Statement Of Purpose In Microbiology

Statement of Purpose “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing”. -Albert Einstein
Curiosity is the one way of asking questions, new findings will give birth to new questions; this is how science grows. I was in 12th standard, when I studied chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology as core subject. Biology was fascinated me tremendously particularly when I was introduced to field of microbiology. I used to wonder how these primitive microbes grow and communicate with each other. Theoretical knowledge of microbiology grabbed my attention and made me curious about these tiny microbes which we cannot be seen through our naked eyes. Therefore I decided to pursue my higher studies and specialisation in microbiology.
I started my graduation
principle scientist Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan (Scientist F) on topic entitled as “Prevalence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) on amphibians in India”. This parasitic chytrid fungus grows on skin of frog, leading to blockage of gaseous exchange and osmoregulation due to which the infected frog gets a cardiac arrest. Here, my work is to collect frog’s surface microbiome from forest by non-invasive cotton swabbing technique followed by total DNA extraction from swab sample. I do PCR to check the prevalence of Bd fungus and qPCR to quantify fungal load on the frog’s body. I perform culturing of fungus from frogs toe clip. Apart from molecular and microbiology, I am advancing myself to learn bioinformatics tool Next generation sequencing analysis to analyse whole genome sequencing data and biostatistics with R