J-ann Marie Lego

J-ann is a Science Research Specialist II at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB), UP Diliman. She finished Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (MBB) in 2017 and is currently taking her master’s degree in MBB.

She is currently involved in a research project investigating the microRNA-mediated regulation of long non-coding RNA HULC and its potential role in colorectal cancer.

J-Ann always wanted to help heal people, hence here interest in Translational Biomedical Research and Cancer Biology. For her, being able to explore and discover new things about how cells work (or how they don’t) is amazing.

As a researcher, she has already mentored several students on helping them understand their research project, good laboratory practices, and foundations in their laboratory work while monitoring their progress for the whole year. For her, this is fulfilling. On top of teaching her students the technical aspect of research, she gives them pieces of advice about the human aspects of research, academics, future careers, and life in general. “What's interesting is that I always had something to learn from my mentees. So, in a way, we're both learning from each other”. She shares that she is now friends with her previous mentees.

Believing that there are many talented young Filipino Scientists not being in the most conducive research environment, J-Ann applied to be a SIDHI mentor. She believes that having a good mentor is crucial at the early stage of their career on how they will perceive Science in the Philippines. In addition to this, instilling values such as integrity and critical thinking into the students is important in raising the next generations of Filipino Scientists. Being a mentor allows her to give back, as she was also helped by a lot of people before.

She understands that students have different personalities and react differently to different mentoring styles. She’s an approachable mentor, one that can be friends with her mentees after their research project, while ensuring that her students can also work independently. “I want them to be comfortable enough to ask me about anything they might need help with”.

Her advice for future Filipino scientists is to just go for it! “If you're curious about something, if you really want to do a certain kind of research or join a certain laboratory, just go for it”. She also wanted students to not be discouraged by failures, as Science is full of it. Instead, young Scientists should learn from these failures, learn from it, believe in themselves, and try again.