Alumni Profiles
Flashback to the days in the Duchaine lab...
What was your role in the Duchaine lab?
What was your scientific interest and/or project?
I started as an undergraduate honors student and just continued all the way until the end of PhD. My projects have evolved quite a bit over the years, but they were all aligned with the lab's interest in RNAi.
That being said, perhaps the coolest project I worked with is to study 3'UTR dynamics through cancer metastasis at single-cell resolution.
Published work: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022
Name one fond memory you have of the lab.
I think the interactions with the peers in the lab are what I'm missing the most. It's special to be surrounded by people that largely share your experience in grad school, including all the frustrations and excitements. Beyond that, they understand my projects and promote discussions that are vastly helpful. I will cherish that for a long time to come.
What were some challenges you encountered along the way?
(in the lab or next steps)
Imposter syndrome. I think this is still true for me today, and it's difficult to overcome. All I can do is to keep trying my best.
Hsin Wei Tseng
Words of wisdom and
advice for young researchers
Something I wish I had done better as someone on the introverted side:
Talk to more people and don't feel embarrassed, people in the lab, people outside of the lab, same field, different fields. It's always surprising how much we can learn from other people.​
Life after the Duchaine lab
What is your current role?
I am currently a contract computational biologist for Roche/Genentech. I work with single-cell/single-nucleus datasets to support the efforts in drug development.
Did you know you always wanted to be a computational biologist?
Not exactly. Part of the journey of my grad school experience is to find my strengths (and weaknesses) and what gets me motivated, but that hasn't been a straightforward path. I had some ideas that I would enjoy computational work, and perhaps more so in the methodology than the biology itself, but I didn't limit myself to these roles.
What skills did you develop in the Duchaine lab that helped you with the next steps of your career?
My PhD project with the most direct impact on my current position is the single-cell project mentioned above. Thanks to Thomas' enthusiastic pitch of the project I was fortunate enough to work with this technology that still has a relatively small but growing pool of talents. I think that really helped me land on the position.