Why did I get into research?
While in the thick of it, I've asked myself this question many, many times. Research is arduous, laborious, repetitive, and unforgiving of errors
It demands perfection - the unattainable; beyond the human. It is not fair, and will leave you in the deepest depths
In short, I wanted a challenge.
My story
After a brief 2-year foray into the world of finance after my BSc in Biological Sciences, I set my sights back onto Science. It was the best way I could think of to bring a positive change to the world. What has a greater impact on the world than a discovery or great idea? 5 years later, with an MSc in Clinical Neuroscience under my belt, and being half-way through a PhD in Neuroscience, I've found the challenge I sought. I've failed more times than I can count, but I've succeeded in pushing the envelope ever so slightly.
My research
The idea that I find most interesting in Neuroscience, and in all biology, is that all biological tissues can regenerate. Creatures of all shapes and sizes fix themselves - replacing broken parts both macro and micro. In humans, this regenerative ability is generally limited to the tissues that are less specialised, such as the skin, the gut, and circulatory pathways. When it comes to the most complex biological tissue discovered to date (the brain), regeneration is limited in both region and scope - but it need not be this way. Pioneers have successfully challenged the dogma that brain damage is irreversible and irreparable, and proven through scientific intervention that we are fixable, like highly complex biological machines. As the complexity is understood, the knot unravels, the puzzle takes form, and the world changes. Applying this research may one day not only reverse the brain damage from accidents and neurological disease, but even allow us to augment ourselves, and relieve us of the limitations of biology, freeing our species to pursue any idea that our imaginations can conceive of.
Hence, I chose Stem Cell Biology. By understanding how all complex cells and tissues come to be, and how to replicate the natural processes inside of an artificial lab environment, we can begin to fill in the gaps in clinical methods, and help patients to regain some of what they lost.
Will I stay in research?
No. Well, not exactly. The "academic researcher" role doesn't fit my personality, my vision, or my life goals. There is too much time and effort wasted on grantsmanship, publish or perish, social hierarchies, toxic competition among rival research groups, and politicking. That is the current model - and if you're not at the top, then you're at the very bottom. That time and effort could be better spent on solving problems, collaborating with others openly for mutual benefit, or letting the mind wander and coming up with a creative solution to a problem that would be impossible to find while embroiled in the trenches (or benches) of the lab. There is a better way.
The future: Research Cooperatives
I see my future role as a serial entrepreneur, forming equal partnerships with the core members of a project (research and business professionals) to solve a problem, capitalize on the solution in an ethical manner, and reinvest revenues into solving another worthwhile problem. Sometimes it will be highly successful. Other times it will not. In order to succeed you must prepare to fail often along the way to the top. In the end, the summit will be reached