The endless opportunities in the USA have drawn numerous international students to its realm of scientific research, one of them being my mentor YingYu Lin.
YingYu was born in Taiwan; her older sister and she would love to walk around Taiwan and eat in multiple restaurants. YingYu’s favorite meal is Stinky Tofu (doesn’t sound appetizing but she lovesss it). When the time came for undergraduate school, she attended Taipei Medical University where college was very different than here in the US. She says that during her undergrad it was very chill and not super intense like how some of our classes can get. YingYu would hang out with her friends, watch movies (a proud Ravenclaw member in the magical world), and of course, eat Stinky Tofu. She discovered she truly wanted to be in the medical field when she entered her senior year of undergraduate and had to take a course where for six months she treated patients at the nearby hospital. She joined a cancer lab for about a year after where she went in knowing nothing but loved how everyone was open to teaching her everything. She loved the science, the chemistry, so to the US her next journey began: graduate school. At the University of Pittsburgh, she earned her master’s in Pharmaceutical Science but did not want to stop there; she yearned to learn more about the engineering of chemistry. Paving the path for a Ph.D., she entered Gerecht Lab at Johns Hopkins University where she currently is researching endothelial cells and pericytes. Her project revolves around the broken blood vessels caused by reactive oxygen species due to Diabetic Retinopathy. YingYu wants to provide a method to treat DR by reconstructing these vessels using stem cell differentiation to replace the dead endothelial cells with healthy ones. Seeing their relationship with pericytes, cells that lie right on top of endothelial cells, she works to discover how to build the functioning blood vessels to treat DR. After, hopefully, finding the solution and receiving her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering she aims to join the industry and use her skills to improve medicine either in the US for some time or back in Taiwan to be near her family (and Stinky Tofu). Additionally, visiting Finland and learning how to surf are top bucket list items that she would love to check off!
YingYu has been an amazing and inspiring mentor thus far and I have learned immensely from her not just about biomedical engineering but also about what my future could look like. I am delighted and happy to be working with her for at least 5 more weeks!
