Mom's death spurred aspiring clinician scientist to emerge as one of SP's top graduates

15 May 2017

Stomp, 12 May 2017 - Article featured SP’s Diploma in Biotechnology (DBT) graduate and Institutional Medallist Don Loi Xu. As a child, Don Loi had always been interested in Biology and his favourite movies included Jurassic Park and Spiderman as the scientific themes inspired and fascinated him. He enrolled into SP’s DBT course as he believed that SP was the most renowned and prestigious polytechnic and the course would equip him with the necessary knowledge and skills that could be applied for the greater good. In Don’s final year of study, his mother passed away from sudden cardiac arrest just a month before he was due to begin his internship at the Agency for Science, Technology And Research (A*STAR).Despite the devastating loss of the pillar of his life, the A*STAR Science Award recipient resolved to do well for his internship as he wanted to make his late mum proud. During his seven-month internship at A*STAR, Don collaborated with scientists on experiments and contributed to new ideas and treatments related to stem cell research.He was also given the opportunity to present at various seminars. Impressed with his aptitude and attitude, the organisation offered Don the prestigious A*STAR MBBS-PhD National Science Scholarship in principle. Don has applied to The National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and aspires to become a clinician scientist.  COMMS note: This is part of our Graduation 2017 stories.