Biochemistry

Pasiūlymai studijuoti: UCL, Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham

Biochemistry – a subject that caught my attention only during the past couple of years. However, from the first encounter I became tremendously interested in it. The fact that behind all of life on Earth lie complex molecular structures made up mostly of the same 6 elements is not only hard to believe, but also immensely captivating.

Curiously enough, my first exposure to biochemistry came not from school. At the end of my 10th grade an opportunity to spend three weeks of summer in the Weizmann Institute of Science arose. After applying and being accepted, I was assigned to the department of organic chemistry. There, with the help of my mentor, I did a university-level project on the electromagnetic properties of two different organic ligand-based complexes. During that time I learned about the coordination complexes, organic synthesis, and the methods of chemical analysis, like cyclic voltammetry and mass spectrometry. The acquired skills helped me understand chemistry better, and I hope that they will prove useful in my further studies. I also got to talk to current MSc and PhD students about the field and met Israeli Nobel laureate Ada Yonath. These fantastic experiences exposed me to both the challenging and the inspiring aspects of the career in research and ignited in me a strong enthusiasm for the field.

After returning back to Lithuania, I wanted to follow my passion further. Together with starting a course of organic chemistry at school, I began preparing myself for the chemistry Olympiads – an event in which I haven’t taken part before. I was reading textbooks and solving problems from the previous Olympiads until I was confident in myself. And my work has paid off – during the regional stage I was awarded a silver medal and qualified for the national competition. Preparing for and participating in the Olympiads, has strengthened my persistence and allowed me to dive deeper into the field of chemistry.

During summer after my 11th grade, I did a month-long internship in Lithuanian leading biotechnology company Biotechpharma. There, I got the opportunity to experience what it also means to work in the field of biotechnology. During that month, I worked both in the upstream (gene engineering) and downstream (protein purification) bioprocessing sectors. In the former, I observed the procedures of extracting and modifying bacterial DNA, as well as the processes of growing microbial colonies, and in the latter, I got acquainted with different biotechnological processes, like protein harvesting, and techniques, like column chromatography.

Away from studies, I like to immerse myself in the world of art. For the past seven years, I have been studying performance, music theory and history at a musical school. Long hours spent mastering an etude have given me patience for monotonous work, and analyzing the structure of classical pieces has taught me meticulousness. I am also quite passionate about languages. In addition to my native Lithuanian, I can also speak four other languages – English, Russian, French and Hebrew. I tend to think that learning languages has not only widened my world view, but also improved my ability to notice patterns and think creatively.

In the end, I think that biochemistry is a subject of great excitement and importance in the modern world. Having had a few opportunities to come in contact with this field, I developed a genuine passion for the discovery of underlying processes that propel the life around us. In the future, I expect to further my studies in the path of neurochemistry, and I hope to contribute to the research of the most complex human organ, but from the facet of chemical knowledge.