"I'm Wen Gu, and I'm a grad student at Dr. Christofk's Lab at UCLA.
I work on stem cell metabolism.
The research I've been working on in this area of medicine called Regenerative Medicine.
For example, when people get into a car accident, they might hurt their spinal cord and they
might lose their neural cells.
So, the work that I've been working on is trying to maximize the capacity of a group
of a cells called stem cells.
They have the ability to renew themselves.
If we can successfully culture those cells into functional neural cells, then they can
be used to replenish those cells from people involved in a car accident.
That is just one example, and it can be used for other diseases such as liver damage.
If we can't maximize the capacity of those stem cells, they can also be used to replenish
those liver cells.
I am from China.
I grew up in this small town called Sujo, which is located in Eastern China.
Neither of my parents are scientists.
My mother is a researcher in Russian literature, and my dad is a physician.
I'm a scientist because, growing up, I've always been interested in creative work.
I remember, when I was in high school, it was an exciting time for human genetics.
Speaker 2: We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire Human Genome.
Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map, ever produced by humankind.
Speaker 1: There was really a sense of excitement in the field, that a lot of biology can be
discovered in this area, and a lot of diseases can be studied and cured, from our new knowledge.
So, around that time, I got interested in science.
When I was a kid, I got an infection.
I was hospitalized, and as a curious kid, I was looking into literature, specifically,
to see if there was specific treatment for my specific type of infection.
What I found out was, there really wasn't any specific treatment to my disease.
I was fascinated by the possibility that I could work in this area, and maybe find out
some specific treatments for certain diseases.
Stem cells seem like an exciting alternative in this area.
I do a lot of tissue cultural work, because my work involves stem cells.
They can renew themselves, but at the same time, they also maintain the potential to
differentiate into any type of cells.
They are still far from clinics.
They are just not functional when we put them back into patients.
So, the work I'm doing is trying to study their metabolism.
Hopefully we can provide more tools to make them more functional.
I feel fortunate, in a very supportive lab.
Lab work can be very individual.
I can come in basically any time I want, but the benefit to working with someone else is
that I have input from other people, so we talk about our projects freely, on a daily
basis.
We touch base with our professor and also with each other.
It's a very collaborative, and it's very nice to get feedback from other people in the lab.
My hopes and dreams are to either have my work read in a textbook, or alternatively,
I hope my work can be used in the clinic.
Science and research is very challenging, but at the same time, you are taking the responsibility
to explore new frontiers in science, with the support from government, from philanthropy.
It's a very liberating experience.
I would highly encourage you to pursue a career in science, because it's very rewarding and
it can benefit patients along the road."