He has started doing research to avoid burnout during his medical studies, and he quickly realized that to be the best clinician, he needs to be at the forefront of the scientific work, and help make discoveries that ultimately benefit patient care. He always performs outstanding work and attends all project and group meetings. In April, Yoon Kee Beck was named Project Student of the Month at the Center for Translational Medicine.
Yoon Kee Beck is a fourth-year medical student at Semmelweis University who joined the scientific work as a project student. Before he started his medical studies, he attended Baylor University in Texas, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. “I would like to start doing research in high school, but the school where I attended did not have this option. Therefore, I started looking for opportunities at the university, but it was not easy to find any. The only group that accepted me without research experience was in linguistics. But I didn't hesitate, and to gain some experience, I joined the Spanish linguistic research group. I studied literature coming from Latin America. After having a year and a presentation at my university, I got involved in other research.“
At Baylor University, Yoon Kee Beck was involved in the research of Dr. Elyssia Gallagher. Their research team worked on bioanalytical chemistry to find a new technique to visualize aptamers using capillary zone electrophoresis. Later, he was involved in research in a biomedical company designing diagnostic kits for gastrointestinal diseases for qPCR. Yoon Kee Beck wanted to continue research after he started his medical studies at Semmelweis University. He first did research at the Department of Molecular Biology under Dr. Tamas Meszaros and co-authored an article. He joined Dr. Balint Erőss's research group at CTM after a summer practice to investigate the treatment of diabetes through transplantation.
“As a TDK student at CTM, my job is to help a PhD student with his research by collecting data and selecting the most appropriate articles for our topic. I feel recharged by participating in research. On the other hand, I think that to become the best clinician, I need to be on the front line of scientific work and help make discoveries that can be beneficial to patient care. Since I want to pass medical knowledge to the next generation, working as a TDK student motivates me to keep on in medical school.” In clinical work, Yoon Kee Beck is most interested in internal medicine, especially pancreatology. He stresses the importance of diagnosing pancreatic diseases early, when patients can be treated with good outcomes. In research, he is interested in reducing septic complications after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).
(Szabó Emese)