Teresia Chen

MCB & Chemical Biology PhD Candidate @schepartzlab | @stanford alum (She/Her) Stay curious!

[NSF Center for Genetically Encoded Materials @cgem_cci]

✨ New from C-GEM on @biorxivpreprint
Monitoring monomer-specific acyl-tRNA levels in cells with PARTI

Congrats Meghan, @CarlySchissel, Izzy, Cameron, and @schepartzlab!
#NSFfunded #RNA
https://t.co/Dd0k1CVq4D

[Landry Lab @Landry_Lab]

Title says it all, with profs @KWhiteheadLab and @RLPlikesscience preprint: https://t.co/J4k2ZdMptG

[Andrew Akbashev @Andrew_Akbashev]

A common misconception:
‘To get a PhD, I need to be really smart.’

Nope. You just have to be genuinely curious.

I often hear students say they're afraid of a PhD because they feel 'not good enough' for it.

My experience is:

- You don’t need extraordinary skills to earn a PhD
- You don’t need to be a ‘walking encyclopedia’
- You don’t need to be a genius

❗ All you need is curiosity.

The curiosity that brings joy in exploring intricate technical details.

- Hard work is a by-product of curiosity.
- Exploration of literature is a by-product of curiosity.
- Your own vision for the field is also a by-product of curiosity!

The problem is that:

- There are advisors who likes ‘active doers', not ‘curious thinkers'
- There are bad & boring projects that misalign with natural curiosity
- There is a lack of mentorship that fails to nurture curiosity

Of course, all students are different:
Some PhD students are fast thinkers, others are fast learners or deep thinkers. Some require re-learning. Others need proper mentorship in their first year.

❗But there is NO fundamental flaws that should prevent 99% of students from getting a PhD.

PhD is just a degree.

You are ready for it if you feel curious.

[Costa Christopoulos @costhegreek]

Your thesis committee in the last year of your PhD:

[Christopher Barnes, Ph.D. @cobarnes27]

🚨🚨 New preprint alert from our lab led by the amazing @adonisrubio99 describing structural investigation and engineering of bispecific antibody constructs resilient to all SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern to date!!! 🙌🏾🔬❄️🦠

[Alanna Schepartz @AlannaSchepartz]

Four @schepartzlab members attend 2024 Peptides GRC...four win Best Poster prizes!  Congratulations to (left to right) Isaac Knudson, @NoahXHamlish, @MaddieZoltek, and @leahtangroe!

[Teresia Chen @teresiacchen]

Ft. @NoahXHamlish bench lol

[Teresia Chen @teresiacchen]

Woo - an excuse to use science image… Happy Valentine’s Day!

[Adonis Rubio @adonisrubio99]

Super excited to share my research at #BPS2024 and party it up with @BarnesLab1 @imzaria__ @_sheenavasquez

[Alanna Schepartz @AlannaSchepartz]

The @schepartzlab at @UCBerkeley in the @UCB_Chemistry needs a lab manager! The people are awesome, the science is fantastic (OK, I am very biased), and the sunshine simply cannot be beat. Please apply and/or share. Here is the link: https://t.co/S3pWfdJYI6

[Teresia Chen @teresiacchen]

@HaotianDu4 Congratulations @HaotianDu4 ! This is beautiful work, such a novel useful platform!

[Possu Huang Lab @PossuHuangLab]

Exciting new work from our lab describing a novel platform for MHC-II recognition, called TRACeR, that uses just a single loop! Congratulation to @HaotianDu4, @ljjchem, and the team

https://t.co/QJffVkGIIX

[Teresia Chen @teresiacchen]

@CajulaoJan Such a great read of vignettes ~

[Tatiana Prowell, MD @tmprowell]

In case you missed it: Women are less likely to be credited for their scientific contributions than men. It’s true across multiple fields & at all stages, with important repercussions for career progress. #WomenInSTEM #WomenInMedicine #MedTwitter

https://t.co/6LsW1sicNJ

[Cientifico Latino, Inc. @cientificolatin]

Out now in @CellCellPress!
https://t.co/alueorl2UL

Historically marginalized student representation drastically drops from undergrad to grad school.

Are underrepresented students unqualified? Or are grad school admissions unnecessarily confusing, costly, & gatekeeping?

1/🧵

[Teresia Chen @teresiacchen]

My friend: “Sorry for bothering you! You should go back to experimenting!!”
Me: “I’m not experimenting, just taking care of cells…I don’t want to abuse them and not care about them :)” yup.

[Teresia Chen @teresiacchen]

@MartinJrAlcaraz You’ll do amazing Martín!! I remember back in undergrad, you were super patient with me and explained concepts well from our premed classes lol

[Anna Karen Orta @annakarenorta]

We are absolutely thrilled to finally share our new structure from @clemonslab of escape mechanism of the smallest phages (φX174) by breaching the peptidoglycan layer, now out in Science! https://t.co/haFGabV5eE

🧵 In this thread, I'll give you a sneak peek of the YES complex👇🏼

[Gina El Nesr @ginaelnesr]

MLSB is back this year! Excited to be on the organizing team, and to meet everyone in December! Stay turned for the call for papers, coming soon 😄

[André K Isaacs @drdre4000]

@CarolynBertozzi got everyone singing and she brought the house down with some Britney Spears!