Graduate Talks: Ksenia Medvedeva
It was my friend Artem Akshintsev who advised me to enrol at HSE University. It happened somewhere on the Kamchatka mountains during a popular science expedition of Russian Travel Geek, which Artem founded. I have had a classical biological education and was planning to continue with it. However, upon returning, I discovered a new HSE University’s master’s degree programme – Data Analysis in Biology and Medicine. I decided that it was interesting than traditional biology at Moscow State University. Why not? I was always interested in bioinformatics, though I had no previous experience and did not understand how mathematical this discipline is. I had to prepare meticulously and diligently for the entrance exam so that I could keep up with the graduates of mathematical programmes.
I plunged right into biology and programming. Biological classes have become a pleasant surprise. Molecular biology course read by Stepan Denisov was so well structured that it substituted several years of studies. It was hard and breathtaking. The new knowledge at the intersection of the two disciplines was just amazing. New courses, new articles and discoveries – we were on the cutting edge of science. Many students had problems in biology, I, on the contrary, struggled with data analysis, but I wanted so much to be in the stream that I resorted to self-study.
Best of all I remember the classes of Mikhail Gelfand. Many things were obscure. But I always was enchanted after the classes. They have completely changed my understanding of the microcosm and evolution in general! I could never teach school students the diluted, insipid course of biology. At the time, I tutored biology for school students. It has suddenly become clear that contemporary biology and evolution theory are so wide and many-sided that they are always larger than any school textbook and often directly contradict it.
I had my internship at Mikhail Gelfand’s laboratory at the Kharkevitch Institute, researching under the supervision of his doctorate student Ilya Zharov. His supervision helped me to succeed. During the first year of studies, I expected to conduct ordinary work on regulon recovery. However, at the last step, a sudden peculiarity was uncovered, which allowed me to put forward a hypothesis on the assumed interaction of regulators and DNA – this is my little discovery (in future). I presented this research twice at the annual Information Technologies and Systems conference, which has a large number of participants. I recommend that the students of Data Analysis in Biology and Medicine attend it to stay focused and “in a research tone”. For my thesis, I elaborated the research to check the hypothesis. Now I understand that there is still a large portion of the research to write an article about. That is probably my line of work after the maternity leave.
The perspectives of bioinformatics are too obvious to discuss. Medicine and biology are now the very front line of work. The need for specialists will never cease because more investment creates more research directions.
Why HSE University and this direction are interesting? Because all professors not only teach but also work in industry or research. During the studies, you get the real practical skills and tasks your future employer may give you. I think that if you are interested in a particular topic you should directly approach the professor who can guide you in the right direction – after all, everybody needs talented students for their own projects.
HSE University gives many opportunities. I wish that every student enjoys their studies and other activities and make HSE University your oyster!