Rachel Pei She Loh
Nationality:
Malaysia
Faculty and Department:
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology
Year of Study:
4
Undergraduate University:
National University of Singapore
Why did you choose to do a PhD?
After completing degree in NUS, I did not carry on with PhD directly as some of my classmates did. Instead, I went on to work for clinical research. It was during the two years of working that I realized that my passion for science is in research and investigating on projects that interests me. I want a project for myself and I know one of the only ways is to do PhD.
Why did you choose to do graduate education at NUS? If you received offers from other universities, why did you pick NUS?
I studied in NUS and I am very familiar with NUS. I feel that the connection that I have in NUS has rooted me here. When I decided to apply for PhD, I applied to NUS and I told myself, ‘If NUS doesn’t want me, it will be a sign for me to go overseas.’ Thank goodness, it turned out well! Otherwise I wouldn’t have the chance to answer to this question.
How does graduate school compare to your undergraduate experience?
Curriculum: During the undergraduate studies, I was more concerned about getting a decent grades to graduate, and I chose most of the modules according to how easy or difficult to score. In graduate studies however, I decided to choose only modules that truly interest me, and sure I did and I enjoyed them every bits. Graduate modules are more engaging that those provided during undergraduate studies. My favorites are ‘Bio-ethnics and Bio-laws’ and ‘Bio-innovation and entrepreneurship’.
Activities: There are more opportunities in participating in executive committees for department- and school-wide events. I am honored to be part the exco of three symposium and a welcome party, as well as being the emcee for 3 events.
Briefly share about your research or thesis (i.e. dissertation topic for Masters by Coursework students).
Suicide gene therapy involves the delivery of cell suicide transgene into target cells inducing cell death. Spliceosome-mediated RNA trans-splicing represents a technology that allows endogenous labelling of target pre-mRNAs with an artificial trans-splicing RNA triggering the formation of chimeric RNAs and proteins. We combined these two technologies and developed a RNA trans-splicing-based Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk)/ganciclovir (GCV) suicide gene therapy approach that can be programmed to target any pre-mRNA disease biomarker. The amalgamation of both technologies provides a powerful tool for specific destruction of aberrant target cells upon activation of the pro-drug. As a medical target, we choose hepatocellular carcinoma but this therapeutic approach is not limited to cancer treatment and is also being explored for targeting of cells that are irreversibly transduced by integrating viruses. We have completed most of the in vitro experiment and we aim to move on to in vivo and clinical trial.
What impact do you hope to have with your research?
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the major type of liver cancer. The prognosis for non-resectionable liver cancer patient is poor and even after treating with first-line medication, Sorafenib, the life span only increased by 6 months. Due to the flexibilities of our technology, we can personalize the therapy according to the patient biomarker profile. We hope that with our technologies, we can treat and cure liver cancer.
If you have won any academic prize/competition or been invited to speak at an international conference—share what it is, its significance, and how you worked towards achieving it.
I have presented my work in poster at nine conferences and have spoke in one of the local conference. I was the runner up for 3 Minute Thesis Competition (Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Department of Biochemistry) and was nominated for Global Young Scientist Summit 2021. My motto is ‘work hard and play hard’. I work hard and I love to work. But I feel is lacking in many graduate students is the ability to network. Therefore to compensate and improve this skill, I tried my best to attend networking events at Innovfest, Women in Science, just to name a few.
Share something fun from your graduate journey at NUS.
One of my biggest joy is to attend overseas conference (who doesn’t like to getaway from research for a while?). I was very grateful to be given the chance to attend European Society Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT2021) at Barcelona. It was such an honor because when I was presenting at the conference, there were quite many interests in speaking to me for private funding and that’s when I realized that my work is highly commercial-able.
Apart from that, I was given the chance to make a vlog for NUSMed freshman welcome event. It was so fun running around the school, taking videos.
Briefly share a highlight from your graduate school journey.
I can never forget the time when we finally at the stage of in vivo study. We selected pig as our test model for transdermal nucleic acid delivery. For one whole month, I worked from 7:30 am to 12 am and I thought it was so tough and tiring. But when it was over and now that I have completed all the analysis, I am glad that I endured through it!
Share a challenge you faced in graduate school and how you overcame it.
Coming from Malaysia, English is never my first language. It is quite a big challenge to write in English professionally. Reading more articles and observe the grammar and vocab that they use helps. It is still a challenge but I am working on it.
Share something about campus life at NUS that new students would be interested to hear about.
There are many facilities available for NUS students! So don’t waste it. I enjoy using the gym and swimming pool at sport center. And playing badminton at utown badminton court.
Do you have any interesting personal stories to share? For example, about your journey to get into graduate school, personal hobbies/interests.
I want to be a zoologist or botanist since I was nine years old. Finally made it to PhD and submitting my thesis soon, it is a dream comes true!
What message would you like to give to students interested in graduate studies in NUS?
Work hard but play hard too. Don’t keep yourself within the small social circle, the world is bigger than that.