I’ve Made the Right Choice to Join IMU!

International Medical University (IMU) is a well-known health sciences university and choosing to complete my master course here is by far the best choice I’ve ever made. I’m Bonnie Chin, graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from GuangXi Medical University, China in 2018. When I decided to return to Malaysia, the MSc in Analytical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (MAPC) programme offered by IMU attracted me with its arrangement of courses in both pharmaceutical analysis and drug discovery. I believe with this extensive knowledge, I can enhance my skills and gain experience for my future development. It has definitely not let me down. During the two years in the Programme, every faculty I met are professional, friendly and goes the extra mile in making us understand the subjects.

Memorable Time at IMU
It is rare to say so but the most memorable time I’ve spent at IMU was puzzling on molecular docking problems with course mates in the computer lab until the late evenings to complete it because we were so engrossed and fascinated by the subject. As working adults, these are the precious moments we would want to cherish while studying.

While completing my MAPC programme, I am also working as a full-time data analyst in the oncology field. The support provided by faculty and school management makes it much easier for me and studying this programme becomes more manageable. I think the key point to balancing study, work, and life is time management. By following the timeline, I am able to ease a lot of the burdens and avoid procrastination. In my peak season of work, studying at the same time could be exhausting but by prioritising my task list, I can have a clearer vision of what to do at the time of the day. For the research component of the programme, I choose a project involving the encapsulation of an FDA-approved drug into nanoparticles, under the supervision of Dr Thiagarajan Madheswaran.

After the formulation was completed, I evaluated the cytotoxicity of the novel nanoparticles in breast cancer cell lines. Doing research is fun but at the same time, it takes a lot of patience and hard work. From setting up the experiment flow, developing research questions, and re-doing experiments to test out the hypotheses, IMU has provided a lot of flexibility in providing a suitable environment such as accessibility to laboratories and equipment.

I am a big believer in Simon Sinek’s quote “Dream Big. Start Small. But most of all START”. Of course, there are days when we do not feel like doing anything, listening to the Lazy Song by Bruno Mars, lying in bed all day, and leaving the task to complete later. The way I keep myself motivated is to start small even if I do not feel like it. All we need is to start. Once we get through that initial hesitation, the goal that we have set earlier will be one step closer to us.