September 2025

My Introduction into Pharmacology

During the past few weeks our cohort began to dive into inflammation and cell biology. It’s really interesting

to learn about the connection between everyday medications and common illnesses. Learning more about

NSAIDs and Tylenol has allowed me to identify symptoms and select the correct OTC medications I need.

It almost feels like I’ve been endowed with secret knowledge! This makes every lecture truly fascinating

because there is always more to learn. In particular, I found the microorganism related lectures to be the

most interesting due to learning about the different fungi and bacteria that live within us and around us. A

key takeaway from this module would be that even the smallest acts of prevention can make a difference in

health. Especially for travelers, premedication and having a general understanding of the country you're

traveling to will help in preventing illnesses such as malaria. Some topics from the past weeks that I would

like to focus more on would be about the mechanisms and drug interactions of eicosanoids. It is foundational

to have a great understanding of eicosanoids due to their wide range of physiological processes. I feel happy

to be in such a prestigious graduate program, I find myself rediscovering my passion for learning and

academia. Sometimes jumping back into school can be difficult and I find that my performance on the

module exams could be better as I would like to uphold a high academic standard of myself. With advice

from my peers and professors, I have found that viewing the educational Osmosis videos before class is

very helpful as it allows me to have a general foundation of knowledge to build upon during the actual

lecture. Group studies have also helped me retain new information better during my studies.