Amy, Xin ZHENG, a recent graduate of the University of Macau (UM) the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) chose to intern at Guangzhou KingMed Diagnostics, a leading medical testing enterprise in China, during her summer vacation in order to apply her academic knowledge in practice and to confirm her future career development direction. She participated in the company’s analytical testing work, gaining firsthand practical experience.
During her internship, Amy was assigned to a team that focuses on Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology, where she learned the main processes of NGS, Metagenomic Pathogen Capture Sequencing technology (metacap), and Targeted Next Generation Sequencing (tNGS); including extraction, library preparation, and result interpretation. Not only did she learn how to perform metacap and tNGS, but also mastered the skills of interpreting results and writing lab reports.
Amy believes that the content of the internship is in line with her Bachelor’s degree programme, and she was able to apply the knowledge learnt during her undergraduate courses through the internship programme, especially in the fundamental techniques, such as cell lysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), purification, and quality control. Unlike university research, the internship work mainly follows established procedures for analytical testing, while research work focuses on innovation and breakthroughs. She said that the internship allowed her to experience the meticulousness of testing work, where each operational step requires maximum precision. At first, she observed the staff actually performing the procedure, recorded the entire process in detail, and read it repeatedly. Finally, under the patient guidance of the staff, she participated in the fundamental work of blood and cerebrospinal fluid sample extraction.
She is very grateful for the attention and instruction of the corporate staff during her internship. They patiently explained the underlying principles of the experiments to her. She said, “In addition to developing my skills and knowledge, this internship also allowed me to foster my ability to work with others and team spirit. This internship has been a great benefit to my future career by allowing me to directly face my strengths and weaknesses.”
She learned the main processes of NGS
She is learning the fundamental techniques