Conferences, Coding, + Biotein : My February
Read to see some learnings from the past month, some stuff I've done, and to gain some value recommendation-wise.
Hey!
Why was the marine biologist so happy? He found his porpoise.
Welcome back to my newsletter. Hope you had a restful February.
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 new product, coding a ton, my work with the Aging and Healthspan Foundation (AHF), speaking at Ignite Science’s event to benefit the Canadian Cancer Society, and reading up on brain aging.
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Biotein
This month, Biotein was able to do so much. We began forming/talking about forming partnerships to distribute and produce our product, researching different lifestyle changes we can recommend, setting up our user-facing website, researching and working on our algorithm, and are working on our proposal for testing our assay. We’ve also submitted our idea to a bunch of competitions.
First, we began forming/talking about different partnerships for the distribution + production of our product. I had a great call with a mentor of mine earlier this month, where we decided it would be amazing to form a partnership and work on distributing our product together. Additionally, we have been working on finding other partners for different regions of the US -> if you know anyone, let us know!
Other than that, we’ve also been researching functional medicine and different lifestyle changes we can recommend that users make based off of the protein concentrations and general aging damage they’ve undergone. We want to make sure we give sound and useful advice around nutrition, types of exercise, and more.
On a technical side, we’ve been working on our algorithm and user-facing website - there’s been some great research and findings we’ve had. Next month, we plan to continue on this, and finish up our user website + put partnerships in writing.
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Mindsets and Philosophy
Also, I've been thinking a lot about mindsets and philosophy lately. Here are some main thoughts I've had (feel free to reply to this email and debate me on anything):
- I think it's really interesting that books can take you through a journey with the narrator, or the protagonist. You level with the protagonist, and you become invested in them in the beginning, only for them to do terrible things, but you understand why (as you get to know them pretty well in the book). You understand them so it forces you to confront your own misdeeds. TV shows can do that sometimes, but it seems to be stronger in books, maybe because you don’t have as strong of an image of the person.
- I find that people always interpret one’s actions as having more intention and thought than they do. There seems to be a general disconnect with your own thoughts and others' thoughts of you. Others tend to think I'm much more on the ball and great than I feel I am, but I tend to think the same of others (from conversations I’ve had with others). I don’t think this is a matter of confidence as much as perception though.
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Coding, and more coding!
I have obsessively been coding this month, and it has honestly been really amazing. I’ve been learning about inherited classes in Java, and creating some really fun games based off of them (word searches, crazy 8’s, wheel of fortune, tictactoe) with different helper classes.
I’ve realized I also really enjoy helping people code. I love helping people go through their problems and debug - I think it’s because I like talking to people, and as a result I enjoy coding + talking to people.
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Knowledge Bytes
Here are some recommendations from the month!
- Funny comedy: The Oatmeal has great comics! A lot of them are hilarious - I really enjoy scrolling through - especially their one about phone conversations.
- Amazing songwriting: Olivia Rodrigo is a great songwriter - drivers license is certainly good, but her original songs are amazing.
- Cool Resource: Stack overflow. Most of you guys already know this, but I had to shoutout stack overflow, it has an answer for EVERYTHING.
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Shoutouts
Here are some fun shoutouts:
Dr. Elena Seranova - thank you for being a great mentor, and for believing in my work and ideas.
Dr. Ed Boyden - it’s been great ideating with you and learning from your experience in neurotech and general ground-breaking ideation/execution.
Ignite Science - this is an organization ‘thank you’, so a little out of the norm, but I really enjoyed my time speaking for your event this month.
Dr. Aubrey de grey, as always, for your useful advice and your encouragement.
The Biotein Team for being as excited about what we do as I am - it’s so energizing talking to you every time we chat.
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 March, I’ll be working on Biotein’s bio-age test, learning about brain aging, coding, continuing my work with the AHF, and having a restful + hackathon-filled March break!
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)