Nina Zhang

Nina Zhang

Biomedicine (viral therapies)

Nina is an 11th grade student from Shanghai American School. She is interested to sign up for a Biomedicine (viral therapies) mentorship program.

Nina is passionate in building a better world through healthcare and medicine. She has basic concepts of biotechnology/life sciences and would like to take it further to the next level with an experienced professor.

University admission result

Emory University


Scope of the program


Overall structure on the Biomedicine (viral therapies) Research Program

An eight week program on biomedicine (viral therapies) research, looking at the concept of repurposing drugs for the treatment of acute viral infection such as COVID19 or Zika virus. Quite a heavy workload as there was some quite complex science to understand. structured such that the first three sessions looked at basic and underlying science of viruses and anti-viral drugs and then at the concept of repurposing in weeks 4 and 5. Final weeks spent discussing academic writing, reading papers and on planning.

Learning objectives

  • To understand the problem biomedicine (viral therapies), particularly in acute viral disease and the challenges that this creates in todays healthcare arena.
  • To understand how drugs can be repurposed to enable a quick and cheap route to viral therapy in emergency situations.
  • To understand how repurposing can benefit all in society not just the wealthy
  • countries.

What challenges did she face?

  • She had to understand some very complex scientific facts and ideas to really get to grips with the whole principle of drug therapeutics by repurposing.


How did our program help her?

  • She accomplished her 3 main learning objectives for this program, which is shown below.
  • She received a highly positive evaluation from the professor who will be happy to write a letter of recommendation for her.


Student’s Testimonial

“Over in the course of this mentorship program, I’ve learned not only a plethora of skills that will be extremely helpful in college, but also a lot of foundation regarding biochemistry. We have covered the basic functions of the cell, purposes of repurposing drugs, how to repurpose drugs, and even some of the chemistry of drugs that are currently being repurposed for COVID.

My mentor was not only patient with my learning, but also displayed a lot of encouragement that was instrumental in the completion of my research paper. This mentorship program really allowed me to experience the content and research that I will face during college, and I will carry the things I’ve learned from this mentorship program throughout college. I’m extremely thankful to my mentor and wish that he helps a lot more students like me excel.”

Nina Zhang

Matched professor:

The mentor is a senior lecturer in Biochemistry and Degree Programme Tutor at UCL. He was involved in setting up and running the very first biotechnology start-up at UCL, London Biotechnology, way back in 1983.

Recommendation letter

“I absolutely would very highly recommend Nina to the top universities. As an admissions tutor at one of the worlds top ten universities I know what it takes for a student to succeed and has these talents in abundance. I believe that she would be an asset to any life science department in any university.

Mentor from UCL


Excerpts from the student’s final research paper

Nina completed a research paper on “The Past, Present, and Future of Repurposing Viral Therapies”.

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