Learning📚
Sunday, July 6
🏃🏻 Missed (3/6) | ★★★★☆
I cleaned the house thoroughly and sorted through all the photos I took during the trip to Petaluma. I also revised the manuscript, addressed all the suggestions, and sent it off. I’ve never been first author on a paper before, so I never imagined polishing a manuscript would be this hard. Still, I’m learning a lot💪, especially how to create figures that clearly convey exactly what we want readers to understand.
Monday, July 7
167.2 lbs (from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Done (1/6) | ★★★★
I had another Shokat lab group meeting today. The presenter, who is one of the six newest lab members, shared progress on the project she began during her rotation, which now seems likely to become her thesis. The idea has plenty of room for expansion, and I’m glad she’s found a clear direction. It also reminded me how much I want to lock in my own thesis project and move forward.
After the meeting, I caught up with another new graduate student who is also seeking a co-advisor. He’s figuring out how to frame a project that genuinely interests him yet still meets both PIs’ expectations. We talked about balancing an “ideal” project with something realistic; I’m sure he’ll find a satisfying direction, since he already knows his priorities and what he’s willing to compromise.
I grabbed a late lunch, then headed to the DeGrado lab for another subgroup meeting. There are five different subgroups, and each rotates every three weeks (A,B / C,D / E). It can feel demanding to attend every subgroup and full group meeting, but I am trying, because I believe unexpected insights often come from unfamiliar projects. I put together my notes after the meeting and wrapped up the day with a workout.
Tuesday, July 8
167.6 lbs (from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Done (2/6) | ★★★★
I spent today deepening my knowledge of the field that will help my thesis project get developed. I finally finished reading a DeGrado-lab paper that has significantly influenced the current design of small-molecule-binding proteins, and it felt great to grasp a new concept. It reminded me of a scene from The Unbearable Lightness of Being—that feeling of suddenly understanding a fragment of the world🥸, even though the contexts are entirely different.
The more I study this area, the more I realize that organizing the information I’m acquiring is far more important than memorizing every detail from the outset. What really matters is distilling that knowledge into a solid, well-structured reference I can draw on later.
I also got an Adobe Illustrator license, which should help me create more polished, visually appealing figures for my career. After a productive day, I headed home and was delighted to find a wedding invitation from a friend in Korea. I asked him to send a physical copy, and holding it made me surprisingly emotional. He’s getting married in late July, so I’m planning a trip to Korea to attend. The handwritten note inside the invitation was especially touching. I can’t wait to be there💍
Wednesday, July 9
166.8 lbs (from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Done (3/6) | ★★★★☆
We had a DeGrado-lab group meeting today, with a presentation by the Korean post-doc who has been generously teaching me the computational tools I need to launch my project. His talk was crystal-clear, and I ended up fielding several related questions, especially about binding isotherms, so it was so productive time.
Afterward, I grabbed poke for lunch at Gus’s (always reliable) and met with Bill to update him on my progress. His feedback and the confidence boost🙃 that came with it left me wanting to push ahead. Next, I helped with the quarterly lab clean-up in the Shokat lab. I love orderly workspaces; honestly, the lab’s commitment to cleanliness was one of the reasons I joined. Once we finished, I headed back to my desk in the DeGrado lab to study a bit more before hitting the gym.
Oh by the way, I finally uploaded a headshot to the DeGrado lab website. Finding a “professional” photo was harder than expected. I only had my pharmacy-school graduation picture😂, so I used a casual shot from my spring trip to New York. It reminded me that more than 95 percent of my photos are with family or friends; solo portraits are rare😗
Thursday, July 10
🏃🏻 Done (4/6) | ★★★★☆
I’ve been coughing on and off for almost five months, and I really don’t want to fly back to Korea in this condition. As a last attempt, I scheduled another visit with my primary-care physician. After about 45 minutes of questions (I asked a lot😜), the doctor prescribed an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and a short-acting β-agonist (SABA) inhaler to use as needed. I remembered that formoterol–ICS combinations are typically used for COPD and asthma, so I was a bit discouraged. Fortunately, the doctor wants me to try an antihistamine first, on top of the intranasal steroid spray and the H2-receptor blocker I’ve been using (I stopped the blocker four days ago without getting worse!). I picked up cetirizine and hope that alone will finally silence this lingering cough… I’m so tired of it.
On a brighter note, my new external monitor arrived. Because most of my work is computational now, the larger screen should spare my eyes from burning and drying out. I spent much of the afternoon installing an open-source tool that could advance my thesis work. To do that, I reviewed Docker and Apptainer concepts and successfully built the image, something I skipped last time when I set up AlphaFold3 on the Wynton cluster with a workaround. Troubleshooting step-by-step turned out to be surprisingly fun and instructive. After a good gym session and a quick dinner, I returned to the lab to keep working. Now that I have my own desk here, I no longer need to go to the Hub in the evenings🙂
Friday, July 11
🏃🏻 Done (5/6) | ★★★★☆
This morning, I met with a Shokat-lab post-doc who was my mentor during my winter rotation. He is wrapping up a project, and we agreed that I can help him by creating a supplementary computational figure that should strengthen the paper’s logical flow. At lunchtime, I caught up with friends from the CCB cohort and ate outside in the beautiful weather. One friend has struggled to obtain a proper student visa. She was admitted to the program but could enter San Francisco only on a temporary travel visa… so she is now considering other universities🥲 as a backup. I hope her unfair situation is resolved soon and that we’ll see her back in SF as a graduate student.
Back in the lab, I continued studying and asking questions on several topics. In the evening, I went to the gym with a friend and then had Korean food—soft-tofu stew and seafood fried rice at Ollei (2127 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94109), the restaurant where we ate delicious Korean food after voting in the presidential election. It was delicious once again! If you’re in San Francisco, I highly recommend this place, along with Daeho Kalbijim & Beef Soup and Moo Bong Ri for excellent Korean meals.
Saturday, July 12
168.8 lbs (from 162.6 lbs on Dec 28) | 🏃🏻 Rest (5/6) | ★★★★☆
This year’s KOLIS Life-Science Conference was held in UCSF’s Genentech Hall. I registered months ago, but after reviewing the agenda, I realized most sessions focused on neuroscience and clinical research, areas quite distant from my own chemical-biology interests. So I attended only the morning talks, stayed through lunch, and then headed to the library for the study. Lunch was 찜닭 (braised chicken). It wasn’t exactly like the version in Korea, but it was nice to taste it again after so long in the U.S.
At the library, I (formally) started drafting my thesis proposal. It already feels like an endless task, but I need a solid draft before I fly to Korea so my PIs can give feedback on the written format. After a productive focus session, a friend and I stopped by the nearby Trader Joe’s for groceries and decided to cook dinner together. Our menu: steak, Trader Joe’s new spicy bibim-noodles, and \açaí bowls. Surprisingly delicious…! While eating, we finally watched K-pop Demon Hunters. Someone told me it was a bit childish, but I really enjoyed it, maybe because I love the music, especially the layered vocals in the final act…(your idol🙌)
Btw, if you’re looking for a Webtoon, I recommend the Naver Webtoon “육아일기” (Parenting Diary). The baby, Hami, is irresistibly cute, and the series balances the realistic challenges of parenting with the joy it brings. It never fails to make me smile.
