A penfriend once asked me why I chose Pharmaceutical Engineering. I contemplated for a while and told him, ‘For a bad memory of taking big pills’’. Graduating from it, I still wish to produce ‘small and delicious pills’. But it will be realized in a scientific way, in a more abstract form. My pursuit of it will begin with the doctoral education.
My pharmaceutical research experience is mainly on two kinds of particles: nanospheres and polymeric micelles. The first one practically told me a lot about research work. Mistakes were unavoidable, but I learned from them and made improvement. This could be seen in the second one, my undergraduate thesis, including preparation of two kinds of paclitaxel polymeric micelles, optimizations, their physical and chemical characters, pharmacokinetics, and biodistributions. I did systemic bibliographical research, arranged my experiment efficiently, and thought up solutions for some critical problems on my own. More important is that my current interest arouses from them.
In the realm of pharmaceutics, my major interest focuses on drug-polymer delivery system. In a presentation class, I chose bioconjugates uniquely and referred to the largest number of reviews, articles, and books. Bioconjugates with small molecular drugs, proteins, and genes are my favorite. Another specific interest of mine is pharmacokinetics. I once worked as assistant of several pharmacokinetic objects in the Center for New Drug Evaluation of Shandong University. There I learned a lot about modeling, methodology and parameters of pharmacokinetics. Professional practice particularly bolstered my understanding of it.
Overburdened by a wide range of courses, I actually gained a priority to view things multi-angled. Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry were provided for only one semester in my school, but courses of Organic Reactions For Drug Synthetic, Medicinal Chemistry and Processes of Chemogalenic supplement Organic Chemistry basically and practically. Moreover, I once tutored three classmates to pass the Physical Chemistry exams.
Through class/lab work and programs, I gained various instrumental and technological experiences such as HPLC, GC, CE, TLC; UV/VIS/NIR; NMR; X-ray analysis; ZLS/DLS analysis; microscopy of SEM, TEM; PCR; extraction of proteins and nucleic acid drugs, analytical methods of proteins and compounds, etc. To better prepare for the doctoral program, I am reading books of Basic Cell Culture Protocols, Principles of Polymerization, and Genes.
I still remember, one muggy afternoon this summer, while my family all went to the yard, I stayed in a small room, without air-conditioner or fans, emerging in a book. My mother commented, ‘an ability of bearing’, and I said, ‘I just did not realize that, it attracted me.’ Graduate study might be boring and tough for an outsider, but there are my dream and interest, I will devote myself into it.