School of Biomedical Science The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

1. How is the new Postgraduate Student Association structured and what are the purposes of forming the Association?

The newly formed Postgraduate Student Association of the School of Biomedical Sciences (PSASBS) is actually the first of its kind at School/Departmental level. We are indeed making history at the University! All the postgraduate students from SBS are members of the Association, and eight of us were elected to form the Executive Committee of the PSASBS. The Executive Committee includes the Chairperson; Vice-Chairperson; Secretary; Financial Secretary; Public Relations; Internal Secretary; External Secretary; and General Secretary. We hope that this Student Association could bring every graduate student in our School together to help, to serve and to communicate.

2. Would you tell us something about your study life and what do you enjoy the most about it?

Currently, I'm a PhD student in the School of Biomedical Sciences, with research focuses on epigenetic studies, especially the function of microRNA. To be honest, life as a research student is tough, because most of the time it is struggling and frustrating. Nevertheless, it is still exciting and stimulating, especially when I finally overcome a problem after numerous trials and errors. My supervisor has always been of great help to me; whenever I encountered difficulties and felt confused, he could always provide meaningful recommendations.

3. Any planned activities to be organized by the Association and its Executive Committee in the coming academic year 2011-2012?

The Inauguration Ceremony of PSASBS was held by the School of Biomedical Sciences on 28 July 2011. To welcome those newly admitted postgraduate students of our School, an Orientation Ceremony was held on 5 August 2011. The Association will hold the most important annual event － SBS Postgraduate Research Day 2011 － for our students at the end of October 2011. We hope to conduct the project presentation competition for this year's Postgraduate Research Day in a more well-structured manner, so as to attract more students to join it. For the second semester of this academic year, we will organize some casual activities to bring our students together, for examples, outdoor barbecue, sports competitions, etc. In addition, we have designed a polo T-shirt for the Association. The T-shirts have been distributed to those newly admitted students, and they will be distributed to the rest of the student members in September.

Brief Biosketch of Miss Shen Gu

Miss Shen Gu is currently a PhD student of the School of Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on epigenetic studies, especially the function of microRNA. Miss Gu received her BSc degree in Biochemistry from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She has recently been elected as the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Postgraduate Student Association of the School of Biomedical Sciences.