Why do you want to do [insert specific subfield of biology]?

[gadhelyn]

Why do you want to study whatever specific subfield you have chosen?

I'm looking to study bioinformatics, the absolutely fun sounding combination of mathematics, biology, and computer science.

It's also a good blend of both my parents. My dad's a pediatrician and my mom's a math teacher.

I was into physics and math before I settled on biology. I discovered biology through my job in a Med School lab that I took as an undergrad to (barely) pay bills and get food. I'm still with the lab, having graduated 2 years ago. It has helped me find the aspects of biology that I find most interesting, specifically signal transduction and protein structure and function.

But after switching to biology, I found myself longing for the...discipline of mathematics and computer science. Signal transduction is extremely complex and always fluid. There's a lot of proteins out there and without detailed knowledge of the structure and its relation to its function and how the structure changes in response to events it can be fairly difficult to be sure of what's happening. Especially when different pathways are studied in different cell types.

Last year I took another comp sci course, programming for the sciences, which was basically an intro to MATLAB. I really liked it, especially when we had the assignment of making a script that would read a protein database file then draw the carbon backbones of a few proteins. That class, combined with the questions above led me to really want to help figure out computer models that would hopefully simplify all the data.

[Astaroth]

I'm fascinated by molecular biology and genetics. I've taken that angle on biology since the start of my undergrad, which is why I went for a Genetics degree. I'm not really sure what led me to this field. My parents are both bankers although my dad studied mechanical engineering. My first exposure to the world of biology, from what I can recall, was hearing about the cloning of Dolly the sheep on the news. It was the first time that the idea of being a geneticist was elevated to the same status as the proverbial "rocket science" in my mind.

I never liked ecology, at least not most of it. I enjoyed some behavioural ecology lectures in my first year undergrad, and enjoyed a course of tutorials on life history evolution, but otherwise I really was doing this for the molecular stuff. My year in industry project was on promoter methylation in cancer which got me really interested in the stuff. I started getting more in depth on things like DNA repair and the cell cycle. In my final year I did a module on cancer which I really enjoyed, so I'm pretty sure I'd like to do something related to cancer. I also enjoyed a virology module so a combination of these two would also be great, although there aren't that many labs taking that angle at the schools I applied to.

Finally, and most unexpectedly for me, I have become absolutely fascinated with molecular machines, after doing a module with the same name. Perhaps it stems from my dad's educational background, or my brief flirting with physics during high school, but I am just fascinated by how these bundles of protein and RNA can do amazing things like generate force and do mechanical work. I'm especially interested in the ribosome and the F-type ATPase, although that just stems from what I've been taught. I'm sure there are lots of equally fascinating molecular motors out there to study. My supervisor works on muscle myosin, which I found very interesting when I was taught it, but when delving deeper into the literature around it it seemed like quite a hectic and confusing field to work in so I will probably avoid it. I'm almost regretting applying for general Biology or Cell & Molecular PhDs and not Biophysics, but I can always spin it that way (if I actually get accepted anywhere).

As for why I want to do my PhD in America... that's in part thanks to my supervisor urging me to get as much diversity in my career as I can so that by the time I get my own lab, I have many connections with many different parts of the world. He also argues that it's important to experience the different academic climates that exist on either side of the Atlantic, and I would in fact go on to say that it's also important to experience industry and not just academia. I've no doubt that academia is the thing for me, but if I hadn't spent a year in industry I may have had doubts about it. Another thing is that while there are great british universities where you can do really good research and get a great PhD, I think that in terms of employability and how "impressive" it sounds on paper, a PhD from a well known american university is probably better. This isn't really a main reason for me, because I know that the name of the university is nowhere near as important as the name of your PhD mentor, and you don't need to be an Ivy League to have good PIs in your faculty.

The other aspect of this is just really wanting a change of scene. England is a great place to live and York is an especially wonderful city (not sure about some other parts of the country...) but America offers such a variety of places to experience, anything from the intensely metropolitan cities to the beautiful small towns in the mountains or the middle of vast forests, all the way to scorching desert and beach life. Not that I will have any sort of interaction with these environments as a PhD student (I'm sure I'll be spending a lot more time having conversations with pipettes and drosophila rather than friends) but I am really looking forward to experiencing these places. It will also be nice to experience more than one season every year (Britain essentially has an annoying fusion of all the seasons throughout the year with very small fluctuations). I also will not miss some aspects of British culture, but let's not get into that.

[Oops, I guess I do go on sometimes. That was a bit of an essay, sorry.]

[gadhelyn]

He also argues that it's important to experience the different academic climates that exist on either side of the Atlantic, and I would in fact go on to say that it's also important to experience industry and not just academia. I've no doubt that academia is the thing for me, but if I hadn't spent a year in industry I may have had doubts about it.

[Oops, I guess I do go on sometimes. That was a bit of an essay, sorry.]

I met with a professor in the program to which I'm applying over at NC State back in October, she taught my sister-in-law's intro to stat class. She said that, at least for their program, they highly value people who are seasoned over someone who is just finishing up undergrad.

And no worries about an essay, it's a very interesting read. my Co-PI is actually British, has been in America for 10 years, so I'm sure she went through a similar though process before coming over, although she got her PhD there.

And isn't it cool what proteins can do? The protein structure and function thought that I had (and I wrote this into my SoP) came from a lab meeting. One of the postdocs was presenting on how he hypothesized one protein, when phosphorylated at a specific site, will change it shape and then will attach itself to another, and he demonstrated this with squiggles on the board. Our PI pointed out that he might be walking onto shaky ground with the drawings if he can't back it up (which would require, currently, an x-ray crystalography session). So I've been fascinated with the idea of predicting the change of shape after phosphorylation and its new functions after phosphorylation.

[ndufour]

I suppose my interest would most readily align with that of the topic creator. What I want to study can be summed up as any property of a biological system that cannot or will not be observed when the small constitutive agent is observed. I feel that these phenomena represent a new fundamental level in biology; that is to say, they are not readily described by the context (like so much else in biology) but rely on the nature of the interaction between the agents rather than the proteins involved. While I do think it's important to study such proteins, so much in biology (as I said in another topic) has become "what protein binds to that? oh, protein Z? alright. What protein binds to this? ah, protein L. What protein binds to..." etc etc, essentially characterizing organisms rather than elucidating anything that can be called paradigmatic.

Certain things, (neurons being the canonical example) like the microorganisms in the Dictiostelida and Myxococcus genuses exhibit astonishing self-organization that results in new behavior that can't be easily explained by looking at a single agent (i.e., a single bacterium). This of course goes far beyond biology and has pretty big implications for stuff like information, systems, and control theory but is probably best exemplified by biology.

I'm also really interested in the reform of evolutionary theory and how it applies to the philosophy of science. You may have guessed already that I'm anti-reductionist, and I think the current "levels of selection" framework is silly and dated, and has to struggle to explain green-beard genes or altruism. Anyway, that's my 2 cents, as worthless as they may be haha.

[snap]

The reason I am posting here without actually answering the original question is because I really enjoyed reading this thread (especially ndufour and gadhelyn). I think I want to study Bioinformatics but I really don't know why (except for my inclination towards maths, physics and computers); which is why I am reading this thread.

I would like to hear more from you guys.

I agree with ndufour's non-reductionist idea. So are you going for Bioinformatics? or something else?

[Serric]

I have two main interests in biology, and (fortunately) have managed to find a few labs that combine them.

My primary research interest is pre/postnatal neural stem cells, with emphases on directed differentiation and integration into neural circuits. I've been absolutely fascinated by the brain for as long as I can remember, probably due in no small part to growing up and watching my grandfather suffer from Alzheimer's. It's always seemed...I guess 'wrong' is the word I'm looking for, that a small injury to the brain can result in anything from a person being unable to walk to being a prisoner within their own minds, and I'd like to contribute my own small effort to alleviating that.

My secondary research interest is in retroviral/adeno-associated viral vectors (particularly AAV serotype 8), and rep-mediated site-specific integration. My motivation for this is a bit different: I've always had a bit of a thing for superheroes, and wondered how superheroes could keep their powers if it was some chemical formula that had given it to them. I thought about it, then read an article talking about 'actual' ways they could've gotten their powers (barring the miracle exceptions, of course) and they mentioned the possible utilization of a retroviral vector to create Captain America or something like that, and I was instantly interested. After I did a project in an upper division cell/molec bio class and a review paper on the current state of AAV vectors, I realized they could be combined to transfect stem cell populations with useful genes and was immediately sold on the concept.

Plus, y'know...I'd like to have the training so that, if we ever DO discover "superhuman" genes, I'd like to have the tools to pull off the stereotypical mad scientist shpiel.

(Yes, I know it doesn't work that way...I can still dream, though.)

[yinyangwriter]

I am interested in environmental microbiology and bioinformatics. I am particularly interested in studying microbial diversity in cool places like the Amazon Rainforest. :-) Can't wait to get started.

[Genomic Repairman]

I chose my field because of its rich history, ever expanding boundaries, and it has implications in numerous clinical diseases. Also I have to stretch, I have to be a geneticist, molecular biologist, biochemist, pathologist, immunologist, etc. My work blends so many disciplines and has a good variety of directions that I could head in. All of these opportunities drew me to my field.

[Tall Chai Latte]

I'm pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology. Because my undergrad research background was in structural biology, through coincidence I had a chance to utilize NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography for my projects, and I really loved my work. From there I'm interested in structure-based drug design by NMR and/or X-ray crystallography (or any other method, I'm keeping my mind very open), instead of studying protein structures in solution, I'd like to take a more practical approach and make good use of structural information of proteins in biomedical research.

How I ended up with this field took me totally by surprise. I loved biochemistry/biology as an undergrad but was never quite the math/physics person, so I didn't think of structural biology at all. During the summer of my second year, I sent out mass emails to faculty members asking for an undergrad research position in their labs. The PI I worked with (and am still working with) replied me, that was how I started working with NMR and structural biology. Interesting eh? It wasn't like "I want to be a research scientist when I was in 2nd grade" for me, and the decision to grad school was even more recent.

I haven't come to any decision as to where I'm gonna make this happen. It's still early Feb!

Edited February 9, 2010 by TallChai

[genotype]

Well, my interests at this point lie in two main areas of genetics. As an undergrad, I worked on the function of an essential tubulin gene in yeast, and was involved in generating several point mutants to help elucidate this gene's function in spindle pole body assembly. This led to a publication and several presentations. At this point, I'm particularly fascinated by how gene families influence development (epistatic interactions as well as differential expression in various tissues etc.) as well as by the genetics of tumorigenesis. I am lucky enough to be applying to a program with a number of faculty members who do research in these areas, and this institution also offers a rotation program. I have found from past experience that the environment of the lab (in terms of whether people get along, how supportive the PI is of grad students, etc.) makes a big difference in terms of research productivity, and so I certainly intend to factor that in before deciding on a permanent lab placement. That is, if I am accepted to the program, of course. I'm ready to get started!

[gradcafe_st]

systems biology:

1st I love Math! I have a molecular bio major and a math minor.

2nd I like coding but not enough to study bioinformatics!

3rd I want to be in the lab but I want to model too. So systems bio. which combines the two is a perfect fit.