My tryst with Biotechnology

I wish I had an exciting story to narrate when people ask me why I chose Biotechnology. But unlike most other students, I didn’t choose it for the fascination I had for Biology or because of how I marvelled at the minute intricacies of nature. I chose it because I liked taking apart the legs of bugs and putting them back again as a kid and felt this would give me more opportunities to pursue my hobby.

But soon into the course, came the time when I actually fell head over heels in love with Biotechnology. I used to go extra miles to read new interesting things that I’ve never heard before. Then during one period I started obsessing over it to the point where I convinced my friends that nothing on earth can be as exciting as biotechnology. My biggest achievement was when my mom started referring to fruit flies as ‘Drosophila’ on a daily basis like it was the most natural thing for a mom to do.

Before long, my undergraduation came to an end and I was at crossroads as to choose one field to narrow down for my masters. I really had no idea on what to go for because all of them were dear to me and I didn’t really prefer to weigh one over the other.

My first love, which was Genetic Engineering, beckoned me to the wonderful world of fooling around with genes. It is almost as if God gave us a few building blocks out of his own lego kit to play with.

Bioremediation was a clean sweep (quite literally) and Biofuels tempted me with these awesome stuff to run your car on instead of the boring petrol.

Immunology remained close to my heart because it taught me how entirely different individuals (antibodies) can get attracted, complement and bond perfectly with each other.

But everytime, it was Microbiology that always reassured me how I am surrounded by millions of these little guys even when I feel lonely. Who can resist the allure of these cute tiny things?

The most tempting area was Bioinformatics and Systems Biology which keeps reminding how brilliant human brains are enough to create artificial systems that can actually surpass our wildest dreams!

I always thought Animal cell culture was wacky and more my kind. Because, for starters, it involved growing a part of a living tissue on a dish. And second, the fact that certain cells like HeLa cells can live forever(immortality mania) is like straight out of fiction.

After spending so many sleepless nights wondering what subject to specialise in and if I would hurt their feelings by picking one over the others, I decided that all of them were equally interesting. So I went on to do my Masters in Biotechnology as a whole once again, at the University of Glasgow in UK.

In a few more months I will be in those crossroads once again to choose what I want to do after my masters. So till then, I am going to live my Homo sapien life to the fullest and bond with the delightful little moulds that are currently infesting my bathroom! They look like “fun-guys” ;)