Postdoctoral fellow Yanan Ma talks about her inspiration to discover new things as a research scientist as MSK.
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My name is Yanan Ma. I'm a cell biologist at MSK.
My grandpa inspired me to science. When I was a child, he used to check my homework. That enlightened me. I felt so excited and curious for learning.
As a research scientist, I always wanted to discover new things and use new methods. When I discover something small, it will give me satisfaction that I can do a lot.
I use the lipid pathway to treat cancer, bacterial infection, and injury. We have discovered a specific lipid species that can regulate this process. And this lipid also has a very good potential to healing tumors.
Although this lipid has been discovered for almost 30 years, the enzyme that could produce it has not been discovered yet. So, the next goal for me is to discover the enzyme that could produce this lipid.
The Kravis WiSE fellowship not only supports me financially for two years, but gives me more resources and time to finish my current project.
At first, Marie-Josée Kravis emailed me. In the morning when I woke up, I saw the email. I was so excited and almost in tears. I'm so grateful to Marie-Josée to give me this opportunity.
I was so honored and excited that my work finally got recognized.
