Profile
Li Xuan Sim
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About Me:
I live in London with my partner and I work in life science research. I came from South East Asia for my studies in 2020, and never left despite the cold 😉 I enjoy reading, painting, calligraphy when I’m free, and walking/hiking in the countryside when I can.
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I love reading, and anything artistic. I am trying to paint more this year so we shall see how that goes! I enjoy cooking too and believe that recipes should not always be followed.
I did not grew up in the UK so I am really enjoying the four seasons, especially when it’s autumn with the beautiful colours. I also dabble in photography and I have to say, taking photographs of the countryside in the UK is lovely.
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I’m a scientific officer investigating drug resistance to targeted cancer therapy in London. I grow 2D and 3D breast cancer cells, give them drugs and look at how they respond biologically.
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I am working in a cancer research institute in London. My lab works in translational molecular oncology, where we get work with clinicians in clinical trials and try to understand why some patients respond and others do not. My team is made up of clinicians, bioinformaticians, data scientist, and wet lab scientists.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up at around 8 and make myself a coffee. I’m not a morning person so I usually get out of the door around 9.30 am to get in at 10 am. I start with checking my emails briefly and replying to urgent ones. Then I do my experiments, depending on the day.
I have lunch with my colleagues at noon and if it’s a particularly busy day experiment wise, I just have a quick lunch by myself. After that is more experiments, or analysing data and planning more experiments. I try to get results/finish up experiments in the first half of the day and look at data for the rest of the day. Quite often I will discuss data with my colleagues or help them out with other experiments and tasks. I go home between 5-6 pm.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
My institute has outreach for students from various background and they participate in the annual Kensington Science Exhibition. They organise easy-to-access experiments and exhibitions to spark curiosity in our research.
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My Interview