From 2023 to 2024

Skills Learned

• Immunofluorescence (I can get better images)
• Base R (At least I can do some mass spec analysis)
• TypeScript (This website is built with TypeScript)
• Next.js (This website is built with Next.js)
• Tailwind CSS (This website is built with Tailwind CSS)
• Sanity (The CMS for this website is handled by Sanity)
• More advanced Python

Publications

I have 2 more papers published in the past year as co-author.

• Related to Depression: Serum amyloid P component (SAP) modulates antidepressant effects through promoting membrane insertion of the serotonin transporter.
• Related to Multiple Sclerosis: Small-molecule targeting AMPA-mediated excitotoxicity has therapeutic effects in mouse models for multiple sclerosis.

About this Website

Initally, I used WordPress as my CMS and frontend. However, it is not the latest technologies. I then decided to reconstruct my site by Next.js and use Sanity to handle all data. This structure is known as Jamstack.

It tooks me about 2 weeks to start from scratch since I have no prior experience with web development. Finally, it is online now and the website is fully responsive and loads faster than previous WordPress site.

Upload My Class Recordings

Since my first year of graduate school which can be dated back to the year 2016, I started to conduct teaching sessions for Chinese international students. I have tutored several courses offered by the University of Toronto (UofT) ranging from chemistry to physiology.

At the beginning of 2022, I didn't have enough time to continue my tutor sessions but I still believe some students require some help. Hence, I decided to gradually upload my previous recordings to public video platforms. I have done this on two websites: YouTube and Bilibili. You may check the teaching page for further information.

So far, I only have 80 subscribers to my YouTube channel. However, I do have more than 1.3K followers for my Bilibili channel, which is a surprise for me. I keep tracking the number of subscribers in the front page, and I hope to see some increase in the next year.

Student Achievements

Over the last year, I mainly helped 2 students with their graduate school applications, and one of them is my girlfriend.

She got offers for an MSc in physiology and an MSc in molecular genetics at the UofT, and finally, she decided to go to the Medical Genomics program at the molecular genetics. (She doesn't like doing research experiments.)

Another student is from Shanghai, China, who had a very solid background in genetics. She got a few direct PhD offers from several US universities and one from molecular genetics at the U of T. She was excellent in fundamental research and I truly believe she can do really well in her PhD study.

Trips

Back to China

I had a pleasant time in China with my girlfriend. If you guys visit Beijing sometime, you must try the Beijing Duck at Shengyongxing Roasted Duck Restaurant.

Transit in Dubai

The flight ticket was ridiculously expensive during summer because the flights between China and Canada were still very few. The one-way ticket from Beijing to Toronto (Transit in Dubai) was CNY 18,500 which is about CAD $3,000.

The total transit time in Dubai was about 12 hours. Luckily, Emirates offered free hotel, but the foods there were not very good. In Dubai, I went to the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world. The highest level that a tourist can go is Level 154 which is a lounge. However, you need to pay 769 AED. At Level 154, they offer you with an alcohol drink and some snacks.

Well, that's probably all I have for the last year.

Future Direction

The most important thing would be getting my PhD degree. Other than this, I will continue to learn more new stuff.

I think I would continue to experiment with this site as I like to try new technologies and I like to have everything in my possession up-to-date.