I am Sofiia, starting university next year to study biomedical science and in love with all things musicals, animals, biology, STEM, science, disability awareness, neurodiversity inclusion and more.
Such an interesting article that I can't wait to mull over. I can't add anything of technical value but the absolute rabbit holes I've gotten into from "hmm, I should check about diseases in dogs to keep an eye on" to "wow, mosquito borne diseases are very high" to " oh my goodness, why do I have so many papers saved on impeding the ventral nerves in mosquitos to test blood hunting mechanism inhibitions..." have nearly all converted to genetically engineered mosquitos with Ago2 gene disactivation or susceptibility to infection symptoms. The fears of genetic engineering to evade diseases by almost the flip side of making the vector susceptible strikes me with the same ethical, biological and genetic risks, plus the huge issues with bioweaponory and double use tech.
A split between career capital, skills, experience and others:
Get into university (this is a working towards goal to start biomedical science in Sept 2025), dependant on alevel results (find out in August)
Podcast episodes (under the microscope) release at least 6 cell-ebrity episodes with biologists doing good and making an impact
Do frequent (e.g. weekly) bio bite episodes
Write at least 10 blog posts or forum posts on biology and biorisk topics to grow skills in comms and literature
Get an internship at a lab for the summer (ideally to learn technical wet lab skills relevant to genetics, epidemiology, vaccines, infectious disease etc)
How others can help
If anyone has any connections for wet lab internships in England or who may consider grant funding (eg charities, stipends) for 18 year old for this purpose
Anyone working in the bioscience fields interested in being interviewed on the podcast
Anyone who wants to collaborate on a paper especially in biosecurity who needs a less qualified but very ambitious and hard working individual to research or write parts of it
Thank you so much for this! Amazing to see some application-based ways to make an impact with biology/health!
Such an interesting article that I can't wait to mull over. I can't add anything of technical value but the absolute rabbit holes I've gotten into from "hmm, I should check about diseases in dogs to keep an eye on" to "wow, mosquito borne diseases are very high" to " oh my goodness, why do I have so many papers saved on impeding the ventral nerves in mosquitos to test blood hunting mechanism inhibitions..." have nearly all converted to genetically engineered mosquitos with Ago2 gene disactivation or susceptibility to infection symptoms. The fears of genetic engineering to evade diseases by almost the flip side of making the vector susceptible strikes me with the same ethical, biological and genetic risks, plus the huge issues with bioweaponory and double use tech.
A split between career capital, skills, experience and others:
Get into university (this is a working towards goal to start biomedical science in Sept 2025), dependant on alevel results (find out in August)
Podcast episodes (under the microscope) release at least 6 cell-ebrity episodes with biologists doing good and making an impact Do frequent (e.g. weekly) bio bite episodes
Write at least 10 blog posts or forum posts on biology and biorisk topics to grow skills in comms and literature
Get an internship at a lab for the summer (ideally to learn technical wet lab skills relevant to genetics, epidemiology, vaccines, infectious disease etc)
How others can help If anyone has any connections for wet lab internships in England or who may consider grant funding (eg charities, stipends) for 18 year old for this purpose Anyone working in the bioscience fields interested in being interviewed on the podcast Anyone who wants to collaborate on a paper especially in biosecurity who needs a less qualified but very ambitious and hard working individual to research or write parts of it