I am in the early stages of researching the role pectins play in the cell walls of the model moss Physcomitrella patens. This will probably be the majority of my PhD thesis work. It is nominally an important step towards sustainable cellulosic biofuels, but I’m really only here to get the training and credentials necessary to do synthetic biology as a career.
Make awesome things. My PI doesn’t like that answer either, but synthetic biology seems like the area with the most potential to build interesting things with a biology background, which is what I have. I got into biology without properly exploring the job opportunities. If I had, I probably would have done engineering. But synthetic biology seems to be a field looking for mad scientists who want to solve problems by noticing how different biological parts can feed into each other, and it seems far more entertaining than anything else I’m qualified to do.
I am in the early stages of researching the role pectins play in the cell walls of the model moss Physcomitrella patens. This will probably be the majority of my PhD thesis work. It is nominally an important step towards sustainable cellulosic biofuels, but I’m really only here to get the training and credentials necessary to do synthetic biology as a career.
If I may be so rude, what are you ultimately interested in doing in synthetic biology?
Make awesome things. My PI doesn’t like that answer either, but synthetic biology seems like the area with the most potential to build interesting things with a biology background, which is what I have. I got into biology without properly exploring the job opportunities. If I had, I probably would have done engineering. But synthetic biology seems to be a field looking for mad scientists who want to solve problems by noticing how different biological parts can feed into each other, and it seems far more entertaining than anything else I’m qualified to do.