Sorry for the late response. Not sure if XXX’s(我老板) mentioned, but my wife and I recently welcomed a baby girl, so things are a bit hectic here. :)
Well, so yeah, you should definitely apply to the program. One of the things the admissions committee is looking for is research experience. If you could have a paper or two published or in submission, it would really help strengthening your app.
In regards to your research, given the problems with XXX, do you have some sort of intervention that you have thought of and want to test?