"Yeah so I'm Shaun Lim.
So I'm actually from Singapore and I'm a grad student at UCSF.
Our lab specializes in microfluidics.
Our using single cell approaches to look at how we can relate that to the bigger picture
at hand, like the bigger biology like how the human body functions, how the immune system
responds.
A lot of our work tends to center on fabricating devices.
So these devices are actually small microfluidic small channels.
And what they do is that they help us form droplets that help us to encase single cells
or reagents depending on what the experiment concerns.
Essentially I think I put in...
So in my lab, I just and at UCSF at general we are very collaborative so it's really cool
that you can just go over to a neighboring lab and talk to them and share ideas and...
I actually had a question for you.
How many droplets do you think we made for that?
I would say...
I think I really enjoy the journey, the intellectual assignment of discovery.
So I think that's really the enjoyable part of it, being able to problem solve and find
a solution for the problem which seems initially intractable but later on it gradually yields
clues as to how you might solve it.
And I guess the other half of it would be offers the greater hope to country, to a society
and to hopefully get something out that can impact human health or lives of people in
any way possible.
I come from Singapore so I did everything, elementary school, middle school and high
school over there.
When I was younger I was always interested in science.
I mean I was always playing about, with models of the solar system and things like that.
Are you parents interested in science or do you come from a science background at all?
I would say not at all so they are more interested in I guess their work doesn't really align
with their interests a lot so they do, they are interested in their own professional development
but not necessarily in science as a whole.
I think the potential right now is actually unrealized which is why this field is so exciting
because I think for many fields, they are very old.
And there is a lot, there has been studied but this field is pretty new I would say.
I think that's a lot of progress to be done, a lot of low hanging fruit that we can just
grab and get results for.
I think permanently you have be very curious about the world around you and you have to
be obsessed about some of the questions and I think that curiosity is the main ingredient
of, in very to be able to very delicately pursue some of the questions without giving
up.
Because it's all too easy to get discouraged when you don't succeed because it might be
days, months or even years before you see a positive result so I think it's just that
determination and curiosity which really drives you to answer those questions."