Step by Step
Table of Contents
Sunday, April 6
166.6 lbs (Day 100, starting from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Done (6/6) | ★★★★
Started the day with a refreshing workout with a friend. The weather was so nice that we did various free-weight exercises on the rooftop outdoor space. It felt amazing. With the days getting warmer, it’s hard not to feel good. I’m genuinely looking forward to the season ahead😊
After coming back, I sent in my thoughts on the comments from the postdoc who’s been helping with the paper draft, then headed to the Hub to really dive into preparing for my journal club presentation.
Ugh… the preparation was so tough, Especially this one(Adipose tissue macrophage populations and inflammation are associated with systemic inflammation and insulin resistance in obesity), which is a cross-sectional study packed with data and correlation analyses. I seriously have no idea how I’m supposed to explain all this in just 20 minutes. There’s just way too much content. And to make it worse, I’m not even confident about which parts are the most important takeaways to emphasize.
The vocabulary is also unfamiliar, making it even more challenging. I’ve decided not to paste all the figures and rush through everything. Instead, I’ll focus on the key takeaways I personally find meaningful. Also, the paper itself is filled with flowery, bloated language… feels like they were just trying to stretch it out for the sake of volume sometimes haha… Not exactly my favorite style.
Monday, April 7
167.2 lbs (Day 101, starting from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Rest (0/6) | ★★★★
Outside of Work
I intentionally took a rest day from working out today—but now I’m wondering if I should’ve just gone. With my presentation on Wednesday, I probably won’t make it to the gym tomorrow, and Wednesday morning will be tough too… well, we’ll see how things go.
Starting today, the minicourse I’m taking has student presentations, and it’s definitely intense. Phones and laptops aren’t allowed during class (which I personally find reasonable, but it’s rare to see this actually enforced in the U.S.). Everyone is required to read the abstract beforehand and ask at least one question to the presenter. On top of that, the professor also critiques the format and delivery of each presentation—not just the content—which definitely adds to the pressure. The students who presented today did really well, so apparently, the bar’s been set pretty high… I’m a bit nervous about how things will go on Wednesday.
Morning class started earlier than usual at 9 AM instead of 10, because we had the Foundations in Ethical Research: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) session from 11:30 AM to 1 PM. Since I’m based at the Mission Bay campus, I joined via Zoom. Can’t believe it was the last lecture! After Friday’s discussion session, I’ll be officially done with that class 👋
Wrapped up my experiments by 6 PM, rushed home to shower and eat dinner, then headed to the Hub and worked on my presentation until just before midnight. Looks like tomorrow will be another late night of prep, no doubt.
Lab Work
Chemistry
- SJ-1-4 reaction, work-up
- Instead of using DIBAL-H, I reduced the ester further to alcohol using LiBH4, planning to oxidize it afterward to get the aldehyde.
- Thankfully, the TLC looks clean. Planning to check the NMR tomorrow.
- SJ-1-5 reaction, work-up
- Performed an alcohol-to-bromide transformation using PBr5 in chloroform. I was shocked by the intense smoke as soon as I opened the PBr5. It turns out it reacts with moisture in the air to release HBr gas. Super corrosive stuff😵
- The starting material isn’t dissolving well, which already gives me a bad feeling. The procedure is from a patent, which means it might not work. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to look into alternative methods. For now, I followed the protocol as written and set it for overnight recrystallization at –20oC.
Tuesday, April 8
167.0 lbs (Day 102, starting from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Missed (0/6) | ★★★☆
Outside of Work
Once again, I stayed up late working on my presentation, so I couldn’t make it to the gym… Trying not to stress too much about it and just think of it as giving myself a bit of a break.
This morning’s QBC Journal Club featured another one of our cohort presenting, just like last week. She did an extended rotation (summer and fall) in the same lab I did my second rotation in and presented an article closely tied to the lab’s core research topic. It was a classic small molecule discovery study, and her presentation was super clear—she really nailed the key points, which made it easy to follow! It really does feel like research topics that attract global attention come with very clear pros and cons.
I left work before 6 PM to prepare for tomorrow’s presentation. The weather has been amazing lately, and it’s still bright and sunny around this time, which feels so refreshing. Funny thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever given a presentation where I felt like, “Yeah, this is complete” ahead of time…🫠 The English script is one thing, but I always seem to find last-minute tweaks I want to make. Here’s hoping everything goes smoothly tomorrow.
Lab Work
Chemistry
- SJ-1-4, SJ-1-2-1 NMR check
- Turns out SJ-1-2-1 is actually Fmoc-OH, so choosing to switch the route using LiBH4 was definitely the right direction to go.
- As for SJ-1-4, the methyl ester peak is clearly gone, and the crude looks clean enough to proceed with the DMP oxidation.
- SJ-1-6 reaction
- Reaction was run from 0oC to room temp for 2 hours and starting material remained.
- Increased to room temp → starting material disappeared within 1 hour 30 minutes. Planning to purify tomorrow.
- SJ-1-5 work-up
- Filtered and checked both solid and filtrate by TLC. Although the starting material is gone, the spots aren’t clean. Might try checking the NMR in DMSO or D2O, considering bad solubility of the solid.
Wednesday, April 9
166.0 lbs (Day 103, starting from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Missed (0/6) | ★★★★☆
Outside of Work
I gave my presentation during the morning class today. It was supposed to be a tight schedule with four presenters in a two-hour block, but one person ended up not presenting, and thankfully, another classmate offered to switch, so I was able to go last. As I mentioned before, since it was a cross-sectional study, it was hard to present with a solid, clear narrative and explain the massive amount of data in a consistent flow. Even the professor acknowledged that it’s not the easiest type of study to present in a journal club format—makes sense, since it leans more toward clinical research. Still, I felt super relieved when it was finally over.
Right after class, I had to present again at our group meeting—yep, back-to-back presentations today🤣 Since my work is still mostly focused on chemistry for now and I’m making real-time decisions with input from my mentor, there weren’t any major issues. Like I said before, having weekly check-ins really helps keep things on track. Even if experiments fail, at least I know I’m heading in the right direction. Still… failed experiments are always rough.
After the group meeting, I met up in person with a fellow first-year Korean PhD student from the PSPG program to talk about calculating the pocket-ligand RMSD. In the end, we concluded that the issue came down to a unique characteristic of the ligand I’m working with, so I couldn’t directly use the source code my friend had used.
But! In a completely unexpected Eureka moment, an idea suddenly hit me right after our meeting and when I tested it… it worked!! After nearly a week of being stuck on this, I literally got chills when it finally came together. I manually matched the atom pairs for double check and, aside from one small improvement I noted, everything worked correctly—and that improvement is something I can totally automate going forward 🙂 Time to pick up the pace again this weekend.
Lab Work
Chemistry
- SJ-1-6 purification
Thursday, April 10
165.3 lbs (Day 104, starting from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Done (1/6) | ★★★★
Outside of Work
I woke up early today and, instead of hitting the gym, headed to UCSF Dental at the Parnassus campus. What happened was—two days ago, part of an inlay (or maybe a filling?) I had treated in Korea fell out. Since I won’t be going back to Korea for at least three more months, and the exposed area was left unprotected, I needed to get it checked urgently. I called yesterday, and they told me to come to the ER by 7:30 AM, so I took the shuttle over.
It was my first time seeing the Parnassus campus. It had Gotham City-like vibe with thick fog everywhere. This is the main campus for med students and, while there aren’t many CCB labs here, I’ve heard there are a lot of labs from other programs.
Once I got in and somehow managed the check-in process, two issues came up. First, my SSN had been entered incorrectly. I got my SSN in January, but apparently, when I visited a clinic before that for a checkup, something was messed up in the system. That caused a long delay. Second, I was told unexpectedly that due to spring break, the ER couldn’t take me in anymore. They had initially said they could accept up to 5 walk-ins in the morning, but apparently, it was changed to just 1. I ended up booking an initial appointment just in case, but since it was a week out, I decided to look for a local dentist.
I used Zocdoc, a “book a doctor near me” app, and searched under the school-provided Delta Dental PPO plan. I was lucky to find a dentist near Union Square who could see me at 11 AM. It was my first dental visit in the U.S., and here’s what I thought: the staff were super friendly (though the price… not so much), and they thoroughly explained the situation, treatment options, and expected results right on the spot, which felt reassuring. That said, in terms of equipment, I think Korea is better. They had a device that holds your mouth open by pressing down on your tongue. It seemed comfortable at first, but after keeping my mouth open like that for over 30 minutes, I felt sore like I’d gotten bruised🫤 I liked not having to consciously focus on breathing through my nose, but of course, no method is perfect. I’ll be going back next week for a general exam and to check the current filling!
After the whole stuff, I grabbed a quick bite at McDonald’s before heading to lab. One thing I love about U.S. McDonald’s is that you can even customize the salt level in your burger. It takes a bit longer, but you get a warm, fresh meal!
Back at the lab, I set up a reaction and since I couldn’t put it off any longer, tackled my tax return. UCSF offers a free program that helps with federal tax filing, but as a postdoc mentioned, it doesn’t cover state tax, so you end up finding another one to check. I just used Sprintax from the start since it handles both. Luckily, Fulbright provides a free Sprintax coupon each tax season, so I finished everything for free and sent the paperwork off via UPS.
Since I only got my SSN this year (2025), I didn’t have any taxable income for 2024. I only needed to file Form 8843. Turns out I also received a 1042-S from Chase in my mailbox, but since I technically had no income, it shouldn’t be an issue. The whole thing went quickly, but next year might be more complicated.
Since I expected to stay a bit late in the lab, I decided to grab a quick meal with a friend after dropping off my documents at UPS. The weather was beautiful, and the blooming flowers instantly lifted my mood. Like everyone, my friend has been going through some things too. Really hoping everything works out well for him. After work, I couldn’t skip again, so I hit the gym in the evening and, for the first time in a while, went to bed early.
Lab Work
Chemistry
- SJ-1-6 NMR
- IAlthough a sharp UV absorbance peak was observed during column and the TLC looked clean, the NMR revealed it wasn’t pure. Just push forward with the next step
- SJ-1-7 rxn o/n
- SJ-1-5 NMR
- The product turned out to be a mixture, so I’ll need to find an alternative synthetic route. Currently considering purchasing the HBr salt directly (which seems relatively inexpensive).
- Check the commercial availability of the other stereoisomer of the starting material.
Friday, April 11
167.4 lbs (Day 105, starting from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Done (2/6) | ★★★★
Outside of Work
One of the best things about going to the gym in the morning is starting the day under that fiery, beautiful sky. And once the workout’s over, a stunningly clear sky is there to greet me. onestly, it just puts me in such a good mood to kick off the day.
After finishing my morning class (can’t believe it’s already the 6th one and just one week left), I did some experiments before heading to the final RCR discussion session… and now it’s officially over!
I went back to the lab for a bit, then wrapped up around 7 PM, had dinner, and hung out for a bit at a pregame in the dorms before some friends went out to a bar. We played a little pool together, and although I used to play a lot of four-ball back in the day, it’s been so long that I’ve completely lost my sense of angle separation😆 Still, it was fun to play again after such a long time. When I got home, I was completely drained from everything that happened this week, so I just went straight to bed.
Lab Work
Chemistry
- SJ-1-7 purification, NMR
- It seems correct, but I’m not 100% sure. So I’ll rerun the NMR on Monday using a larger amount in CDCl3 and recover the sample afterward.
- The yield turned out to be much lower than expected (but similar to what my mentor got in a previous attempt). I might need to use up the rest of the starting material. For now, the priority is confirming that this key intermediate has been successfully synthesized.
Saturday, April 12
165.6 lbs (Day 106, starting from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Done (3/6) | ★★★★☆
As always, just like every weekend, I started the day by heading to the gym with a friend. I think I’ve talked about the weather at least 50 times on this blog… but honestly, it was that good again today, so we worked out on the rooftop. Absolutely perfect weather.
We even joked about how places with amazing weather often don’t have that “gritty” hustle energy. Our theory? In places with less-than-great weather, you don’t get that baseline joy from sunshine and blue skies. Therefore, people seek motivation and meaning from other aspects of life, which makes them work harder in general. Just a silly thought experiment, but maybe that’s why people end up moving to places with great weather after grinding it out somewhere less favorable 😎 Anyway, today’s weather was truly top-tier.
I considered joining friends for the cherry blossom festival, but I had three weeks of blog posts to catch up on, and I also need to reply to a project by the end of the weekend. So I stayed in and got to work. I did some meal prep, took care of house chores, and finally finished writing two blog posts I’d been putting off 😄 Felt super accomplished. Time to make tomorrow just as productive!
