Baobab Platform Podcasts

#TheHustle: Natasha Turyasingura - Postbaccalaureate Scholar @Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

November 12, 2020 Baobab Platform
Baobab Platform Podcasts
#TheHustle: Natasha Turyasingura - Postbaccalaureate Scholar @Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
Show Notes Transcript

Natasha has always loved Biology and Chemistry and is a strong advocate for African Scientists in Research. Her time at Novartis in cancer research propelled her to thinking of ways she could contribute her skills and talents towards curbing the spread of infectious diseases in her home country, Uganda. Beyond research and lab work, Natasha is an avid hiker and was part of the Varsity rowing team at St Lawrence University.

Share your comments on Baobab!

Join the Baobab Platform today.

Halle Rubera (00:03):

Hi, and welcome to The Hustle, a professional development podcast series in conjunction with the MasterCard foundation scholars program. I'm your host, Halle Rubera, an alum of the MasterCard foundation scholars program at Wellesley College. And with this series, I will share the stories of accomplished African professionals from different backgrounds currently working in investment banking, management consulting, big tech, and more.

Halle Rubera (00:27):

Each episode discusses the wide area of career opportunities and provides listeners with advice about working at top firms such as Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and Novartis. The title of this podcast, The Hustle, is an ode to my hometown of Nairobi, Kenya, which I love and where the spirit of the hustle hard work and resilience shines bright.

Halle Rubera (00:56):

Today. I have the pleasure of hosting Natasha Turyasingura who earned a bachelor's degree from St Lawrence University in Canton, New York. She studied biochemistry and had a minor in Francophone studies, graduated magna cum laude. Congratulations, Natasha. She is currently a post-bach scholar at Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research in Boston and her past experience has been in research in Uganda, Switzerland. Natasha is originally from Kampala. Welcome, Natasha to the podcast, really excited to have you here.

Natasha Turyasingura  (01:30):

Thank you so much for having me.

Halle Rubera (01:32):

Yep. So just to start to understand what you do and kind of your journey to where you are right now, could you tell us a little bit about why you chose to study biochemistry and francophone studies and what did you hope to do with this combination?

Natasha Turyasingura  (01:51):

Okay. Well, thanks again for inviting me to your podcast. I really appreciate being able to share my story. So I've always loved science. Many people who know me will attest to this. Ever since I was a child, I liked asking questions, and this was partly fostered or encouraged and also influenced by both of my parents who work in science related fields where they ended up in their own trajectories. And so growing up, I was encouraged to ask questions to understand the big picture perspective of how things worked. I have fond memories of doing homework, if that's even a thing in primary school, where I would sit down and write down the answers to the questions that were ask them a book. But my dad had this habit of looking over the answers of the questions specifically, but then explaining to me the bigger picture, the phenomenon in which those concepts operated. And that allowed me to think bigger than just the question that was being asked in front of me and understand bigger processes than actually was required for my class.

Natasha Turyasingura  (03:11):

And so my curiosity for the scientific world grew because I realized the more you ask questions, the more you learn. And because I'm amazed by the nature of how things work, that just fitted right in with me. And so in school, I was drawn to the subject of science and later in high school biology, chemistry, physics, and math because they allowed me to better understand the natural world. And as I progressed in my academic career, I began to understand the world all the way down to the atomic level and that just blew my mind because we could explain phenomena on the macro level by understanding how the atoms interacted at such a small level and that was just amazing for me.

Natasha Turyasingura  (03:59):

And so when I joined undergraduate, it was a no-brainer for me that I wanted to do biochemistry. I didn't even think about it so I began taking the necessary courses all the way from my first year. I've always used the analogy of ice cream. I think of biology as the ice cream and the chemistry is like sprinklings of the top which adds a bit of pizzazz to the whole experience and that's how I think of my combo biochemistry, it is delicious and fun when I think about it.

Natasha Turyasingura  (04:33):

So that's the science part. And at the same time I like to travel. I like learning about cultures, about people and the way they think and where they come from and so I included Francophone studies in my degree combination because it was something I could keep learning on the side which was not as technical as the biochemistry, the science part, but it would be equipping me with a skill which would be valuable going out into the world and interacting with people.

Natasha Turyasingura  (05:00):

And that's what my French mind did and it allowed me to go to France for a little while during my undergrad, and I was just happy with the way things turned out and I was able to live my college experience width. In terms of what I hope to do with it, biochemistry and Francophone studies, I didn't really have a plan. I just knew I wanted to be a scientist and that I like to travel and I picked those two things because they got me close enough to my goal as much as possible. And I just had fun along the way.

Halle Rubera (05:30):

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Natasha, your enthusiasm is really infectious. I mean, I felt it when you talked about the sprinkles on the ice cream, the whole pizazz. I'm really glad that you ended up studying something that you were interested in from a while back and it shows even with the work that you ended up doing at Novartis. For those who don't know, Novartis is one of the biggest pharmaceutical and research organizations in the world. And can you tell us about what your current role at Novartis entails?

Natasha Turyasingura  (06:06):

My beginning with scientific work or research was in Uganda at Makerere University which is the biggest university in Uganda. And I was an intern in the medical school, immunology department. And that very first internship for me, I conducted HIV Elisa to detect the presence and concentration of HIV antibodies in patient blood samples for diagnosis. And that was an interesting opportunity for me because it introduced me to the lab environment and how things were conducted in that space. Following that, I got an internship in Switzerland in my junior year and this was my first professional lab research experience, if I may call it that way, I was working in the immunoncology department in the department of biochemistry and there, I was investigating the role of a diubiquitinate enzyme in T-cell activation. And one of the cell signaling pathways called NF-κB and that fused large B-cell lymphoma cancers.

Natasha Turyasingura  (07:30):

So this was a bit different from that very first internship in Uganda because here, I was being introduced to the discovery of new things, creation of knowledge from scratch. When you go out and you don't know what you're finding out, you begin to hunt for the answers. So this was my introduction to investigative research, which was something I realized was not the case in Uganda which was more diagnostic work. And from that internship in Switzerland is when I realized that I could do this kind of investigative research for a living. I love being in the lab, I like the way it smelled, I liked the work we were doing. And that resolution for me is what gave me the confidence to apply for the opportunity at Novartis when I graduated.

Natasha Turyasingura  (08:22):

So I applied for Novartis as I've said in my fourth year. And I came and joined the oncology department, specifically the biological chemistry group, which was a natural flow for me given my training in biochemistry. And while I'm in this group, I studied a mutant protein, which is implicated in over 30% of all human cancers. And this I did to better understand what this protein interacts with in the cell and what happens to this protein and what it interacts with when we inhibit the protein. And so this knowledge would help us understand what's going on with regards to this protein. And this knowledge would help us in the development of therapies for cancer. So the department creates new cancer medicines, that's the major goal.

Natasha Turyasingura  (09:18):

So it's been a two year program and it's been intensive, but it's helped me learn how to handle myself as a scientific investigator, the expectations of the role in this kind of work all the way from comparing your experiments, doing literature, reviews, planning your experiments, themselves, finding the reagents and other equipment you're going to use, the execution of the experiments themselves. Harnessing that data, analyzing it and presenting that to your core lab team and whoever else needs to know. Troubleshooting and seeing how to move forward based on the results that you've obtained. And that chain itself is the process of scientific inquiry. And I'm applying this to cancer research, but that, you could apply to any kind of scientific question you want to find out.

Natasha Turyasingura  (10:13):

And since I have plans of going to graduate school to pursue a PhD, it has been an invaluable opportunity to be able to conduct such research in a company like Novartis which is oriented to harness this scientific information to actually produce products that are going to be used by real patients in the real world. So that's been a good portion of my post-baccalaureate opportunity at Novartis, but at the same time, I've also worked with a global health unit here in Novartis also where I have examined the barriers of access to medicines of global health significance in low and middle-income countries.

Natasha Turyasingura  (10:52):

So my involvement with the global health unit stems from my personal motivations to do science in the first place. Yes, I have this ridiculous curiosity for understanding the molecular underpinnings of disease and that's what I was doing at the bench in the biochemistry lab. But once I began to get more familiar with that kind of work, I began to ask myself, "So we do all this work to create medicines, which is great, but how do these medicines actually get to the patients who need them?" And when I think of my home environment in Uganda, and I know the reality on the ground when it comes to healthcare, I was curious about how these efforts in the lab translated to medicines that are going to enter the hand of a patient in a community like mine.

Natasha Turyasingura  (11:43):

And so I reached out to the global health team and asked if I could work with them a little bit to better understand the considerations that happen within a pharmaceutical company like Novartis and how we move all these discovery efforts through the chain of drug discovery and development all the way past manufacturing to the communities that need these medicines.

Natasha Turyasingura  (12:06):

And so in the two years that I've been here, I've been able to appreciate the whole chain of drug discovery and development. And it's been an invaluable opportunity for me that has greatly informed my future direction that I want to follow.

Halle Rubera (12:21):

Yeah, sounds like it. I mean, before we even talk about your plans to go to a PhD program and how you went about recruiting for this role, I'm curious to know as a liberal arts major at St. Lawrence university, did you ever consider exploring other internships and whether or not you did, did you seek out any kind of mentorship to guide your professional journey?

Natasha Turyasingura  (12:48):

So internships have definitely been an integral part in my journey to this point. At the beginning of my college career, I didn't know what internships were. I don't know if it's just me.

Halle Rubera (13:03):

It's not just you.

Natasha Turyasingura  (13:07):

My very first summer after my first year, I went back home and I stayed home watching TV the whole time. I saw summertime was just for relaxing. And then I came back in my second year and I heard my classmates and other people talking about internships and what they had been doing, experience they had gained and I didn't know what they were talking about. But I realized that really this was something I needed to get into as well. And so in the summer of my second year, I began looking for work opportunity of any kind. And that first internship that I got in Uganda was during the summer of my second year. And that's when I began to see that you get all this knowledge in the classroom, which is great, but you also need to get the hands-on experience to better understand how all that knowledge translates to real life application.

Natasha Turyasingura  (14:08):

And that's when I began to gain by going out into lab spaces. So I've always known my interest in science and research. So I began looking for work opportunities or internships in that field. So when you say exploring other internships, I was kind of looking in the same field. Maybe not at the same opportunity, exploring different opportunities, but in the same general field, because I knew what I was interested in and what I wanted to learn.

Natasha Turyasingura  (14:40):

So if I'm to give a recommendation to other students, if you know what you want to study like I did, for example, or the general field, look in that area and be open to different opportunities because you don't know what you're going to experience and what you're going to learn in each one. And you don't know how that's going to impact you, your learning and your trajectory. But also, if you're not very sure of what you want to study, just picking something that interests you or remotely interests you is a good place to start because as you begin sampling different work opportunities, you understand, I like this, or I don't like this, which is all fine because it puts you better on the track to reaching where you actually want to go.

Natasha Turyasingura  (15:29):

So either way, you can't lose within changes, but I highly recommend reaching out to different opportunities to begin to get that real world experience because you don't know what you don't know until you try. So when it comes to the subject of mentorship, I had heard that word used a lot for a couple of years, but I didn't really appreciate what a mentor was. So it was later in my college career, and actually more when I came to Novartis that I was assigned a mentor. That I got to understand what a mentor-student relationship is and how both sides benefit from such a partnership which is essentially built on the learning experience.

Natasha Turyasingura  (16:20):

So definitely having a mentor helps a student in their learning process, especially experiential learning. So I would recommend reaching out to, for example, faculty or professionals in the field that you're interested in who are doing the work you admire or aspire to do, or in a position that you would like to be in yourself and learning from them how they've gone about their own journey and for them to offer some advice on how you may go about yours. I think that's essentially the essence of mentorship as it offered the guidance to you.

Halle Rubera (17:08):

I like that you talked about... you mentioned the importance of just having internships so that you can figure out what you want to do, what you like and what you don't like. I know that we had talked about your Novartis opportunity kind of guiding your path into PhD. You were thinking PhD versus master's and your time at Novartis gave you clarity about which path to pursue. Can you tell us a little bit about how your work at Novartis has prepared you and kind of encouraged you to pursue a PhD as opposed to the masters program?

Natasha Turyasingura  (17:48):

Okay. So there's quite a bit that went into that process of realization and I'm also amazed when I look back at all that's happened for me in the past two years because as I said, I did my bachelor's in biochemistry. I was so bent on doing a PhD in biochemistry. I've always known that I wanted to go all the way to a PhD because I just loved research, I like digging for information. So I'm like if I didn't get an academic qualification doing that, I don't mind. And so I joined Novartis as a pharmaceutical company because of the way the program was structured. And I wanted to gain the lab experience because I had some knowledge that that's what was heavily involved in a PhD in biochemistry. And that's what I wanted to gain over the two years.

Natasha Turyasingura  (18:46):

And indeed I got to get a real glimpse into active lab work because I was surrounded by PhD scientists, some not with PhDs, but doing this intense bench lab work, doing experiment, planning, execution, data analysis, and you do this every day. And it was exactly what I wanted to do. And I learned so much about conducting biochemistry experiments. It scratched that itch for me that I'd always had in cleaning up in a lab time.

Natasha Turyasingura  (19:28):

But halfway through my program, I began to have these other questions as well, I mean, on top of the work that I was doing about the medicines that we were making or the work that we were doing that was going to contribute to the making of medicines and how this would translate to communities that have fewer resources such as in Uganda. And so when I began to think about the disease that we were investigating, cancer, and thinking more on the population level, I began to realize that some of the questions that I had for myself were not being answered by the work I was doing in the lab. I appreciated the depth of the work I was doing and the effort that went into this kind of work but there are also questions that were nagging me then I realized I could not answer just in a lab.

Natasha Turyasingura  (20:22):

And so while I did my lab work, I also reached out to the global health team. And I was fortunate that they have a global health team or they have one at Novartis. And I began to see how the work that was carried out in the discovery team, for example, in the lab, moved a long chain and discovered development all the way into the hands of the global health unit, who concern themselves on how to get the prepared medicines and to the hands of patients. And as I worked with both teams, I realized that I do enjoy understanding how disease comes about within the cell.

Natasha Turyasingura  (21:00):

By working under this theme of my personal motivation of using science to improve the lives of the common man, especially in my home community or communities like it, I realized that I needed to get more experience in population science as well. And I didn't know how to do that because my training is purely in biochemistry, which is why I asked to work with the global health team. So you could look at it like an internship of sorts. Did not exactly call it an internship because I didn't know what the field was about, I just knew I had this desire to understand what they were doing because I appreciated the work that they did in that unit.

Natasha Turyasingura  (21:42):

And so after working with them, I began to realize for myself that I would like to work at the interface of biomedical research, like that I was doing in the lab, but also being involved with community engagement efforts. That's how I would like to use my scientific career. And so my intention to pursue a PhD in biochemistry has slowly evolved into epidemiology, which is still the study of disease but more on a population level. And that realization for me would not have come about without this work experience in the lab, because I wouldn't have come face to face with these personal questions that I had about cancer at a population level.

Natasha Turyasingura  (22:29):

So such considerations come about when you get into the work field and begin engaging with your work. And for me, it modified my career trajectory.

Halle Rubera (22:41):

That's good too hear. And so how did you even hear about this opportunity at Novartis? What was the recruitment process like for you and when should students start to think about internships?

Natasha Turyasingura  (22:56):

So the process involves the application itself, which I submitted, an interview for those people whose written applications were selected, and we had an in-person interview. So I had to come from my college campus to Boston for a full day of interviews. And after that, they selected four people out of the seven or eight that were there and that's how I got selected as one of the four to begin the program.

Halle Rubera (23:31):

Congrats.

Natasha Turyasingura  (23:33):

Thank you. As for how I heard about this opportunity, I applied to so many when I was looking for an opportunity. I was advised by a friend to apply to over 50 so that's what I did. And I was getting frustrated because I was getting a lot of rejections, interviews that were going nowhere. And then along the way, I happened to reach out to a friend and explained my situation and asked for any advice that they may have and they happened to say that, "I know a friend of a friend who happens to know this office in Boston, here's a link. Why don't you check it out?" And that was the link for the Novartis program.

Natasha Turyasingura  (24:17):

And when I looked at it, there was one week to the deadline and I needed to write essays, I needed to collect recommendation letters, I had to do everything really fast. And so I'm very grateful for my professors, for example, at St. Lawrence, who agreed to write for me recommendation letters in a very short span of time because usually that's not recommended, but we had no choice. And it turns out that this application to Novartis was one of two places that got back to me with positive news out of the 50 that I applied to so you never know how things are going to go. So just cast your net wide and you hope to catch something.

Halle Rubera (25:02):

Yeah. And importance of having friends too that look out for you as well because that's how you learned about this opportunity. And Natasha, you graduated magna cum laude consistently appeared on the Dean's list and was inducted into five weeks at kappa. So for you, why was it important to maintain high academic standards while at college?

Natasha Turyasingura  (25:29):

This is a bit of a difficult question to answer because it's not something I've actively thought about. I think it's something I can look back and say this is what happened. But when I was in it, it wasn't something I was actively thinking about. I guess I could start by saying that I strive to do the very best that I can in everything that I do. This is an attitude that I've had growing up and going through primary school, high school.

Natasha Turyasingura  (26:04):

I like to think back to this experience or moment that my mom told me in primary school when I was nervous about going for a certain exam. And she told me that, "Just go into the exam and do your very best. If you come out and you find that your result is 40% or 80% or 90%, all of that will be fine, but you will know for yourself in your heart of hearts that when you stepped out of that room, you used everything you knew, all the resources you had and you did the very best and there's nothing that you held back. And with that knowledge for yourself, you can live with yourself." And she was talking about this particular exam, but I chose to apply this principle for the rest of my life and you could call it regret minimization.

Natasha Turyasingura  (27:05):

So everything that I go forward and try to do, I do the very best that I can. And it has just so happened that a lot of the time, the very best that I can do is the best that can be done which has led to awards and recognition. But ultimately, I strive to improve every day from the person I was yesterday. And when that is my focus and not so much striving for a particular accolade, you're focusing on growth. And if it's an exam or a concept in the classroom or skill, you're trying to do better and better everyday. And naturally, if that skill or knowledge is being graded, the grades are going to get better as you go along. So that is what I choose to focus and I choose to focus on growth.

Natasha Turyasingura  (27:58):

And that, it has happened to translate into a couple of awards for me. When it comes to academic standards, especially coming from the Ugandan system which is heavily focused on grades, I realized along the way that with higher grades, it made it easier for me to apply for different opportunities and so even when I was early in my academic career in primary school or high school, I didn't know where the journey was going to take me, but I told myself that should I meet an opportunity one day, I don't want my grades to be the reason I'm denied this opportunity. Let it be another reason, not my grades. And so at that age, at whatever point I was at, working on my grades, studying, asking teachers for explanations, doing extra homework, that was something I could do at that time even when I didn't know I was going to come in the future, it was just making the most of what they had with me at the time.

Natasha Turyasingura  (29:05):

And lastly, I'll also speak to responding to feedback from the people around you. For example, professors, teachers, your peers, your colleagues who give you feedback on the work that you're doing because it's hard for us to judge ourselves. And so having someone else who is maybe more familiar with the subject matter at hand, they can offer you a perspective that you don't see for yourself. And as you see it through the comments and the feedback they're giving, you can pick out the ones that help you get better at what you're doing.

Natasha Turyasingura  (29:49):

And that goes back to the concept of improvement. And when it comes to classroom work, having that feedback from exams that I did or explanation from the teacher, because I always used to go back. If I failed a question in the exam and asked the teacher, "I thought this was the way to do it, but clearly it's not, could you re-explain this to me please?" And by continually doing that, doing academic work, stop being about just cramming the concepts. Because if you do that by the time you walk out of the exam room, you've forgotten everything you packed your brain. And so I need the focus to be understanding the work.

Natasha Turyasingura  (30:30):

And so the exam would just be an opportunity for me to write down my explanation and understanding of what I knew for myself. If it was wrong, then I would get the feedback on that. If it was right, that's great, my grade marks will be better. And so the cycle of growth just kept going like that and it's had positive outcomes for me.

Halle Rubera (30:51):

I really appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, that was deep. Natasha, this is, this is really my favorites attribute of yours is your athleticism. So you're an athlete and why I say it's my favorite is because let me just give the breakdown. So you were an athlete previously of the swim team in high school and a member of the crew team at St. Lawrence. Favorite because you actually did not roll before you went to St. Lawrence, right? You learned how to row at St. Lawrence and then made the team which I think that's such a great story especially knowing that I used to see a couple of my friends who wake up at 5:00 AM in Boston winters to go row and I was just like, I don't know, this kind of commitment it's so impressive, it's inspiring.

Halle Rubera (31:46):

But yeah, with your demanding undergraduate program, how did you balance your academics extracurriculars and of what benefit was it to pursue activities outside of class?

Natasha Turyasingura  (32:02):

So, yeah, being on the rowing team at St. Lawrence was definitely one of the highlights of my college experience and yes, you're right, I joined the crew team with zero experience prior. Sometimes I look back and I'm like, "What was I thinking?" But, for example, through primary school, I was always engaged in some kind of sport. At the beginning, we were required to do some kind of physical education or activity, but along the way, I found that I enjoyed certain sports. I did badminton all the way to national level in Uganda and it was nice for me being part of a team, having teammates and just being physically engaged, it was important for me. And so when I joined St. Lawrence, I learned that they didn't have a badminton team. So that was sad, but I was determined to have some kind of physical engagement.

Natasha Turyasingura  (33:03):

And so I was walking around campus in the first weeks and I saw this poster in the residence hall having this lineup of people in the boat rowing and I thought it looks very elegant. I think I'd like to try that. And they said tryouts were some time in the future and I showed up. And I just said I'm going to give this my all and we'll see what comes of it. And training was gruesome. Yes. When you see people rowing in the boat, they don't show you what the legs are doing. Cause that's where all the power is. But unfortunately, by the time I realized this, it was too late, I was already in my team. And I realized I might as well just see this through. And eventually, I got hooked.

Natasha Turyasingura  (33:53):

So because I was doing a very technical science course, I needed something physical to balance myself so that it would not just be meant to engage me the whole time. And so, yes, as you said, you have friends waking up very early to go rowing, yes, it was the same waking up at 6:00 AM almost every day, going to the river and then doing weightlifting to get your muscles built up. I like the thing I had been in, but I liked the physical power. It also allowed me to eat like crazy without gaining weight, but it kept my mind clear, working out and then also going in the classroom. So that was just a perfect combination for me.

Halle Rubera (34:44):

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. No, I really love that story. I mean, yeah. Thank you for sharing it with us. So Natasha, we're coming to the end of the podcast episode. This is always the sad part for me because I enjoy chatting with everyone on my podcast, but yeah, good things come to an end, I guess.

Halle Rubera (35:06):

So as we close, this is one question that I've asked every single one of my guests on the episode is what's one thing you think you've done well, when you look back on your professional development decisions and one thing you wish you could have done better?

Natasha Turyasingura  (35:24):

Well to begin with what I think I've done. Well, I think I've taken a hand to all the resources that have been available to me at whatever stage I was. When I look back to my undergrad, you may not know this, but I'm a reserved person, I'm soft-spoken. And going out there into people has always been a conscious effort for me, it doesn't always come naturally. But I pushed myself to try and go meet people, be engaged in clubs and sports and talk to people around me. My faculty professors, my peers. And in so doing, I learned of all these things that were happening on campus and I tried to get engaged with as many as possible all the way from career development, creating my first resume, applying for jobs when the time came in the fourth year, taking leadership positions on campus, which helped me build my interpersonal skills.

Natasha Turyasingura  (36:37):

And yeah, just taking advantage of all those resources was an invaluable opportunity for me because I learned a lot and I gained a lot of connections, which have been very helpful for me going forward as well as the skills that I've picked up along the way.

Natasha Turyasingura  (36:58):

And so the second part for what I wish I had done better, I do wish I had interacted with more people who are different from me. There's nothing wrong with seeking out people who are familiar with... I mean, who are similar to us, are familiar with the things we know and like, and indeed I do have that network of people in my life. But at the same time, I do wish I had reached out more to people who are very different from me in terms of background and culture, ideology and the way they thought because once you stick with things that you're very familiar with or people you're very familiar with, you exist in this kind of bubble and you don't broaden your mind because what you put out is what is being given back to you. And so that's one thing I wish I could have done more while in college, for example. And it's something I keep trying to work on, even now in my professional life that I began working. Yeah.

Halle Rubera (38:08):

Yeah. Thank you so much, Natasha, for spending this one hour with me, I really appreciate your time. I appreciate all the insights you've shared on this episode as well. And it was really inspiring just to hear about your love for science as a child and up to now, you're still kind of committed to it. And even though it's kind of changed over time with now your interests geared more towards epidemiology.

Halle Rubera (38:35):

It's so funny, I just remembered that I did meet an epidemiologist a few weeks ago and the question that she says she gets asked all the time is whether she's like a dermatologist. What's the skin routine because of epidermis. So every time I see it, I remember that. But yeah, I really, really glad that she did this and I'm sure a lot of the students who were interested in going to research or biochemistry have picked up a lot from you and a lot of insight so I appreciate your time.

Natasha Turyasingura  (39:14):

Well, thanks again for having me and all the science students out there, keep going, science is amazing, really amazing. Any questions we have unanswered, please come join.

Halle Rubera (39:29):

Thank you so much, Natasha.

Natasha Turyasingura  (39:31):

All right. Thank you.