Lessons learnt

What is worse than addressing a crowd of smart, critical, curious and empowered young leaders? I would know the answer to that after having stood in front of an auditorium pretty full of them.

Okay, fine! I admit. It was not that bad. It was actually very enriching and fulfilling, but also quite intimidating.

My research topic (as I had presented it in a previous post) was about the physiology of Stress. As part of the scientific research course requirement, I had to share it with the ALA community in a 15 minutes power point presentation. So, what did I learn?

1.      About making power points: It can get really fun if you love Art like me. I actually got to be creative (with colors, pictures and fonts) with some heavy biology and psychology material.

      My tips:

-          Use font colors that contrast with background color (best example of this is black on white!)

-          You can use interesting looking fonts but only for the title; otherwise you end up having a text that looks like this (can you read this?) instead of that (Can you read this?).

-          Use diagrams to present the heavy material. And feel free to make them interactive (arrows and pictures popping up, highlights or sound effects, etc.).

-          Take your time and don’t rush through any slide. Hence, rehearse your presentation and get rid of the superfluous information.

-          Do not put a whole text on your slides. People want to listen to you; they don’t want to be swallowed trying to understand the complex scientific terminology and phrasing. Save them that pain and present it in a bullet point format.

-          This might sound unnecessary but symmetry is key. A subtopic title in slide 2 can’t be red, size 24 and Bahaus font when the title of the next subtopic in slide 4 is blue, size 36 and Algerian font. You will get your audience confused even though you might not notice it. 

2.      About presenting the material: I though this would be the most challenging part. But people actually followed throughout the presentation. I was glad when I got many interesting questions after the presentation.

My tips:

-          Do not assume that the audience has even a third of the information you have gathered for about 2 months or so. Some of them might, but the majority has probably never heard of what you are talking about.

-          Be ‘generous’ with your explanation. Give the meat of your argument, not just the bone that would suffice you: examples, illustrations (pictures, videos, your own body movement, etc.), analogies, etc.

-          Repeat! If you see that half of your audience is giving you the ‘it went o-ver my head’ face, stop and repeat what you just said.

-          Do not speak like you would speak to yourself. Speak clearly, making sure the unfamiliar terms you are using are explained on the slides or while you are talking. Speak loudly, making sure that people don’t have to guess what you just said (chances are they won’t even be able to with the little information they have on the topic).

  

3.      About stage presence: I tried as much as possible to feel comfortable on stage and fill in the space with both my voice and body language.

My tips:

-          Walk around the place you will be presenting from some time before you get on stage. Make sure you know the place so that you can own the place.

-          Make eye contacts if you are that type of person. It helps you to connect with the audience (you wouldn’t talk to your friends looking at their feet, right?). If you are shy, it’s also fine because you can fake the eye contact and look at the foreheads instead.

-          Move around; play with the audience so that they are not tempted to fall asleep.

-          Ask the audience questions and trust them to give you the right answers. You will get them engaged and attentive.

-          Just be your everyday (appropriate) self and relax because your time will be up before you even realize.

-          If you make a mistake, do not panic. Correct it once you realize it and move on swiftly.

One can guess by the length of this post how much I enjoyed doing my presentation and how much I learnt form it. It was not perfect but it was extremely fulfilling. 

Seeing  people’s facial expression showing interest in what I was saying was a huge reward.

Finding a vaccine for HIV - Dr LeGalle presentation

Who ever learns about how the HIV virus infiltrates human cells and reproduces there can't avoid being fascinated. HIV is a 'smart' virus, like most of the retro viruses. But unlike them, it is killing many people in places such as subsaharan Africa, where I happen to be living.

Dr Legalle, from the Ragon institute, gave a talk in my scientific research class last friday about the flows of the virus that are currently being explored to find a vaccine. Although I didn't fully understand some of the heavy chemistry in the presentation, I could get a valuable sense of the current research on HIV vaccine.

What stroke me the most was the variability and adaptability of the virus. It is amazing how much effort HIV can put into not beiing recognised. It actually can control the number and forms of the protein it generates and that bind to the host membrane. Because they are too few and always different, T helper cells have a hard time recognising them.

What's most sad about all this is reverse transciptase(the process by which HIV is able to get DNA from RNA, thus doing the reverse  of the normal process from RNA to DNA). This process that will generate a strand of DNA that will be combined with the DNA in our cells (sort of stealing our identity to live and reproduce). Reverse transciptase nakes so many mistakes in the process that it is often times absolutely impossible for the body to have a sencondary immune response. Okay... I feel like all this is going over the head of some people, so let me try to make sense of this!

So what happens in your body when you get an infection? The army of white blood cells in your body start arranging themselves to respond to the infection. Then starts primary immune response that can take quite a while.While it is being fought, certain of these soldiers will make sure they get the 'finger print' of the cause of the infecction. This way, the next time the same infection comes, the body doesn't waste time responding to it. This quick and effective response is called the sencondary immune response. Have you ever wondered why you don't get chicken pox twice? ... Your welcome!

So coming back to what I said earlier, because the virus changes it's 'identity' so much, there is almost never this secondary immune response. Now it feels like we are stuck in this seemingly unsolvable dilemma.

However, all hope is not quite lost. Dr Legalle showed many other ways of looking at the HIV infection and virus structure that bring some hope into the equation.

HIV is indeed truly fascinating, but just as scary. The urge to eradicate it in places such as subsaharan Africa is growing bigger and bigger everyday. so if you like science and happen to want to save Africa, this is a good place to be working on - ALA students, hint hint!

What did you learn from the talk by Dr. Walker and Dr. Burton?

                                                                                                                                                            “You can actually be a scientist and live in nice places like La Jolla, California

I knew I shouldn’t have dropped maths! Well, I still have Biology. One day I might end up in St Petersburg, Florida.

But let me not diminish the impact Dr Walker and Dr Burton had on me last Tuesday.

I first met with them, along with Sir Griekspoor over lunch. They both seemed very interested in how ALA was different from other schools, and how well we dealt with the high expectations of being here (Kenyan coffee! Just kidding!). We also got to talk about the image/brand Africa had for the rest of the world.

A few minutes later, I could not imagine that I had just had dinner with the people in charge of leading biomedical research institutes in terms of finding an HIV vaccine.

Dr Burton was the first to talk. He leads the initiative to find a vaccine for HIV. He gave us a very entertaining account of his background. What particularly stroke me in his story was his determination to challenge himself.  Although he knew what he was deeply interested in, he also studied physics and studied in Swedish. Being ready to challenge oneself is one difference between good and great leaders. 

His work on finding an HIV vaccine gave the audience a lot of hope.  Knowing that there is a whole program dedicated to helping millions of people suffering from HIV had a sort of relieving effect. The truth is that many infected Africans don’t have regular access ARV’s. Patients end up dying of opportunistic infections, or develop drug resistance that can as well kill them.

Dr Walker, head of the Ragon Institute that focuses on mechanisms of immune control in HIV infection, gave an equally ‘blow minding’ talk. In fact, he is in charge of the first biomedical research institute on HIV on the continent. He talked about the story of the institute and how much of the work being done there was as a result of philanthropic donations. He also talked about how far research about a vaccine for HIV has gone, and what are the limitations to it. One that he mentioned was the need for involvement from different expertise to enrich the research.

One thing I extremely liked was their belief in Africa’s potential. They are currently working to see the world’s biggest biomedical research center that will focus on HIV and other infectious diseases.