February 2012

Our 2nd Year students Vincent, Misa and Khanh taking some time out for a candid shot during their ward rounds
Photo by Kenneth Goh
Read more about the 2nd Year Curriculum here.

Contributed by Lek Sze Min, Class of 2015

1. Remember to sleep
2. Remember to have a life outside of school
3. Remember that P=MD

About Asst. Prof Zhang’s work at Duke-NUS:
Our work is to understand the basic science underlying psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia and ADHD.  We use transgenic animal mouse models that recapitulate certain psychiatric symptoms, and study mouse behaviors using various drugs.  We also work with clinicians and study genetic mutations in psychiatric patients.  Our goal is to develop novel treatment and diagnostic tools for the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Q: People say that going into the research field takes a lot of passion, determination and guts.  What motivated and drove you to go into the field of Neuroscience Research?
A: From the start, I studied biochemistry and it was the first time I saw a set of pipettes ranging from 10 to 1000 µl . My mentor not only taught me the “magic” of biology, but he played an instrumental role in helping me adapt well to the lifestyle and culture ‐ I even received my first driver’s license in Indiana. After I moved to the University of Wisconsin‐Madison, my curiosity in biology led me to the fundamentals of neuroscience. In my spare time, my wife and I traveled to various places to explore the vast land. Thanks to the rich soil of Midwest, I also became a part‐time farmer from April to November when the land was not frozen. I rented a piece of land from the university and learned to grow tomatoes, green peppers, spinaches, squashes, cucumbers and lettuces. In 2002, I became the first in my family to receive a Ph.D. degree. In my work at Duke University as a post‐doc, my research shifted towards psychiatric diseases, an area which affected tens of millions of people with enormous social and economical impact. It all started when I accidentally mixed samples from different strains of mice, obtaining results that indicated a tiny difference in a newly discovered gene. As such, my curiosity drove me to understand the potential consequences of such a tiny difference. Although several other groups have also noticed this tiny difference, all of them ignored it as an experimental error. However, we took advantage of this tiny difference and applied a unique way to prove the essential role of this newly discovered gene. What was even more fascinating and surprising was that the methodology I developed in this study happened to be the same model system used for my Ph.D. thesis.

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once said, “Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.”  I hope that my research will improve the lives of many people in the future. 

Q: What was the first piece of work that you presented and what was the experience at that time like?
A: I was at the Gordon Research Conference in 2000 presenting my on-going work.  A gentleman came by and asked me to describe my work to him. I spent about 15 minutes talking about my work while he took down notes, asked me a few questions and gave several suggestions.  It was only after a while that I paid attention to his name tag and realized that he was Erwin Neher, the 1991 Nobel laureate.  We then exchanged our email addresses and corresponded regularly. Neher always gave me his support in my work which then became the foundation of my PhD thesis.

Q: Do you think there is any difference being a student today compared to being a student in your time?
A: When I was an undergraduate student in China, computers were rare to find.  As the years progressed to the time I became a graduate student, the internet and the concept of emailing were at their early stages.  At that time, we also relied heavily on printed materials and went to libraries very often.  Nowadays, you can find almost everything by a single click online.  However, this has created another problem---there is just too much information.  Students need to find out the right information more efficiently.  In addition, there are more collaborations among the institute and even globally.

Q: You have lived in many cities. What has each city thought you so far?
A: I grew up in Shanghai, and rarely had a chance to travel outside of the city when I lived there.  I went to the US and lived mainly in rural areas and small cities.  Although I visited big cities from time to time, I also got to know the life in small towns.  I would never have had such an experience if I stayed on in Shanghai. 
Nevertheless, Shanghai is a city that I will always love to go back to visit.  I have lived in three different cities in the US for the past 12 years.  These were the places that allowed me to experience a whole new world and fulfill my ambition.  Living in Singapore now, I find that it is very easy for me to adjust to my life here as there is an excellent integration of cultures from the East and the West, which I have experienced before.  But most importantly, this is a place for the development of my career towards the future.

Q: What’s next for you?
A: I enjoy what I do in my research and want to extend my expertise into more areas of human diseases.  But in the mean time, I am interested in education and to nurture passion in science for the younger generation.

The Duke-NUS Wall is constructed with the original Duke Stone, all the way from Durham, North Carolina, and is situated at the entrance of our campus.
Photo by: Kenneth Goh

A Collaboration Cast in Stone
Reproduced from The Official Opening Brochure . Written by Wee Lai Meng, Duke-NUS Senior Communications Manager.

For a young school, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical is stepped in rich history. A distinctive stone wall marks the entrance to the Duke-NUS campus along College Road. The uniquely colored stone, a gift from Duke University, was quarried from the hills of Hillsborough in North Carolina and made its journey out of the USA to Singapore. Called “bluestone” by quarrymen, the stone has seven primary colors and seventeen different shades of color. Of volcanic origin, it is believed to be at least 400 million years old.

In the spring of 1925, the bluestone was inconspicuous, little known and not even then actively quarried. Senior Duke officials brought this stone to the attention of James B Duke who founded Duke University. He was at that time intensely involved in the development and construction of its West Campus and wanted a stone that had a strong character, that would make distinctive and lasting buildings while yet being affordable.

For over seven decades, Duke University has benefited from the attractive union of a unique local stone and an ancient architectural style. The bluestone, so eponymous with Duke University, is now popularly known as the “Duke Stone”. Buildings on Duke’s massive campus in Durham feature the stone widely till this day.

As a fitting tribute to Duke’s first strategic collaboration with Singapore and NUS, the Duke Stone takes pride of place, welcoming visitors, faculty, staff and students from near and far into our “home”. It appropriately symbolizes the collaboration as a hallmark and pioneering effort that is, literally, cast in stone.