Why BugBiome and why me
I have never understood why insects are treated as background scenery. Turn over one leaf and there is an entire neighbourhood carrying on underneath it. Aphids feed, ants tend to them, wasps hunt them and microbes quietly alter the rules.
That is what drew me to this role. The work is close enough to notice what the insects and plants are actually doing, but those small observations eventually decide which strain might protect a field. I like experiments that need looking after. Plants change, insects escape, treatments behave oddly and replicate four occasionally decides to become a problem. Good data depends on someone noticing.
BugBiome particularly caught my attention because insect behaviour is part of the search. A strain does not have to kill an insect outright to change the damage it causes. That makes the screening more interesting and, I imagine, much easier to get wrong if the trials are not run carefully. I would genuinely enjoy being the person who keeps those trials tidy, watches what changes and records it properly.
My degree is in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, but the parts I enjoyed most were practical microbiology and biological data. I received 79% in my final microbiology practical module, where I carried out bacteriophage plaque assays, antibiotic-resistance testing and immuno-dot blotting. I have also worked with bacterial culture, aseptic technique, serial dilution, plating and microscopy.
Plaque assays taught me that a tiny mistake made near the beginning can follow an experiment all the way to the final number. My final-year research taught me the other half of that lesson. Biological results do not always cooperate with the original hypothesis. I analysed gene-expression data from dengue patients, reproduced the study’s main interferon signal and then found that the proposed relationship with age and disease severity was not supported. I followed the evidence rather than trying to rescue the expected answer.
I have not chosen Strain B because it produced the most dramatic result. I chose it because the larvae fed less, the plants remained healthy and the result held across the replicates. That balance between curiosity, careful practical work and an honest reading of the data is why this role suits me.
I would love the chance to do it with real plants, real insects and considerably less invented data.
Sahra Ali