Immunology Personal Statement Essay

Letter of Intent

Being a part of clinical rotations at college, I was posted in the Oncology ward for about a week. What intrigued me the most was that there were more children admitted than adults. When relatives talk about cancer being the reason for death, I had always assumed that it was a disease of the old but that day my views had changed completely. The ward was filled in entirety with children ranging from newborns to 15-year olds. My university has two hospitals within the campus, one as part of the government and the other as part of the private sector. I saw the difference in the number of patients in both the wards and it was obvious not everyone can afford chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I assisted nurses in dealing with some

During these past four years, one field that particularly stood out for me is Immunology. I think that this is a field that is really interesting, complex and acts as an intersection to a majority of the fields. Research in Immunology can give rise to a lot of answers on how to treat diseases and one such definite area is Cancer Biology. I have defined my interests based on what I have experienced and my initial interests in Immunology was because of a combination of a research project in Microbiology and social service as part of the National Service Scheme. Through my work, I realized that one way of curing communicable diseases was by keeping the environment clean but the ultimate prevention or cure was through the action of the immune system and this is what brought me to this field. Even though Immunology has many sub-fields, one area where I would like to explore is cancer immunotherapy because of its diversity. Cancer cells are not just filled with mutations, but also find ways to evade the immune system which is why I feel that immunotherapy is the key to defeating the war against