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Curiosity and creativity go hand in hand and they're both at the heart of biology. Biology is all about asking why does this happen? Why this way and not another? I'm Zahra. I'm Nure. I'm Sean. I'm Hugh. I'm Sahil. I'm Alex. I'm Victoria. We're all college students, part of the open bio laboratory at Harvard. I always try to ask more why questions. I think it allows you to dig deeper and really discover the things that you thought were unimaginable before. So I'm currently working on a set of therapies to treat autoimmune diseases from type 1 diabetes to multiple
sclerosis. And the questions that I ask in lab are how can we engineer cells to fight the most challenging to treat diseases. I aspire to create therapeutics for antimicrobial resistant bugs that are killing millions of people worldwide. Prompting me to ask questions like, well, what's the mechanism of this resistance? And how do we target that mechanism or that gene or that protein that's causing the bug to be resistant? My work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and behavioral science. Understanding thought and decision-m isn't just a biological problem. It's a computational one. I ask questions like what are the
algorithms underlying our evaluations of probabilistic outcomes and how do they change as we age? I'm searching for innovative ways to treat cancer. For example, looking at nanoparticles as a drug delivery system to tumors. I ask questions like, "What are the most effective nanoparticle materials and what are their effects on the immune system?" As inherently social creatures, humans rely strongly on communication and affiliation for everyday tasks. But how this develops is still relatively unexplored. So my lab asked questions such as how we can use eye gaze tracking technologies to get a glimpse into the rapidly adapting infant mind. I study space medicine and astrobiology trying to understand how
the harsh environment of space impacts the human body and also looking for signs of life beyond earth. So I ask questions like how can our understanding of space flight be applied to improve medicine here on earth. For me I do more orthopedic surgery clinical research. So asking those questions looks like why do certain surgical techniques have better biological healing mechanisms? Why are patient outcomes better when one treatment is used versus another? Things like that. There's a certain blackbox period where scientists cannot ethically study human embryos. So, my research focuses on illuminating this box using synthetic models. What determines cell development and how can we use cells to form therapeutically
applicable tissues are some of the questions I ask. I found biology really interesting and so I started reading research papers that I found online. I didn't know what most of the words meant when I started, but over time they started to make sense and I felt like I was understanding what was going on. My mom loved taking me on nature walks and gardening and I also read a lot of nature and animal magazines. I loved seeing all the vivid photographs and learning fun facts about the natural world. I was fascinated by how biology could help explain life in space. So, how the body adapts and whether life exists beyond Earth. At the beginning, my biology mostly involved trying to look for as many resources as I can to
learn more about the field. So, I would look for books, articles, and even movies. Yeah. So, from a young age, I was fortunate enough to be able to shadow physicians, saw that different patients had different outcomes, and just was interested in learning why. Eventually, I had a vision of curing cancer and helping as many people with the disease as I could. Initially, my elementary school self had a notebook with all of my cancer findings from Google searches. I used to binge watch the Wild Florida series on PBS so much, my mom got me the full DVD collection, I had to have watched through the entirety of the collection at least eight times.
My interest in biology came from the death of a family member to antibioticresistant bacteria in India. It started off with me just following the instructions of others around me trying to find my way in this complicated land of biology. But now I'm leading my own projects in developing new AI models with strong biological reasoning to help find and cure these kind of antibiotic resistant mechanisms and pathogens. And that allows me to make the decisions that push those questions forward. I've moved away from manatees and crocodiles, but now I look at the systems that give rise to the biological diversity I was so fascinated with when I was younger. Now I've turned my abstract vision of curing cancer into concrete steps by immersing myself in
the literature and spending time in cancer research labs. And so now I'm able to go and talk to patients and conduct surveys and learn how their outcomes vary and then go back and trace why. Now I'm taking part in cutting edge research to support new developments as humanity looks towards sending people to Mars. I'm currently pursuing projects related to young children and social cognitive development while continuing involvement in science communication through organizations like Open Bio.
I'm still just as fascinated by biology as I always was. I now just understand it so much better. My focus on space medicine and astrobiology involves working tangentially with ecologists, botonists, geologists, physicians, and other experts. As an artist, I love any connection to science communication or education that comes out of the biology space. I try to seek out interdisciplinary spaces and contribute to the study of intelligence through AI, ML, tech, biology, neuro, and psych. from large language models to other types of reasoning and transformer architectures. You can take large amounts of biological data and compress them down to understand the nuts and bolts and really how these kind of biological mechanisms work, which is
really powerful. My love for and ability to cook has only gotten stronger as I've learned more about the biology behind the science of cooking. I'm most proud of my new found ability to choose tastier yogurts based on the bacterial cultures found within. Biology can be whatever you want it to be. So just go in with an open mind. There are so many paths from medicine to the tech, finance and research related sectors. Science and biology in particular I think is about being passionate, curious and excited to try and understand the world around us.
Yeah. Yeah, I think if you work as hard as you possibly can in something you're passionate about, you're bound for success, you know, in one way or another in biology. Don't set limits for yourself and don't fear failure. The best science comes from the craziest ideas. You can create and explore anything, even topics that no one's ever thought about before. The possibilities are endless. If the passion, courage, and determination are there, then no time, age, or setback can stop you from reaching your dreams. It's also about generations of scientists stacking discoveries like a Lego set, piece by piece.
We are the next generation. So, the only thing you have to ask yourself is, what will your piece be? This video was brought to you by the Harvard Undergraduate Open Bio Laboratory. Thanks for watching.
