אי שם מעבר לים

Yep, this post’s title is also my new job title! I decided to take one of the positions they offered me at Broad. Put simply, I will be analyzing data from biological/medical experiments, in order to understand which human genes are associated with which medical conditions, mainly cancer related. Using some professional terminology - I'll design and implement computational methods for the analysis of (very specific, experimentally generated) gene expression data. The 'associate' at the beginning of the title is there so as for everybody to know I don't hold a Ph.D…

I'm starting on Oct. 1st, per my request, as I wanted to enjoy the city of Boston a bit before it gets too cold and before I get too busy. But I did ask them if there’s anything they'd like me to read before I get there, just to receive a list of 5 papers and 4 books that they think I might want to take a look at, and the names of two programming languages I never used that I might want to get familiar with… A day later I got an email from my boss in which she suggests that I attend a biology course given in MIT this semester. Lectures takes place 3 times a week, and as it has already started a couple of weeks ago, I'm closing my gaps right now by watching the recorded videos of the course lectures available to everyone. I'll start attending the course this Friday. But hey - this was the whole idea of going to Broad - study, study, study. So I'm not really complaining here, just telling a story… In fact, I'm very excited about working there. Hope it will live up to my expectations.

Oh, and did I mention already that Broad is located about 2km from where we live, just at the end of the street next to ours? That there is a bus that stops just next to our home that takes me there in less than 10 min.? That I can also walk 7 min. to the subway station (if weather permits) and ride only two stops to get there?