#PhDlife

I decided for the QBS program, or Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, for my PhD studies. It is a program focused on working with large amounts of data in biomedicine. I was aware that statistics and correct information analysis were not the strongest part of my research, and so I’m looking forward to being able to do all of that on my own. As any PhD student, I was given a desk in the students’ office and besides lab work, I spend my time attending lectures and doing homework. Last semester, I took Statistics and Ethics, this term it is Biostatistics and Epidemiology. The most difficult course so far has been Biostats, where I’ve been learning the basics of “programming” in R to work with my data. It is, however, nothing compared to the busy schedule at medical school: I am much more in charge of managing my own time, I am more free to do my own activities, and I definitely feel much less stress. The student life is completely different – because every day is not lined up for us, there’s much more space for my own planning. Deadlines are much fewer, but they come much more unexpected when they do and they require a lot more preparation, and so if one doesn’t put up constant work performance, there is so much more to catch up on last minute. Compared to never-ending stress of med school, PhD life is much more based on long-term work and personal responsibility. In laboratory, as always, I focus on neuroscience research. As a student of a dual program combining medicine and research, I was looking for a lab where I could work on a translational study, containing elements of both the clinical and scientific worlds. I found exactly that in the lab of Dr. Jane Hill at Thayer School of Engineering: this lab works on developing diagnoses of various diseases from breath and specifically my study is looking into detection of concussions. Symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury are mostly subjective, and that is why they often go undetected. In sports, but also on the battlefield for example, this represents a significant problem, as repeated blows into head without taking a recovery for several weeks can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a form of an early dementia often seen in football players. As a part of my project, I work with undergraduates and together, we study athletes in football, rugby, ice and field hockey at Dartmouth – the sports with the highest rates of concussions. If we are successful in identifying compounds specific for breath of athletes with this type of injury, we would be able to develop a very efficient and non-invasive method of diagnosis, which could aid in treatment and prevention of long-term consequences. I am, therefore, really excited to work on a project of such importance and I’m really curious if we eventually come up with anything interesting!