Although COVID-19 has restricted the opportunities I hoped to involve myself, my research position has fortunately been able to be continued despite the shortcoming of a virtual environment. In my research, I evaluate the number of mitotic figures in a given histopathological slide, which is a sample of sarcoma and other cancerous soft tissue. The interface I use known as Histomics UI allows me to scan and annotate these slides to address the probability of an ensuing occurrence of cell division. Using the annotations, the research team hopesto find a computational algorithms that uses Artificial Intelligence to scan and find the mitotic figures.
Initially, first trying to find these figures prove to be difficult, as I have never had any experience of mitotic figures in this setting. I found myself getting easily discouraged and disappointed with myself as my colleagues on the team were exceptional at this task. Learning to be patient with myself has been very important in order to maintain my self-esteem. Unfortunately, however, the server crashed and erased all the data acquisition my team and I have been collecting. Since, we have been trying to recollect the data without getting discouraged.
Remembering that we were a team and that we will work through these setbacks was very important. Although I am not always the most optimistic person, manifesting and trying to work with a productive, joyful energy truly makes a difference.