Microbiology Personal Statement

I always have been fascinated by Microbiology. I believe is very intrigue how such simple and small organisms could do so much. They can cause severe diseases, but also produce a lot of useful compounds. For this reason, I choose Biology as my major and Microbiology as my minor. I have interest in the neuroscience field as well. It is amazing how the brain works, especially the emotions. I had the opportunity to take a Biopsychology class when I studied abroad and I learned something that combines Microbiology and Neuroscience: some bacteria in our gut can influence our mood. Depression is a serious disease. It is not only feeling sad for days, but also persisting and interfering in daily tasks. It is very common to the patient's family does

The main focus of the researches here is the agricultural sciences. At the first, my goal was to continue study antimicrobial compounds to use in animal health. However, due to cases of depression in my family, I would like to use my knowledge in Microbiology to study this. Sadly, Brazil is facing an economic crisis. The education has been suffering many cuts, which makes harder to get a graduate degree. In addition, I feel that there is a lack of motivation to do research in Brazil. Most of the projects that the Brazilian graduate students do are only to get the degree. Some papers are published, but is hard to use the results acquired to help people. I do not want this to my future. I want to help people with depression and I believe that I can do this if I get a graduate degree in U.S. All things considered, I believe that my experience in anaerobic bacteria and genome mining could be useful to study the gut bacteria responsible to mood alteration. This dream only can be true if I get a scholarship to do a master degree in U.S., once I do not have financial conditions to do by my own. I believe that the help of the Education USA could be my first