For A New Year

Here we are! The last day of 2014. Just another day for anyone who does not follow Gregorian calendar. Since my life is going to be fragmented into chunks of 365 days it seems to be an appropriate time for contemplation of the past 365 days. The reason why I am writing this up is to boast about the fulfillment of my last year’s resolution. I committed myself to write one blog per week. It was not perfect since I missed some weeks. But I ended up writing 50 blogs, thus averaging 1.04 blogs per week!

2014 was not a bad year. I got a feel of how serious science is getting done. I have identified some potential fields to focus on. Let me broadly say ‘Genetic and 3-D regulation of transcription’. Transcription is a fundamental cellular process. A cell is identified by the proteins and RNA it contains, which are nothing but products of transcription. But one can argue that it is a two-way relationship. Transcription is affected by many factors particularly the environment and also interaction with other part of genome, which a major difference in the gene regulation of many single celled primitive organisms and highly evolved metazoans. There is another component that contribute to identity both at cellular and organismal level. That is the primary DNA sequence of an individual, ‘the genetics’. How genetics modifies transcription and vice versa seems to be an interesting area of research. But I need significant improvement in certain skill set. First and foremost are computational tools, such as R or Python. I need extensive hands on experience in using computational tools to tackle actual biological problems. Second component is not skill set, but knowledge base. I need to know everything about these areas I mentioned above. A lot of reading and discussion is needed.

So here I am! Taking another set of resolution. To get to know my field inside out I have decided to go back to classics. The plan is to write/discuss about at least one classic paper per month. It will be mostly focused on genetics/molecular biology. I am taking this resolution with lots of trepidation since it is going to be very busy year for me, both at home and in lab. I do not know how much time will I have at my disposal.  But the resolution has to be executed! Thanks 2014 and welcome 2015!