During the conference, especially during my poster session, I had the chance to talk to all kinds of people and learn from them by introducing each other’s research projects. The most exciting part was when I talked to a person working on genes related to cancer. With his profound knowledge on GSTM genes, we had a long discussion on how this unique genotype takes place in certain people’s genomes and how it may influence their ability to resist the development of cancer. Since my study was mostly focused on lipid metabolism, this is something I have never thought about. I also got the chance to talk to a graduate student studying binding partners of myosin 19, because she has found something that is closely related to my thesis project.

Besides talking to scientists, I also visited companies and stores and have gained a lot of gifts. Besides free T-shirts, coloring books, calendars, notebooks, we also got free DNA ladders, DNA polymerase and free antibodies! I also found a software named BioRender, which can be very useful for making figures for presentation and papers. I am sure those things will greatly aid for my thesis project, which is one of the most important tasks I need to accomplish next semester. I greatly appreciate the chance to attend this conference, and wish to have the chance to go there more often in the foreseeable future. Thanks to our lovely college, the SHIP grant, and Dr. Walsh, and everyone who made this possible.