after returning to Japan. This program happens to take place right during the most crucial period in my undergraduate studies as I will officially join a research laboratory and start my own research this coming spring. I believe that this program will greatly influence my choices in my academic career.

Goals

  • To learn to ask good questions
  • Try to join as much university activities as I can
  • Decide on the direction of research I wish to pursue

Excerpts from HeeYung’s Weekly Reports

Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.

Everything is bigger in Texas – including the cake! ~ HeeYung Woo, 2017 TOMODACHI STEM

On my way to the States, I had very mixed feelings. I was very excited to be back in the States after 3 years, but also very nervous at the same time because I knew that I would not necessarily be traveling but I will actually be studying and doing research in the States. When I arrived, I was surprised by the warm gust of air that welcomed me, in contrast to the winter wind back in Japan. While I did expect the sizes of things to be bigger in the States, I soon realized what my friends back home meant when they said, everything is much bigger in Texas. I was appalled by the size of a regular fork, lab equipment, people, and most critically, serving sizes.

Turrell Skyspace at Rice University ~ HeeYung Woo, 2017 TOMODACHI STEM

The first few days of Orientation and introduction to Rice University and other aspects of life were in a way a bit overwhelming. The first day was about the significance of western education in terms of research by Prof. Kono, continuing on to the student aspect of research life in the States by the Japanese student panel the next day. While the visit to Dow Chemicals was not part of an orientation, it involved many aspects of linking academic research and turning that experience into a career, and got me thinking about my future. Then, on Sunday, the panel discussion with professional women in Houston took me much deeper in thought about my future as a career woman. The program was very good and very helpful, but listening to all of their unique experiences got me thinking too far ahead of myself. Once I get back to Japan, I feel that I will need to take some time to think through the options that have opened before me.

Upcoming Rice Owls Baseball Games ~ HeeYung Woo, 2017 TOMODACHI STEM

The week ended with a visit to the 90 Second Thesis Competition at Rice University. The speakers presented very well, and all of the TOMODACHI participants returned home awestruck. Afterwards, many of us headed to the grocery next door to buy food and essentials for the coming 3 weeks. The next day, several of us including I, had to go to our labs. Others decided to go to the ballet and look around the city. After my research prep ended a little early, I decided to go to University of Houston, to cheer for a high school friend who was playing in a basketball tournament. It was great to see my classmate in several years as well as watch an American college ball game, which is very rare in Japan.

Question of the Week
One question I have about the US educational system is that it seems so ironic that it is so expensive for undergraduate students to get their degree, while graduate degree students seem to get by easier by getting a paid salary and or scholarships. Why is it that undergraduate schools are much more expensive than graduate schools?

  • The answer to this question depends on if you are pursuing a master’s or a PhD and which field you are studying in for graduate school. In science & engineering, if you are enrolled as a PhD student, you can generally be hired by a professor as a research assistant.  This means you will receive tuition remission and a stipend in exchange for working on their research projects (which also helps you advance towards the completion of your PhD).  It is a win-win for both sides.  What is important to know here though is that U.S. professors must write many research grant proposals to get enough funding to pay for their students.  Universities don’t provide the funding directly, it it is the responsibility of the professor to ‘bring in the money’ through external research grants to support their students.
  • But if you are just a master’s students, you often cannot be hired as a research assistant as professors prefer long-term students.  Instead, master’s students may be able to get teaching assistantships or other administrative assistantships through their university to offset the costs of their degree. Or they will pay on their own; usually with school loans.
  • Some science & engineering students in the U.S. will also work for a few years after graduating from their undergraduate degree and then go back to obtain a master’s degree after a few years work experience. In this case, sometimes employers will help pay a portion of their graduate study costs but this varies by company.
  • In other non-science or engineering fields, it is less common to be guaranteed funding as a PhD student.  This is because professors in these fields typically have smaller and fewer external grants to pay for students. Instead, students in these fields may be able to work full time and take classes at night or they may be able to get teaching assistantships or other administrative assistantships through their university.  But, most commonly, students in fields that don’t typically provide funding to graduate students must take out large amounts of school loans to pay for school. Indeed, most students pursuing business (MBA), Law (JD), or Medicine (MD) degrees fully fund their graduate education using loans.

Research Internship Update
 In preparation for my research at Rice University, I read over the two papers that my host professor suggested I read for reference after she chose a project and topic for me to work on while in Rice. However, on paper, it was difficult to grasp the overall idea of the experiment and communication by email had its limitations. When I arrived, I ended up asking so many questions to my mentor once I met her and started the experiment.

My advice for future Japanese students researching in the US, I would be to review more of their own research experience and being able to explain what they did in experiments in English. New protocols and new types of procedures in the US can be explained and most mentors are more than happy to answer your questions. But this can be hard if they don’t know how much you know about experiments, and how much technical experience you have. In addition, I would also highly advise Japanese student to practice asking questions especially about research. I realized that asking questions and letting yourself be heard is essential to survival in the U.S., and more importantly, in the research field. Not only does asking good questions show your intelligence, but also your curiosity and passion for the research, which is highly regarded in the western research field. Coming from a very passive Japanese society, it is very hard to think of questions on the spot especially when English is not our native tongue, therefore it will be very helpful to prepare questions in advance.

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Week 02: First Week at Research Host Lab

My laboratory mentors put me to work as soon as I arrived. There was a brief 5-minute orientation about some safety rules, which laboratory bench I would use, and where to throw away the garbage, and which sinks to use, etc. Afterwards, I had a about 10 minute discussion about what my research will be like, and got right to work picking worms. This seems to be the orientation of the Kirienko lab, which works mostly with the microorganism C. elegans. Because explaining why we work with worms is a long story, I will close it here, and continue with my cultural experience.

My mentor is a very cheerful and hardworking Indonesian graduate student. Despite being only in the lab for just under a year, her long experience in working with worms from before entering Rice university makes her a very reliable and experienced mentor that many undergraduate researchers look up to. I was also impressed at her audacity despite being Asian, to speak up for herself and keeping the wild members under her thumb like she owns the lab with her cheery and bubbly personality.

As for my English skills, I have grown up using English throughout grade school, so I didn’t encounter many language barriers except for the technical scientific terms. However, since I have only used English in an academic setting, I sometimes did run into walls at the grocery stores, or at cafes as I didn’t understand some of the culture-reliant vocabulary.

NASA ~ HeeYung Woo, 2017 TOMODACHI STEM

This week, the TOMODACHI group visited the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which was open until later on museum nights. The museum was very nice, there were many things to see and observe, and it was also nice to get a breather from being in laboratory buildings all day. On the weekend, we were able to go to NASA, and I was overwhelmed by the size of the center, as well as how real the application of research or innovations from science can be.

Research Internship Update
My project in general is to identify and see which genes sequences are significant in the activity of the immune system against bacterial pathogen. Out of 5 different sequences, 2 of them show possible active immune responses to the bacterial pathogen. In order to carry out this project, it is necessary to learn how to incubate and sterilize both the worms and bacteria safely so as to protect both researcher and live culture from contamination. In addition, learning to use safety equipment such as the biosafety cabinet, as well as the autoclave, centrifuge, etc. without getting injured is a must in the lab as all of the equipment is big, and could potentially injure someone. A basic understanding of the advantages of using worms is essential in designing the experiment, and deciding how to carry out the experiment and being able to make necessary changes to get the most ideal results.

The general time line for the project is as follows;

Day 1

  • Prepare bacteria E.coi strain OP50 aka worm food (containing different genes)

Day 2

  • Transfer bacteria and incubate
  • Prepare worm eggs for bacterial treatment

Day 3

  • Prep bacteria plates where worms will grow

Day 4

  • Counting worms
  • Preparing SK plates
  • Drop worms
  • Prepare bacterial pathogen and incubate

Day 5

  • Spread bacterial pathogen on plates,
  • Transfer Vector plates to incubator

Day 6

  • Transfer bacterial pathogen to secondary incubator

Day 7

  • Pick worms (transfer 60 worms to 18 SK plates)
  • Wash and transfer worms for machine sorting
  • Treat sorted worms with bacterial pathogen

After the first week, I will include additional slot for observation of SK plates everyday, and repeat for 3 weeks. Include slots for LK washing, staining, and imaging according to timepoint schedules.

Question of the Week: One question I have for Houston comes from the fact that I got all wet after I made sure that it was not raining or expected to rain. On my way from the grocery, the sprinklers soaked me from head to toe, and it was just after it rained the whole night before. Why is it that sprinklers are needed in Houston, which can be quite rainy?

Sarah’s Response: I grew up in Southern California as a child which was suffering from a very bad drought. Water conservation was taught in schools and there were even officers that drove around neighborhoods and would fine homes that ran sprinklers during the heat of the day (when the water would evaporate), had sprinkers that sprayed water on the driveway or sidewalk rather than the grass, or that watered after a rainstorm.  The fines for these citations were quite high and overall the cost of water was expensive in California.

Therefore, I was shocked when I moved to Minnesota in high school and learned that no one cared when you watered your lawn and that you could set your automatic sprinklers to the time you wanted and then forgot about it.  Water in that area of the country was plentiful and cheap so if the grass got watered again after it already rained it was no problem.  In Texas, even though we have been in a drought for many years, there is also a very relaxed attitude to water conversation. These regional differences are because the water companies in the have different sources of water depending on the region/city and can set different prices for water in different locations.  The best way to have people conserve water in the U.S. is to make it more expensive but, because historically water has been so cheap that it is almost free, Americans often complain very loudly and protest at any price increases.  But there are states like California, Arizona, Nevada, and others (largely in the West) where they must be stricter because, due to their geography and climate change, they simply don’t have enough water to waste.

However, the largest user of water in the U.S. is not private homes or businesses but agriculture.  Many people are surprised to learn that California grows much of the produce sold in the U.S., even water hungry crops like almonds, even though they have been in a horrible drought for almost 25 years.  The agricultural lobby in the U.S. is very strong and farmers and ranchers fight very hard to keep their historic ‘first-access rights’ to the water that does exist in their region.

You can consult Google-sensei to learn more about water conservation and water rights issues (particularly in the West).

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Week 03: Interview With a Female Researcher

Coming Soon!

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Week 04: Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan

Coming Soon!

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Final Research Poster Presentation

Coming Soon!

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Week 05: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour

Coming Soon!

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Final Report

Coming Soon!

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