Alumni Profiles
Flashback to the days in the Duchaine lab...
What was your role in the Duchaine lab?
Graduate student in the Biochemistry program
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What was your scientific interest and/or project?
The post-translational life of Dicer
and mechanisms of transcriptional gene silencing.
Name one fond memory you have of the lab.
Playing little pranks on fellow grad students.
What were some challenges you encountered along the way?
There are definitely highs and lows, as with any career!
Experiments fail, favourite hypotheses are proven wrong, plans don't always work out. For me it was important to celebrate every success and to not let the roadblocks stop me from achieving my goals.
Ahilya Sawh
Words of wisdom and
advice for young researchers
Keep your mind open,
find great mentors,
discover what motivates you,
make goals and work steadily and enthusiastically towards achieving them.
Life after the Duchaine lab
What is your current role?
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto and Canada Research Chair in 4D Genomics
Did you know you always wanted to lead your own research group?
Nope! Early on in grad school I imagined I would like to work at a scientific journal, as an editor perhaps.
What skills did you develop in the Duchaine lab that helped you with the next steps of your career?
Tenacity, critical thinking, confidence, and positivity.