Personal story: from dreams to global impact from Guodong Weng
“You don’t need to see the whole path at the start, only the next question worth pursuing”
I was motivated to do research because I am curious about what is usually overlooked. The start of my career path was driven by curiosity about signals that are barely visible. I focused on metabolites that are so low in concentration that many believed they are impractical to detect in vivo. During my PhD, I worked on developing methods that have been later recognized as SLOW spectral editing. The process was incremental and often challenging. Developing new methods taught me that progress rarely comes from a single breakthrough, it comes from endurance, willingness to learn from failure, and formulating better questions.
Seeing SLOW-MRSI moving from a technical idea to a method used in clinical routine, assiting in the process of characterization of glioma metabolism, was a turning point for me. What started as fundamental research is now applied and recognized across multiple institutes worldwide. This reinforced my belief that rigorous methods can truly make a difference.
More recently, I stepped into a new environment to adapt SLOW for standard 3 Tesla scanners, expanding its accessibility to the population in Switzerland and beyond. Today, a significant part of my work involves supporting and mentoring collaborators across sites, ensuring reproducibility and shared learning.
As an early-career researcher, I learned that you don’t need to follow a straight or predefined path to make an impact. My path has not been linear, but it has shown me that impactful research grows through collaboration, patience, and the courage to pursue ideas that take time to mature. After a year at Yale University developing my 7 Tesla to 3 Tesla translation work in a new environment, I have now returned to our institution with ongoing excitement, new perspectives, and an even stronger belief in collaboration and shared learning experiences.
