In the world of science, every question needs to get solved and every answer introduces new questions. I have chosen Biology, Chemistry and Math for my A level to quench my thirst for science. I was always curious why some people get severe symptoms from the diseases and even die, while others have no symptoms and survive? I wanted to see more people’s lives to be saved and understand how drugs work for treatment in that matter. But it is during my GCSE courses that I began to realise, to my surprise, that drugs do not always work for everybody, that is, everybody is different and the way the drugs behave can be also different for each body.
In order to understand more about the drugs, I had to study biology and chemistry. The more I study these subjects, the more I get exited as they have very close relationship and also do have some overlapping as well.
For example, both are concerned with covalent bonding and the role of enzymes and pH and buffers. Such links have stimulated my curiosity further and made me keen to study Biochemistry at the university level.
This year classes have been particularly exciting as we had opportunities to look more deeply into areas that are often beyond the syllabus. But the most interesting part for me was when I happened to know what it is that has drawn my teachers to choose to pursue careers in Biology and Chemistry. Biochemistry acts a huge role in Pharmacy, Nutrition, Agriculture and Medicine. Teacher was fascinated about it. From this has made me to decide to take this course.
Alongside learning the actual chemistry and biology of various systems, I am also passionate about practical works. I believe I have been making good progress in developing my skills in this area during the A level course. Recently in school, I have learned about the immune responses. I was amazed how T helper cells play an important role and how this process runs in a systematic manner. T helper cells release cytokines to activate the plasma and T killer cells prevent any further infection from the pathogens. With our current danger presented by the pandemic, I am keen to contribute in the future to our understanding of infectious diseases and how to build strategies to defend against them.
Alongside my studies, I am also an avid reader of scientific magazines. During the recent quarantine, I read some interesting articles to do with the immune response, and one that particularly caught my eye was from The Science Times. It was titled ‘Are the flu and cold viruses competitive?’ It investigated what happened when someone contracts two viruses at once, such as a cold and a flu virus. The article argues that viruses behave like rivals and engage in fierce competition. Researchers in Scotland collected virus samples from more than 36,000 volunteers who had caught the flu over the past nine years.
The result has shown that when the flu virus is active, the chance of getting a cold virus was extremely low. Based on this, I am interested in the use of probiotics to treat COVID 19 instead of using drugs. Probiotics must be delivered by hyper hydrophobic tubes into the patient’s body. Then they should act to prevent COVID 19 to colonize host cells and reduce the risk of severity of infections in respiratory tracts. To clarify the effect of competition between COVID-19 and probiotics, researcher’s used technique that I have studied in class. RT-PCR technique that had been used to detect virus’s RNA. After that to check the subject’s amplified DNA the researchers used Agarose Gel electrophoresis that we have also used in our lesson.
Outside of the academic world, I am keen on sports, especially racket-based sports and have a group of friends with whom I play badminton regularly. During my free time I usually enjoy listening to all genres of music and reading not only science books but also fictions. I hope that I can be part of your institution so that I can develop my understanding of biochemistry.
