Xuyu Liu's advice for a career in medical research

I was recently recruited to HRI to be the Unit Leader of the Cardiovascular Signalling and Drug Discovery lab. I am interested in drug discovery and have spent a lot of my time developing new antithrombotic drugs during my PhD in Chemistry at The University of Sydney.

Medical research has a direct impact on public health and the wellbeing of people. And because it is so critical, usually the most advanced research themes and collaborative models will be applied in this field.

During high school I was particularly good at mathematics and physics. So also I was hoping that I can become a nuclear physicist or study space. Until I found out a few of my family actually suffered from cardiovascular disease. And that actually changed my mind.

I felt I should dedicate myself to medical research, and that will save a lot of people.

One thing I love about my job a lot is that I have the chance to explore new skills and new technologies every time I change projects. In my opinion, there are not many jobs that can offer you this opportunity. You can continue exploring the field and learn new skills to accomplish a particular task.

Doing medical research has enabled me to learn from other experts in the fields. Although there is a continual learning process which sometimes can be a little bit tedious and can be a little tiring, I think eventually it is very fruitful.

The HRI director and the other senior researchers give me regular advice regarding my project management, my research strategy, even grant writing advice as well.

I'm also particularly appreciative about the seminar series at HRI. This is where the students and researchers have the opportunity to present their work to people and peers from different medical backgrounds. This way, we can receive the feedback from people in different scientific fields. It really enables us to understand the question from a wholistic perspective, to draw a more therapeutic impact at the end.

Doing research nowadays is a continuing learning process. I think for young investigators firstly you shouldn't be afraid of this continuing learning process. And I mean, I've been through it and I'm facing this problem daily, which is to keep up with the literature, keep up with learning in the textbooks.

I notice a lot of my students are majoring in medical research and minoring in chemistry or physics. Please don't give up on your minor subjects. Because the future is going to be multidisciplinary research. So please keep learning other subjects and other disciplines, and be willing to share knowledge with researchers from other fields, so that hopefully at the end we can make a better future.