Dr. Xie's Advice to Trainees: Be Comfortable Using AI Tools
Dr. Mengyu Xie began her time at Moffitt Cancer Center in 2013 as a Cancer PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Amer Beg. Her research focused on studying novel immunity pathways in response to RAS inhibitors in NSCLC and melanoma.
After completing her PhD at Moffitt, Dr. Xie continued her time at Moffitt working in the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Department as a postdoctoral fellow under Dr. A.C. Tan. In this position. Dr. Xie was able to deepen her problem-solving skills using computational methods. Dr. Xie took the time to learn coding skills during her PhD study, which opened the opportunity for this transition between her PhD work and postdoctoral position. Along with these skills, the critical thinking and experiment design principles Dr. Xie developed at Moffitt play a key role in her continued success.
Currently, Dr. Xie is a data scientist at a software company called Salesloft. Her daily work involves building end-to-end machine learning and AI solutions to enhance workflow for enterprise sellers.
Exploring a non-healthcare work domain has allowed Dr. Xie to take on skills that she otherwise would not have been introduced to. “It’s challenging,” she states, “but I believe it will be rewarding when I return to my field.” The two reasons for this current career shift are “an opportunity to learn how businesses operate/meet people from diverse backgrounds and acquire solid engineering skills in the SaaS industry.” These two reasons have broadened Dr. Xie’s vision and instilled the habit of considering scalability when starting a proof-of-concept solution.
After her first year in her current position, Dr. Xie was awarded “Rookie of the Year”. This is due to her remarkable work and ability to learn skills at a rapid pace, an incredible accomplishment to receive especially with the different educational background Dr. Xie holds compared to her current position.
Dr. Xie’s advice to current trainees is, “learn to code if you haven’t yet and be comfortable using AI tools to facilitate your study and research.” She also highly encourages trainees of all levels to participate in the group learning/social events at Moffitt because they are good opportunities to build relationships with peers and advisors.