My PhD graduation ceremony was last week, and seeing as it was my last (??) time graduating, it seemed only fitting to do a callback to my first graduation when I was 5 and just a naive and unaware baby graduating kindergarten in 2004. Thanks @sshuck55 for everything! #PhDone 👨🏻‍🎓

After 3 months solo in a new country, it was so great to catch up with soon-to-be double doctor @erdem_nes 👩🏻‍⚕️ of House Erdem, the Mother of EVs 🫧 and Dragons 🐉, the Khaleesi of Pancreatic Ductal Tissue 🧫, who was in town for #ISEV2024 😎🤩

Less than 12 hours after landing back in Melbourne from Sydney... performed my first mouse islet transplantation surgery 🐁! So great to work with such excellent (and patient) teachers guiding me through these technical and delicate procedures (ft my celebratory ice cream 🍦)

Last week I visited Sydney for the first time for my first conference in the land down under at the Australian Islet Study Group @WestmeadInst It was great to meet other researchers in the field and learn about their work🧑🏻‍🔬 And of course had to get the obligatory tourist shots 📸

After doing some traveling post-defence, I’m excited to have settled in the incomparable Melbourne, Australia to continue my training in T1D immunology @SVIResearch with Drs. Helen Thomas and Tom Kay 🦘🐨🇦🇺🌏 Haven’t had any run-ins with giant spiders yet.. fingers crossed 😭🫠🤭

It was so bittersweet to clean out my desk and lab bench last week 🥹🥲 I spent many early mornings and late nights here having breakthroughs and breakdowns 🫠 Thanks @sshuck55 lab for being my lab home and family for the last few years!! 👋🏻

The second arm of my thesis has been published! 😃🙌 We previously reported nucleoside MG-adducts predict DKD ~16 yrs pre-diagnosis. Here, we find that MG-adducts drive vascular dysfunction, a precursor to many complications, by activating RAGE @sshuck55 🔗doi.org/10.3390/antiox130100…

I successfully defended my thesis yesterday!😎Huge thanks to my PI @sshuck55 + committee @ZhenBoumanChen @jstarklab @TamaeLab @RamaRNatarajan Dr Termini + amazing friends for their support🥹🫶🏻@EsparzaDiana1 @erdem_nes @CisnerosMetztli @emukhaleva @HannahTrost1 Onward and upward🙌🏻

So chuffed that the first arm of my thesis work is finally out in the world, and right around World Diabetes Day too 🥹🙌🏻 Thank you to everyone that made this study possible 🙏🏻 @sshuck55 @RamaRNatarajan doi.org/10.2337/db23-0277

Back to back from Vancouver 🇨🇦 for #Islets2023 to San Diego 🇺🇸 for another exciting conference at #ADA2023 😁

Excited to be in Vancouver for @IsletsInVan2023 🇨🇦🔬I spent the day exploring Richmond (the food was so good, it’s like I never left HK😍🇭🇰) and UBC’s campus. I took the vid of the beach at 9:30pm, the views were gorgeous.. but me walking back up all those stairs? not so much 🤭

Deadline after deadline after deadline after deadline 🫠🙈📝👨🏻‍💻 @science_kassy @sshuck55

Had a great week w/ my lab (@sshuck55 @science_kassy) @WRISGMeeting and Levine-Riggs Symposium😍 I learned a lot + met a lot of cool ppl w/ even cooler research🤩 So nice to put faces to names and finally having an in-person conference after so long. Peep my obligatory jar haul🤪