Bachelor of Biological Science at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Medical Writer Intern at Thomson Medical
🎉 Just submitted my R coding project, and what an insightful journey it has been! Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the chance to dive deep into R programming, which I found to be quite similar to Python (a language I learned last semester). However, this time, the focus on machine learning added an exciting dimension. From analyzing, classifying, and grouping data, it’s been fascinating to explore how computational tools can create meaningful insights across various industries. 🔬 Our project: We developed a machine learning model to classify cancer stages based on bacterial abundance at tumor sites using the BIC database. This project was especially exciting because of its potential significance in the biomedical field. One of the major challenges in cancer diagnosis today lies in distinguishing between healthy individuals and those in stage I cancer. At this early stage, differences in microbiomes are minimal, making detection difficult. While later-stage cancers show more noticeable changes in the tumor microenvironment and bacterial profiles, this isn’t as evident earlier. Our model highlights this challenge, and we suspect that limited data capturing these subtle differences contributes to the issue. Nevertheless, we remain hopeful for advancements in this area to improve early-stage diagnosis. 💡 Key takeaways: Coding: Tackling machine learning algorithms for data classification was both challenging and rewarding. People management: Every teammate has a unique working style, so effective collaboration and responsibility-sharing were key. Time management: Balancing a large data-intensive project while preparing for finals required careful planning and prioritization. Of course, the journey wasn’t without struggles—perfecting the code for a large dataset was tricky. But with teamwork and persistence, we accomplished our goals! 🙏 Huge thanks to my amazing teammates for their support and collaboration throughout this process. It was meaningful and rewarding to work with all of you. To everyone tackling finals, best of luck! We’ve got this! 💪✨ #RProgramming #MachineLearning #DataScience #BiologicalSciences #CodingJourney