August 3, 2020, by Lee Mei Kee
UNM BMS Alumni Testimonial: Muhammad Danish bin Badrul Hisham (2018)
Quoting the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards”, my experience throughout the three years of studying biomedical sciences at University of Nottingham Malaysia could only be understood retrospectively. If I am being honest, upon self-reflection as I type these words, can I finally beginning to connect the dots and see the relevance as to what I have studied and its intersection as to what I am currently doing.
I am currently a Masters candidate at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Malaya. The project that I am currently attached to is investigating the role of oxidised palm oil on cardiac metabolism. The intrinsic nature of my project requires my understanding of a few different fields such as physiology, pharmacology and biochemistry. Therefore, the training that I had underwent during my three-year stint as an undergraduate at UNM has massively helped me in ensuring I could undergo the transition into a postgraduate student smoothly. In hindsight, the modules that I had to took such as Physiology and Pharmacology, Molecular Basis of Medicine and Principles and Analysis of Gene Function have been instrumental as I wallowed in the life of a postgrad student. It has prepared me to understand scientific literature and communicate them to a wide range of audience, ranging from experts to the person next door.
As I am writing this whilst sipping on my cold can of Nescafe, waiting for the machine to measure the absorbance of my samples, I feel inclined to share a personal anecdote of a disastrous lab session that I had. Looking in hindsight, it’s easy to chuckle in bemusement as I remembered how I clumsily spilled the whole bottle of staining chemical, staining the floor violet, disrupting the session causing the poor lab technician to proclaim “wanting to shoot herself in the head”. The course has provided me the proper avenue to practice and make the mistakes that I’ve made and I can safely say I’ve never had any disastrous spills ever since. On a more serious note, the course is extremely challenging, the modules that we took encompassed learning the inner workings of a cell to the pathophysiology of diseases and the therapeutic strategies. So, you are expected to be working quite hard every single semester but the struggles only made the journey sweeter. I’ve felt a sense of comradery with my classmates and have built personal relationships with the lecturers especially my academic supervisors and personal tutor.
The course has allowed me to flourish as a researcher as well as built intrapersonal skills that I might not have cultivated elsewhere. I will always cherish the memories that I had and the relationships that I have forged. If you’re wondering if this is the course for you or if UNM is the place you want to do it, I’d say I can’t really give a definite answer but why not find it out yourself? Take the first step and maybe after a few years you’ll be able to just like me understand why your life have played out the way it had.
Yours sincerely,
Danish.
Article written by: Muhammad Danish bin Badrul Hisham (BSc Biomedical Sciences Graduate of Year 2018)
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