Breaks, Building, and Biotein : My March
Read to see some learnings from the past month, some stuff I've done, and to gain some value recommendation-wise.
Hey!
I was wondering; How does Juliet maintain her body temperature? Romeostasis.
Welcome back to my newsletter. Hope you had a sunny March.
For those who don't know, I'm Nina Khera. You may have met me during a meeting, or at the latest networking event in Boston. I'm a 15-year-old human longevity researcher who's working on projects from topics spanning cellular senescence (zombie cells) to epidermolysis bullosa (skin disease)!
This month I’ve been focusing on Biotein’s bio-age test, my work with the Academy for Health and Lifespan (AHL), coding, finishing up the collaboration with the Gladyshev lab, and finding a summer internship.
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Biotein
This month was a busy one for us! We spoke to companies about assay development, began developing a smartphone reader to quantify the data we got from our assay, created a user website, created a product website, made public-facing website edits, worked on naming our product, getting funding, and a lot more. That was tiring to type out :).
On the scientific side, we’ve been figuring out an option for a company to develop an assay with (or maybe prototyping ourselves), and beginning to develop a reader to quantify assay data. We’re still understanding the former, but the latter is being developed by yours truly - it’s a bit hard to do, but I really enjoy coding, so no complaints there.
On the web dev end, we’ve been making a lot of websites. We’ve made a website for users to track their bio-age test results, a website for users to buy and learn about the bio-age test, and a lot of edits to our current user-facing website (there are 2 new pages!).
We’ve also been naming our product. Surprisingly, this is one of the hardest things we’ve done all month. We have an idea, but are currently testing it out. Stay tuned, because in the next newsletter you may get a name idea!
Next month, we aim to develop the reader, begin on the assay, continue/maybe finish protein validation, work on getting funding (and hopefully secure something), name our product, and finish up the websites.
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Mindsets and Philosophy
Here are some thoughts I’ve been having!
I was listening to Taylor Swift’s ‘mad woman’, and it made me think a lot about how people become what they’re told they are, if that makes sense. I know she wrote it about being vilified in the media and being rightfully angry, but I interpreted it in the sense of becoming who people tell you you are. I’m not saying this is something that’s unavoidable, but it seems to me that there’s a mentality you can get stuck in where this does happen. I’m still trying to figure out what that is though.
At the end of the day, nothing matters except how you and those around you (that you care about) feel. We’re all living in a life that’s going to not be there anymore in a matter of years. I know that’s depressing to think about, but on one hand it’s actually quite motivating. We don’t need to worry about what people think because it’s all temporary. What we do need to worry about is the work we do that leaves us happy (as a baseline of course with occasional fluctuations) until the end.
It’s interesting - sometimes I feel like I’m both going to miss what I have now yet am stuck in my head missing the past. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s probably the crux of being a teenager.
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Coding, and more coding!
Okay, at this point, this is basically a recurring section. However, it’s for good reason as I am literally coding-obsessed. I make coding side projects all the time, I am doing some coding volunteer work, and I am coding a bunch for Biotein… gotta love it.
Coding highlight of the month is making a Monopoly game for sure! I even built in cheating (as you can tell it’s pretty cool). Also, I can’t forget making the Biotein user site, or helping with the AHL’s website :).
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Knowledge Bytes
Here are some recommendations from the month!
- Topic to research: Canine dementia - I was looking into aging-related diseases earlier this month, and came across this. Over 60% of dogs get dementia! That’s crazy to me.
- Songs to listen to: Taylor Swift’s folklore/evermore/entire discography. There, I said it.
- Interesting paper: This one on myelin loss affecting brain aging (I love how they had a sequence of experiments which they chronicled here). For the non-sciency, here’s a good article about it!
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Shoutouts
Here are some fun shoutouts:
Dr. Miller - thank you for all your help with the protein experiments and validation, and all your mentorship/advice for the bio-age test.
Andri Kadaifciu - I don’t tend to shoutout my same-aged friends here, but I wanted to thank you for all your support this past while and everything.
Dr. Seranova - thank you for all your support and help with Biotein’s product + all your mentorship!
Dr. Aubrey de grey - thank you for helping me with your advice for all the issues that unfortunately came up this month!
Nadeem Nathoo - thank you for all your help during our catch up call, it was great talking to you.
Thank you to everyone reading this. Even if I didn't mention you this month. you probably helped me a lot. Thank you!
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Next Month
In April, I’ll be working even more on Biotein’s bio-age test/prepping for our launch, coding a lot more, securing a summer internship, finishing my second last month of school, did I mention coding, and working with the AHF!
Reach out to me if you want to talk about human longevity (or just life sciences in general) or anything else honestly!
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-khera-115b5a175/
Personal Website: https://ninakhera.com/
Email: kheranina@gmail.com (or just reply to this email)