After much consideration, I have decided to do 5+ weeks of elective of laboratory research. I know that many m4s have chosen to do a revision posting on either medicine or surgery as a form of early preparation for mbbs and r puzzled why I chose to do this elective. However, I feel that an elective is for u to explore areas which interest u or at least experience a field that U know U probably won't enter in future. Frankly speaking, I am a little bored about clinical medicine after 48 weeks of CM and regard this elective as a breath of fresh air.

I have almost zero experience on research work. So i guess i was rather apprehensive about doing this elective initially cos it's a totally different ball game. But I am starting to like lab research despite the tedious processes, the need for sterility, unpredictability nature, unease of not getting any concrete results. I have to attribute my good experience to my mentor, who has been patiently guiding me all along on the molecular techniques and making this transit a fun and interesting experience.

Lab work is also hazardous. EB, used to chelate DNA is a potential carcinogen. There's no way to avoid not using EB as it's bread and butter of DNA work. Of course, I am paranoid about EB, taking great care not to make big splashes... Besides lab work, I also get to see the workings of a microbiology lab. I did a gram stain under the supervision of Dr D. We learn about gram staining back in year 2 but I was unable to answer q posed by Dr D on the steps of gram-staining and dyes used... ha
It's considered to be basic microbiology which I have long returned to the lecturers after year 2.
But Finally seeing what I learnt b4 in action is great...

Overall, it has been a good experience so far and I hope that the coming weeks will be more exciting!