Category: Studies

Global perspectives: Kyoto, Rome, Milan (and Morocco….)

My parents are originally German/Chinese. We did some travel over the years… now I took my RDA money to travel during my time in the Vanderbilt’s Study Abroad program. I tried to get some shadowing in Kyoto in with a local dental practice but language barriers and regulations made that impossible (very strict). Japan seems to focus more on affordable, easily accessible regular cleanings, and conservative care (less cosmetics). There is a government run dental program covering most people (no cosmetics). I did not know that in the Edo-period Japan (1603–1868), blackened teeth, were a significant cultural practice for married women. If you ever see some old paintings… take a closer look. Wondering a bit about dental health back in those days…I heart it was bad due to rice starch.

I am now in Rome interning at a local Nutrition Counseling practice. Milan is next… then go back home, apply for Dental School, and work this summer. Italians pay for dental care mostly out of pocket, there are government managed insurance programs for children.

Research Assistant /HTS

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TN, AUGUST 2025 – December 2025 (Part-time)

I returned to Dr. Joshua Bauer’s lab in the Assay Development and High-Throughput Screening (HTS) facility, where I had interned during high school. The work involves operating imaging equipment that evaluates drug effects on cancer cell lines — in this case, Ewing Sarcoma — across tens of thousands of compounds. The techniques are very different from dentistry, but the underlying idea of automated imaging that identifies subtle patterns a human might miss is one I’ve started thinking about in a dental context. Caries detection, soft tissue screening, radiograph interpretation — there is a lot of clinical decision-making that could benefit from the kind of pattern recognition this lab works with every day.