Where are you at this time and what are you most likely to be doing?
Once a month I’m at an online research meeting with scientists in Singapore. Our group here at WID is collaborating with a group of Singapore scientists to examine the gut microbiomes of people in the two countries. We’re interested to see how two very diverse populations with different diets look microbiome- wise. We’re starting with a depressed population, and will use an app called Healthy Minds to see whether we can intervene and make people less depressed. Our data from a previous study says the app reduces depression and also affects composition of the microbiome. We are also hoping to build algorithms that can predict who will be depressed and who will respond to the meditation intervention based on many biological measures.

What would you be shocked to find yourself doing at this time?
I’d be shocked to find this meeting sparsely attended or quiet. There’s probably about seven P.I.s (Principal Investigators) on each side, so this is a big meeting, maybe ten people attend each meeting. It’s striking how much scientists in both countries want these meetings, even though they’re not at the most convenient time for either. For them, it’s first thing in the morning, and they’re probably all eager to get to the rest of their day. For us, we’re winding down. But the scientists are
highly engaged in this project and have a striking level of enthusiasm.

What’s your favorite thing about this time of day?
The main workday is over, so I’m more relaxed and entirely focused on the science. It’s really fun to be planning the experiment from scratch.

Least favorite?
This is not tied to a time of day, but the hardest part of the project has been in reaching agreements between the two institutions. Singapore administration
functions differently from the UW. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to handle cultural differences in negotiation and It’s challenging to negotiate across the ocean with people in a different time zone.

How can you tell if your work is going well?
Usually through engagement of the scientists. In our last meeting, what struck me and my counterpart PI on the other side of the ocean was how everybody had something to say, and there was a lot of laughter, lots of smiling, and great engagement in making scientific decisions. It’s also gratifying to watch members of the team interact with those in the same discipline in the other country—science bridges cultures and connects people in such a unique way.

What tells you it’s not going as expected? What do you do when that happens?
If we can’t recruit study participants as quickly as we’d like, that could be a real roadblock to success, but both groups have good track records of
recruiting eager participants. To keep the science in the two countries comparable, we will compare methods and strategies, and do a lot of quality control. We hope to visit each other’s labs and analyze the same sample to make sure we get similar results.