The Wonders of The Genetic World by Laura

The Wonders of The Genetic World by Laura - April 2025 Scholarship Essay

When I was a little kid in Brazil, I lived surrounded by all kinds of stuffed animals and doctor toy kits. I eventually lost most of them when I left for the United States when I was 10, but my aptitude for science only grew stronger. In fifth grade, a teacher noticed my ease in science classes despite having just properly learned English a few months ago. It was then that they asked my parents for a test to determine my academic abilities. I have scored the highest in science, not much to the surprise of my parents. In 9th grade, all it took was a little blurb on heredity and I was hooked. At once, I began to research and soak in almost every bit of information that crossed my path. Of course, once I got into genome mapping and genetic disorders, I finally found my definite field of work. The Human Genome Project was my favorite website for about a year and a half, where I looked over the research done and found it all such an incredible project. To put this simply, this is a project aimed to uncover the many mysteries of the human genome, and led to incredible technological advancements in the world of genetics. I want to work with something like this, developing cures and treatments for genetic disorders.
Aside from the wonders of the area, this position is crucial to the medical field, as many innovations are constantly being developed within this field, as they will first be employed to aid the processing of various medicines. The 2020 pandemic crisis was such a case. The whole world stopped, and the necessity for medical professions, especially in pathology and immunology research, became strikingly clear. One of such advances made by geneticists during the pandemic was the RNA vaccine. These new vaccines are complete game-changers because they will be able to neutralize cold and flu-like viruses much faster than the older versions. But how does it all work? It is quite an ingenious process after all.
How the RNA vaccine works is simple, it is much like a regular vaccine with a watered-down virus that trains the immune system to respond to the real thing. The issue with it is that viruses change their surface proteins very easily, so more and more vaccines have to be created to combat the ever-changing virus. Regular vaccines would only train the immune system to react to specific proteins on the surface of the virus. However, instead of targeting the rapidly-changing antigen, a little piece of genetic material makes cells produce little antigen proteins, also called spike proteins, which are caught by the immune system and removed. RNA vaccines are a treasure trove full of possibilities, and as a future laboratory worker, I would very much enjoy being one of the many to research and develop it.
Thanks to the need for more people in medicine, there will always be a spot for open to begin working, especially such crucial positions like molecular geneticist. I have already begun to find the best possible ways to jumpstart my career. For example, I have been volunteering at the local Blanchard Valley hospital for almost two years, keeping check of all the things that happen in the labs. All in all, the field of medicine has always been fascinating to me since when I was young. Now that it is time to choose a profession, I choose to be a molecular geneticist.