The End of 2016

I guess I should write something for the end of 2016. A lot of things (good and bad) happened, and I am thankful to all of them!

I started my postdoc in Dr. Roel Verhaak's lab in March 2015. The past 1 year and a half is transforming for me in terms of computational training.

Roel moved to JAX Genomics for Medicine Oct 2016. I could not move due to my family issues. I just had a little girl Phoebe in August! She is such a joyful and sweet girl. It is amazing experience being a new parent, of course challenging too.

I decided to stay at MD Anderson with Dr.Andrew Futreal and Dr.Jianjun Zhang's group and began studying intra-tumor heterogeneity and tumor evolution by analyzing multi-region whole exome-sequencing and DNA methylation array data. I always want to learn something new. Although it may take me a while to know the details of this subject, I am still positive.

I am so grateful for this invaluable experience in Roel's lab.  I have gained much more experience handling large data sets (TB size!) and enhanced my computational skills in many ways.

For the coming 2017, I should be:

1. busy with Phoebe.
2. writing 1-2 papers.
3. writing a book chapter on ChIP-seq for the biostar handbook. It should come out in the mid of 2017.
3. writing a small R package for practice.
4. learning a piano song.

I try to commit myself to write at least 1-2 posts every month to keep the audiences. 2016 looks good. I am also thinking to move my blog to github, but it is going to be a long-term project (learning how to use Jekylle will take a while).

That being said, I am looking forward to a new and prosperous 2017!