Lunch with Lumír
For lunch one day, I walked toward the local Greenwich markets to find some food. There, standing all alone, I noticed a world-renowned researcher - Professor Lumír Hanuš.
Lumír was largely responsible for the discovering the first, so-called, 'endocannabinoid' - a cannabis-related chemical produced by the body itself. Lumír has also worked and continues to work closely with Raphael Mechoulam, who has been a pioneer in cannabis research for decades.
To see him standing there all on his own was, to me, an opportunity screaming to be taken. I figured that if I could get an internship in a lab with people who discovered anandamide, I'd surely be putting myself in a better position than where I currently am.
So, despite the long shot, I introduced myself and we got talking.
Lumír was largely responsible for the discovering the first, so-called, 'endocannabinoid' - a cannabis-related chemical produced by the body itself. Lumír has also worked and continues to work closely with Raphael Mechoulam, who has been a pioneer in cannabis research for decades.
To see him standing there all on his own was, to me, an opportunity screaming to be taken. I figured that if I could get an internship in a lab with people who discovered anandamide, I'd surely be putting myself in a better position than where I currently am.
So, despite the long shot, I introduced myself and we got talking.
I told him of my interest in studying the anti-cancer properties of cannabis, and he responded by telling me about an interesting case he examined where a woman with a skin cancer on her nose was able to completely eliminate the tumor, without any adverse side-effects, through the use of a cannabis-derived tincture.
When I asked about doing an internship with him, he said that the ultimate decision would have to come from his boss, Professor Mechoulam, and he advised me on the importance of having high quality lab skills.
This conversation motivated me, not just to focus on getting good grades, but to really hone my lab skills. As a result, I decided to go through the UTS e-request process and gained special approval to enrol in "Analytical Biochemistry" - a subject not normally offered in my degree, but one that focuses on gaining knowledge and experience with various lab instruments and techniques.
This way, I give myself a chance to develop my lab skills to the point where an internship with Professor Hanuš may not be such a long shot after all.