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Hope Leng, BS '21
Philosophy, STEM and the Genentech Outstanding Student Award
Philosophy, STEM and the Genentech Outstanding Student Award
Hope was a Philosophy major before transferring to the UCSD Bioengineering Program. She loves to read and dance, thinks that humanities and STEM go hand in hand, and loves bringing creativity from the humanities to the lab bench.
What are you most passionate about?
I am passionate about finding solutions. Instead of temporary treatments, I want to find long-lasting solutions for unmet needs through addressing root causes. I hope to reduce the costs and failure rates of drug discovery through developing more predictive stem cell-based models, such as organoids and organs-on-chips. Many injustices and imbalances in society could be mitigated through proper education, which is why I have been actively involved in educational outreach. I try to take personal actions that could make an impact for a healthier planet.
What is your field of interest in academics/research? How does that relate to the research you currently do?
After transferring to UCSD, I joined the Kwon Lab and began working with graduate student Julia Kudryashev on an activity-based nanosensor that responds to hyperactive biological activity in the brain after traumatic brain injury (TBI). My senior design project--to make a device that can be used as a point-of-care diagnostic for TBI in humans--was an extension of that research. I worked with a team of 3 other bioengineering students--Maria Sckaff, Nabaan A. Mir, and Max Pendleton--to build a computational model that will streamline the optimization of such a device, hopefully to decrease costs by narrowing down the range of parameters that make the device more sensitive for detecting biomarkers. Throughout my undergraduate research experience, a common theme emerged: experiments are often limited by the models used. Although the activity-based nanosensor was validated in mouse models, it is still a long way from clinical trials due to the inherent species differences in mice versus humans. Similarly, the computational model we are building is limited by mathematical assumptions. The issue is that brain tissue is largely inaccessible, limiting our fundamental understanding of neural mechanisms and thus our ability to develop effective theranostics for neural diseases. Organoids and organs-on-chips are a promising method for addressing those limitations by providing a physiologically relevant 3D platform derived from stem cells.
What does your research experience at UCSD and in industry mean to you?
Both my research experience at UCSD and in industry have helped me develop the intuition to solve real-world problems. Critical thinking – thinking like both a scientist and an engineer – has been an invaluable part of my training at UCSD and industry. Working in almost every part of the drug discovery pipeline, I have found that every step is closely interconnected to one another; I was able to connect the dots between basic, translational, and preclinical research. Communication has been a key skill that I have focused on developing to improve translation of basic research to preclinical settings. Working with diverse teams in the academic, health care, and industrial settings, I am confident that we can address any scientific problem to address unmet needs in our society.
How did winning the Genentech Outstanding Student Award inspire you?
I was one of those applicants that was unsure about applying as I wasn’t sure I was fully qualified. I transferred to UCSD in Fall 2018, and started working in the Kwon Lab in January 2019. When I applied for the 2019 Genentech Outstanding Student Award (OSA) in October, I had less than 6 months of full-time research experience. However, during the interview, I showed the interviewers that I was ready and eager to learn whatever I needed to make significant contributions during the summer internship. As a Genentech intern, I was exposed to the phenomenal capabilities of the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as the rate-limiting steps in drug discovery. Now, having a more complete picture of drug discovery gives me more motivation to bring life-saving theranostics to patients faster. I hope that my winning the OSA can inspire other students to take advantage of the breadth of research opportunities that UCSD presents. I am also happy to announce that this year’s OSA winner, Delina Kambo, is a fellow transfer student!
How do you balance your academics with your extracurriculars/research activities?
Probably the greatest takeaway from college is the ability to connect my academics with my extracurriculars and research. Participating in extracurriculars and research is an extension of what I learn during lecture, so all my activities support one another and are all conducive to my development as a scientist and an engineer. While chemistry, physics, biology and math allow me to design reproducible experiments, dance gives me the mental breaks for more clarity on the bench. Mental health is extremely important, and conducting research on the brain has only made me a stronger proponent for mental health!
How do you hope to contribute to your field or the world through your life?
One of my biggest goals in pursuing organ engineering to reduce reliance on animal-based assays. With more predictive, cell-based models for drug screening, we can reduce the cost of drug discovery and deliver more effective drugs to the patient population. As academic researchers, we need to work closely with industry to improve translation of improved drug screening methods for clinical applications. By using cells taken from the patient, we are very close to making personalized medicine a reality. As a professor in the future, I want to inspire my students to continue seeking solutions rather than just treatments.
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