Is it possible to go from chemistry to biology as an undergrad?

[tobyollie]

I'm currently an undergrad who is about to graduate in spring of 2018. My current research experience only includes 1 semester and 2 summers in two labs, both of which are rooted in organic chemistry. The first summer was spent on organic synthesis of intercalators. The next summer and semester (current lab) was spent on learning peptide chemistry and supramolecular chemistry. I will be spending at least one more semester in my current lab, but my grad student will be moving on to his post-doc and I may not have a position in the lab after that. From then, I can try and join a biology-focused lab.

Would it be possible to transition to synthetic biology or biotech related labs given that my experience is limited to chemistry? Has anyone ever had a similar experience and went on to biology grad school? Would it look bad to adcoms to see that I switched fields at the end of my undergrad career?

[Dragon_ChemBio]

Switching fields isn't uncommon, so you should be fine.

There's an old saying that it's easier to teach a synthetic chemist biology, than to teach a biologist synthetic chemistry.

[LadyScientist]

I agree with @Dragon_ChemBio. Switching fields is not unheard of! I think the most important thing here is that you have a lot of research experience! And I do think it would be great to gain some experience in a biology-related lab if switching fields is what you want to do. It will look good to have experience in both chemistry and biology when you go to apply!

[Browncoat5871]

On 12/23/2016 at 3:47 PM, tobyollie said:

I'm currently an undergrad who is about to graduate in spring of 2018. My current research experience only includes 1 semester and 2 summers in two labs, both of which are rooted in organic chemistry. The first summer was spent on organic synthesis of intercalators. The next summer and semester (current lab) was spent on learning peptide chemistry and supramolecular chemistry. I will be spending at least one more semester in my current lab, but my grad student will be moving on to his post-doc and I may not have a position in the lab after that. From then, I can try and join a biology-focused lab.

Would it be possible to transition to synthetic biology or biotech related labs given that my experience is limited to chemistry? Has anyone ever had a similar experience and went on to biology grad school? Would it look bad to adcoms to see that I switched fields at the end of my undergrad career?

I have to agree with everyone here, it's actually really easy.  I did it myself when I went for my masters, going from Chemistry to Biomedical with no real background besides a molecular biology course.  Especially after undergrad, a lot of the basic biology is gone over again and there are plenty of people that are learning the material for the first time.  For me, the background in chemistry actually helped when it came to understanding a lot of the experiments in the lab I'm in, so maybe it might help you too.  Good luck!