My Motivation To Pursue A Biomedicine Course

The human body can be compared to a machine – so efficient, so intricate. The fact that it manages to contain all of our organs, as well as manage billions of complex functions, is just extraordinary and when I really studied in depth the amount of work our body performs every second, my curiosity on the subject increased substantially. Comment by Roshni Nambiar: More explanation

Body 1: Subjects

The A-level course has certainly shaped my decision to choose this particular course. In the interest of developing my analytical and arithmetical skills, I took up Mathematics and Physics.

Body 2: Work Experience and other related activities, Book, Virgin Stem Cells Lab

After I made the decision to explore the career of medicine, I went for some work experience at the Bones and Joints Centre, where I met a diverse crowd of both doctors and patients. From the medical staff, I learnt a little more about what the job was like and gained a bit of knowledge on certain orthopaedic procedures. However, my interactions with some of the patients not only refined my interpersonal skills but also made me understand the certain conditions to a different level. Recently, I participated in a few medical research conferences, where I investigated two distinct topics: the Health Effects of Shisha and CAR T-Cells. During my investigation on shisha, we had to conduct a survey as well as study several research reports only to find some controversial results, about the extent of shisha as a health issue, which we had to present at a conference in the Weill Cornell Medical University in Qatar. This experience sparked my interest in the field of research in terms of medicine.

My project on the CAR T-Cells made me realise that the application of immunological science could be limitless and recently the world has acknowledged it as the Nobel Prize went towards this science. Comment by Roshni Nambiar: More details on it, maybe mention the Nobel prizeA trip to Virgin’s Blood bank gave me some insight about the current and future prospects of the umbilical cord stem cells. I have always found the science behind the stem cells very fascinating and it is amazing how they can use these haematopoietic stem cells to help people with certain disorders. In Michio Kaku’s “Physics of the Future”, there are lots of ideas on how science can affect our lives in the future. In particular, I found his views on nanomedicine, where nanobots could be inserted into a person’s body to eradicate specific illnesses and how these bots could be used for surveillance of any health issues, quite intriguing. Kaku also mentions the uses of the genome technology and how it can be used to aid the evaluation of a person’s health. His outlook on the genome stimulated my curiosity and lead me to picking up two books: “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins, as well as “Music of Life: Beyond the Genome” by Denis Noble. The point that really fascinated me is how scientists can have such contradictory views, because while Dawkin presents the genes as a code for life, referring to us as “robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve selfish molecules known as the gene”; Noble takes a broader view, where he mentions that the genes are almost like an orchestra where several symphonies can be placed together to be expressed in an infinite variety of ways and how we as intelligent beings are the reason for their existence. Comment by Roshni Nambiar: Re- word it to make more sense. Note that each gene can be compared to a note.

Body 3: Other Activities e. g. MUN, DoE, Prefect, Mentoring, Deputy Head Girl

There were many supplementary activities that I took part in to build up my overall work ethic and skills. Firstly, my involvement with MUN has helped me become a versatile person with knowledge about global issues and it has also supported the development of my communal skills. Currently, I have the opportunity to mentor a Year 12 Physics class and a general IGCSE science class, and I believe that this has helped me express my understanding of these subjects. Lastly, my roles of leadership, as prefect and as Deputy Head Girl has increased my management competence and has allowed me to be very involved in many of the activities around school. Therefore, I believe that it was not just a single experience that has defined my choice to study this course but a journey - which I hope to continue because the knowledge that can be gained in science is infinite. The development of the medical sciences, in particular, can carve out what our future will be like and how comfortable we will live.