Samuel Miravet Verdes

Degree in Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Universitat de Valencia, 2014 (second promotion) Currently studying the Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics in the Universities of Barcelona and Pompeu-Fabra. When I was still attending the secondary school I had no doubts that I wanted to continue study something related to themes of biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics studied in the subject of biology. I have not been able yet to give the reason, but I know it was associated with the ambition to understand life from a more basic level; and it is still like that. After making a great effort analysing the different possibilities throughout Spain, I found this Degree in the UV and it was just what I was looking for. On the one hand it addressed all the necessary themes to understand in detail the behaviour of cells at a molecular and genetic level, and on the other hand, the application of all this knowledge to use it and contribute something to humankind. After having known people studying other degrees on “bio-somenthing”, I can guarantee that this combination is the only one in Spain. No sooner I arrived to the university, a new world opened to me. My classmates, the atmosphere, meeting new people...it was amazing. Biochemists have something special! During the four years I spent at University I met people who nowadays are part of who I am and I hope to keep them along my whole career in research, since a lot of door have been opened to us. Among my classmates there are people who have continued studying in really different fields such as toxicology, neurobiology, virology, human genetics or bioinformatics; and some of them have studied in high level foreign universities in Europe. The success obtained should be thanked to both students and teaching staff of the degree. Those people who guide our careers, apart from being really good teachers they are also great scientists and it lead to a series of great advantages. Apart from providing the necessary theoretical knowledge to understand any biological problem, it must be highlighted that students are encouraged to boost their critical skills, their scientific creativity and the value of work well done. Students acquire this combination of values in two different ways: theoretical and practical. The amount of hours devoted to theory and practice are completely balanced and it allow us to face up a research process from beginning to end. Actually, I cannot think of a single classmate who has not completed his or her work placements successfully (the first contact with the world of work for most of us), apart from collaboration stays in labs that we could apply for independently. With regard to this last point, Valencia is an exceptional city to develop a scientific degree with research centres of excellence in cutting-edge fields in any branch of biology. As far as I am concerned, I had plenty of opportunities to learn and collaborate with great scientists. From the first academic year, I have been able to access the Public Health Research Centre and work in the field of the geometric related to human health to give place to the analysis of biological data through computational tools. In parallel, the UV provided me with the opportunity to take part in the prestigious contest iGEM of Synthetic Biology in Boston, in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (I even won a prize to “Best Biotechnological Application”), to write a book or to take part in the first steps of a biotechnological company responsible for creating programmes for hospitals. I felt able to face this challenge thanks to the knowledge acquired throughout the degree and I lived many situations of stress and tiredness although they were outnumbered by the moments of comradeship, happiness and satisfaction. Speaking about the future, this degree motivated me to continue studying my career in research in the search for a doctorate (although the training we receive is also great for positions of lab technician, both clinical and basic and applied science, of course). I will not deceive anyone, the scientific career is a long challenge and sometimes the goals you set are difficult to achieve...but the satisfaction to get a good outcome and even more if it may have an impact on human health (from there this degree is titled Biomedical Sciences) is is priceless and every single minute poured on it is a payoff. The happiness to obtain good outcomes after weeks trying it or come up with the key idea in order to be able to continue one night you cannot sleep, are the things that motivated to move forward. Thanks to BCB I was given the basis to face any challenge without fear and with sound knowledge on biochemistry, I was able to study the master I wanted and to be in the unit for Systems Biology of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory - Centre for Genomic Regulation (EMBL / CRG) in Barcelona (the picture accompanying this text was taken there), developing complete computational models from a prokaryotic cell. Undoubtedly, despite not being a degree focused on computational biology, BCB gave me the necessary tools to address and understand the concepts of this new area tools. By this I highlight that this degree is an ideal bridge to develop any research related to biology that may draw young scientists' attention.