Yaning Wu

Yaning Wu

PhD student | storyteller | 🇨🇳🇺🇸🇪🇬🇰🇪🇬🇧

may 6, 2024: a week in the life

2 minute read

Published:

this week

I’ve been feeling like an undergrad again! This week, I took a three-day online course on causal inference methods in quantitative research from beloved colleagues at UCL. The content wasn’t easy, but I think I caught what I needed to. It might be years before I can understand those methods fully!

In other news, I have had two meetings over the last two weeks with my supervisor and advisor to discuss potential avenues for future research using our blood donor datasets. In between and after those meetings, I’ve been looking into using methods that are new to me to investigate questions about donation safety in the short- and long-term. I can’t lie - this is hard work, and little of it is clear-cut! But I suppose that is what it means to push the boundaries of knowledge.

next week

Slides, camera, action! I’ll be preparing slides and a script for a flash talk during a networking event with other public health researchers on the 22nd. I’m encouraged by colleagues’ feedback thus far on my work and will finalise my preparations by the end of the week. Apart from that, I’ll be narrowing down my seemingly exponentially-growing list of ideas with the guidance of my supervisory team.

outside the lab

I don’t think I’ve done much outside the lab this week … but I’m looking forward to a long walk to a village near us tomorrow (Sunday, I’m writing this from the past ;)). The weather is finally cooperating.

on the reading list

Dahabreh IJ, Bibbins-Domingo K. Causal Inference About the Effects of Interventions From Observational Studies in Medical Journals. JAMA. 2024.

weekly photo

IMG_7890 A pristine flower on my walk home from the office.

about me

I’m Yaning (she/her), a PhD candidate in Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge. I am working with colleagues in the Blood and Transplant Research Unit, the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, and NHS Blood and Transplant (England’s national blood service) to improve the safety and efficiency of voluntary whole blood donation. I’m supervised by the amazing Dr Lois Kim and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. This is my blog about my journey through this candidature, starting from nine months before my transfer of status. Please feel free to reach out at yw645 [at] cam [dot] ac [dot] uk!

november 16, 2024: a week in the life

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this week

It’s been a week of presentations! On Wednesday, I presented findings from my first primary analyses in an intimate setting and had a great conversation with the attendees. On Thursday, I presented to a larger audience, including senior scientists within the Department of Public Health and Primary Care. I’ve also built on my manuscript draft for that primary analysis, which I hope to share with my supervisor soon. I’ve also spent several hours trying to improve on a proposal for a simulation modelling analysis according to comments from my supervisor. Finally, I’ve been working through final admin procedures for our accepted review paper!

november 9, 2024: a week in the life

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Published:

this week

Whew … it’s getting late. It’s almost bedtime and I’m still on my work computer! I would never consider this acceptable normally but have made an exception for this chaotic week. I’ve continued to respond to my supervisor’s comments on my primary analyses, realising that I will need to make substantial changes to the variables used. I’ve also made a dummy dataset that enables me to test my simulation modelling code before I receive the “real” data … though I haven’t done most of that testing yet. And perhaps most importantly, I’ve submitted revisions for our systematic review manuscript, which has now been accepted for publication!!! I hope to share the published paper with you all within the next two weeks.

november 2, 2024: a week in the life

3 minute read

Published:

this week

Time for an apology … I forgot to upload a blog post last week! I have little excuse, except that I had some lovely friends visiting and might have forgotten about this habit amidst the chaos. Anyway, I’m back now, and I come with exciting news! Two reviewers have submitted their comments after I submitted my review manuscript a month ago, and I’ve already begun responding to them. I hope to complete these “minor revisions” (in the journal’s Associate Editor’s words) within a week and move this work closer to publication. During the rest of the week, I’ve been attempting to improve the predictive power of a model I’ve fit within a planned simulation model, revising my thesis draft of my first primary analyses following feedback from my supervisor, conducting a second review of a transfusion-related manuscript, and finalising data access request documents for a near-future (I hope!) project. Things are changing fast, and I’m trying my best to keep up.

october 14, 2024: a week in the life

2 minute read

Published:

this week

I’M BACK! After a period of annual leave from Oct 3-18, I’ve returned to Cambridge and am currently working from my college. In the few days before my travels and the day and a half since, I submitted our review paper for publication, made a lot of slide decks to share proposed ideas with my supervisor, fleshed out a manuscript version of my first primary analysis, and liaised with the undergraduate students who I’ll be leading seminars for in a few weeks :) I kept an eye on emails while away, so I have little to catch up on on that front. I’m still reeling, though, from a pile of outstanding to-dos.