Duke-NUS - Admissions Blog

Tell us about your path to Duke-NUS. I graduated with a B.Sc in Neuroscience with Honors and a B.A. in Music, concentrating on flute performance from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, USA. During my undergraduate years, I was a member of Professor Kathleen Page’s lab where I studied the effects of altered melatonin levels on the expression of genes involved in the circadian rhythm. After Bucknell, I started my Masters in Global Health at Duke University, North Carolina, USA. For my thesis project, I went to Sri Lanka and spent some time here at Duke-NUS studying Sri Lanka’s dengue epidemics with Duane Gubler and Christopher Woods. After graduating from Duke, I came to Duke-NUS to enroll in the PhD program focusing on emerging infectious diseases. I am now a member of Wang Linfa and October Sessions’ laboratories focusing on pathogen detection from sequencing and serological platforms. What are some of your interests and hobbies? Outside of science, my passion is music. I enjoy freelancing on piano and flute or having jam sessions with friends. I also have a strong case of wanderlust and enjoy traveling around the SE Asia region when time allows.

Tell us about your path to Duke-NUS. I did my Bachelors in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. In my final year of Bachelors, I had the opportunity to participate in cancer related research. It was then that I had the dream of contributing to healthcare though research. I decided to stay on for 3 more years at NTU to do my PhD, working on micromachines and nanomedicines for cancer treatment in Prof Yong Ken-Tye’s group. Concurrently, I also had the opportunity to work as a researcher for the NTU x National Healthcare Group (NHG) collaboration project with Adj Prof Tan Cher Heng. During that time I had the privilege of working with many researchers as well as clinician scientists who shared the same dream as me. It was then that I had the aspiration to become a clinician scientist in order to care for patients as well as to have the ability to do research which can directly contribute to taking better care of them in the future. What are some of your interests and hobbies?

Tell us about your path to Duke-NUS. Before coming to Duke-NUS, I did my undergraduate studies in NUS and majored in Pharmacy. During my third year of studies, I did a 6-week hospital attachment and that experience shifted my sights to a possible medical career. After I graduated, I trained as a pre-registration pharmacist in National University Hospital (NUH) for 9 months and subsequently took some time off to develop my sporting interests before starting in Duke-NUS.

Tell us about your path to Duke-NUS. Prior to entering Duke-NUS, I studied in NUS. There, I majored in Chemistry and minored in Life Science and Forensic Science. These subjects allowed me to be exposed to a wide variety of medical-related topics, from Biochemistry to Forensic Medicine. That got me interested in Medicine. In my second year during my undergraduate studies, I enrolled in the Pre-Medical Track, a programme that is designed to expose students to the translation of scientific discoveries at the bench to changes in the healthcare system at the bedside. I went through a seminar-styled module, modelled after the TeamLEAD learning method that Duke-NUS adopts. It was through this programme that I had opportunities to volunteer at local health screening events with Duke-NUS medical students, interact with various Duke-NUS faculty members, shadow a medical oncologist in the National Cancer Centre, and even go on a Student’s Exchange Programme in Duke University in Durham, North Carolina! Eventually, these opportunities strengthened my interest in Medicine and I decided to apply to Duke-NUS during the end of undergraduate third year. I have never wavered in my decision since.

Tell us about your path to Duke-NUS. I studied at the University of Edinburgh for my undergraduate degree (in Medical Sciences) and graduated in the summer of 2016, a few weeks later I started my term in Duke-NUS! So what got you interested in Medicine? I was a part of St John Ambulance when I was in secondary school, where I not only learnt some medical knowledge but also the value of service. I realised I was super excited learning about the human body/medical conditions and I relished every opportunity given to me to serve as a First Aider. I knew then that I wanted to bring this one step further to pursue Medicine. So how did you find out about Duke-NUS?

The most important question Why do you want to be a doctor? Think about that question really hard because it’s going to come up for the rest of your life. It’s going to be on your application essays to medical school, on your interviews, on your dinner table with your parents; it’s going to be a question that you’re asked for the rest of your life from the moment you decide to enter medical school or even do an undergraduate pre-medical degree, as I did. There is no one answer to this question and through the years, my answer changed drastically. I knew from the age of seven that I wanted to be a doctor and most of my life has been shaped by that decision. But it wasn’t until university that I finally figured out the true reason why I wanted to be a doctor. I was once a sixteen-year-old college freshman, with a chip on my shoulder. I graduated as valedictorian of my class and I got into the Ateneo de Manila University (which was at the time the leading university in the Philippines). Life could not get any better for an arrogant teenager who had never tasted failure. I was determined to groom myself into someone that medical schools could not refuse. In my freshman year, I researched graduate medical schools, learnt what they looked out for in applications, and talked to seniors. I found three key criteria: academics, shadowing experiences and volunteer work. From there, I began on ticking the boxes on my CV. I made it to the Dean’s List every semester so I could get a Latin Honor when I graduated and began to email doctors and health care professionals to ask if I could shadow them. However, the most difficult part for me was the third component, volunteering.

Research in the Duke-NUS MD Programme: I am Xue Ling, a born-and-bred Singaporean who did my undergraduate studies in Molecular Cell Biology and Economics at UC Berkeley. My four years in Berkeley were a huge eye-opener; it first exposed me to world-class research and passionate scientists and professors who were both knowledgeable in their fields, and dedicated to teaching. Fast forward to today, I am now a final year Duke-NUS student who just completed my research project on ultrasonography of the trigger finger. As part of the Duke-NUS curriculum, our third year of medical school comprises 9 months of research that concludes with a thesis submission. These 9 months enable us to delve further into a scientific field we are interested in, and equip us with valuable skills for future research undertakings as doctors. Choosing a research topic: Most of my classmates and I chose research areas that were related to a specialty we were interested in. We also asked our seniors for advice on mentors and research topics, which ranged from mouse model work on signaling pathways in pancreatic cancer, to a comparison of imaging modalities on renal perfusion. More about my research:

Tell us about your path to Duke-NUS I graduated from the University of New South Wales in 2014, with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology and Bachelor of Arts in Music. During my time as an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to work with the UNSW Regenerative Neuroscience Group and SMART Recovery Australia. These experiences gave an insight on how people carried out research to study how computer-based brain training might slow ageing, and also how available literature is used to improve current drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes. I worked with Professor Gavan McNally for my Honours thesis, studying the role of striatopallidal pathway in relapse and reacquisition of alcohol seeking. That was when I knew that I wanted to continue doing research in behavioural neuroscience. I continued working as an RA in Professor McNally’s lab for a while, until I left Sydney.

Academic performance and other accomplishments presented in your CV are not the only things that matter when applying to medical school. Recommendation letters are a crucial part of your application, especially if your referees know you well professionally and are able to vouch for your character. Student A graduated with a BSc in Pharmacy from National University of Singapore before joining our MD Class of 2018. Student B graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry from Washington State University and an MSc in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University before joining our MD Class of 2017. What makes a good recommendation letter?

Tell us about your path to Duke-NUS. I graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Medical Microbiology and Immunology in 2011. While I was in UW-Madison, I spent 2.5 years in the lab of Professor Shannon Kenney, an Infectious Diseases doctor who also has a laboratory working on lytic reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus in associated malignancies. After graduation, I returned to Singapore and worked as a Research Officer in Singapore Immunology Network under Dr. Katja Fink, looking at B cell development and also the role of natural killer cells in Dengue virus infection. Inspired by clinician-scientists like Prof. Kenney, I applied to the MD-PhD program at Duke-NUS and joined the school in 2012. How did you come to know about Duke-NUS and what made you apply?