Motivation Letter

My Interest in Biohealth Computing

I grew up watching the rapid development of life science. When I was a little boy, I always spent

time thinking about the questions like what shapes the diversity of life, how genetic information is

transferred from generation to generation and why some bacteria could make people sick whereas

others might not. In order to find the answers, I read many books on related areas such as What

Evolution Is and La souris, la mouche et l'homme. “Talking” with Ernst Mayr and François Jacob,

surfing in the ocean of Life Science, I not only enjoyed the great thoughts, but also harvested

much from those masters’ wisdom, for example, enlightenments on how they came up with

systematic theories that surpass the old ones and the guidance that the history of Genetics could

give us.

If there was an undergraduate program in biology at China Agricultural University, one of the best

campuses on bioresearch in China, I would have chosen it without any hesitation. Three and half

years ago, I matriculated into its Honors Programme as the Number One in all its new students

from Beijing in the national university entrance examination, and chose life science as my major.

In university I got a more profound understanding of biomedicine. In my point of view it was no

longer just the application of molecular biology and biochemistry to create and develop drugs.

Instead, it was undergoing a revolution where computational methods were widely used in.

Computational biology was penetrating into all fields of biology and changing the way we looked

at bioscience in many aspects, which made me really interested in its application on health

science.

Driven by my passion for life science and computational biology, I perused hundreds of papers

and books related to these areas, such as, Foundations of Comparative Genomics by Arcady

Mushegian, Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics by Jonathan Pevsner, Handbook of

Comparative Genomics by Celecilia Saccone and Graziano Pesole, on my initiative. These

references cover genomics, system Biology, bioinformatics and illustrate how to investigate all

kinds of questions on biomedicine with the help of computational methods. I not only enjoyed the

great thoughts, but also harvested much from those masters’ wisdom, for example, enlightenments

on how they came up with systematic theories that surpass the old ones. Also, I have grasped

dozens of biological softwares and several programming languages that are essential to researches

in quantitative biology. It is well known that dealing with computational biology requires data

processing and mining.

Armed with these theoretical, experimental and methodological knowhow, I couldn’t help

practicing them on related topics. I have conducted about ten projects in my bachelor study, during

which I performed sequence analyses, wrote a large number of scripts and conducted many

computational analyses. During my junior year, in cooperation with some of my classmates, I

conducted a research on the evolution of star fish by mathematical analysis. I am very excited to

see our paper accepted by PloS One. However, I know that this is just a beginning. I am ready to

embrace more accomplishments than ever on my journey in the realm of computational

biomedicine.

Motivation Letter

My Professional Plan

“The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” Yes, the world

of Life Spirit is magic and our task is to discover nature and pursue the truth. We should try our

best to get to know nature and find answers to each question. In my opinion there is nothing more

exciting than scientific research. As I am interested in biomedicine research, to be a scientist has

always been my dream.

To make the dream come true, I need to have a firm foundation and keep studying. To get a deep

insight into Computational Biology an in-depth study is really necessary. Thus I would like to

apply for PHD after master study to deepen my understanding in this area. Also, I think it will be

nice to pursue my PHD study in one of the five universities involved in BioHealth Computing EM

to carry on my master’s thesis in future.

Why Europe and BioHealth Computing EM

I would like to go to Europe for master study and choose BioHealth Computing EM for the

following reasons.

Firstly, I think BioHealth Computing EM best supports my interest in computational biomedicine

and health science. BioHealth Computing EM focuses on medicine research using genetic

engineering, genomics and quantitative methods which I am very interested in. In addition, the

course structure offered by BioHealth Computing EM is excellent. Computing biology is an

interdisciplinary subject involving various areas of biology such as statistical genetics, genomics

and system biology, therefore a wide spread of knowledge will be much helpful for future study in

this area. I am very excited to find so many courses available covering almost all topics related to

computational biology and medicine, which ensures students solid academic foundation.

Moreover, the individual study plan made for each student is very attracting because it enables

students to attend specific tracks and work on research projects they are most interested in.

Secondly, in my point of view Europe is the best place to do scientific research and to realize my

career goal of becoming a biologist. DNA father James Waston has said that life at a slower pace

in Europe helps researchers to come up with excellent ideas which I strongly believe. Scientists

working in Europe could be able to do research in a relaxed atmosphere which gives them more

opportunities to conduct on in-depth studies and helps to enjoy their researches. Europe has

witnessed too many great discoveries throughout the history of science and will witness more in

future. I am sure that pursuing my graduate study in Europe would be the best choice.

Lastly, BioHealth Computing EM provides students a wonderful communication platform, which

well embodies the purpose of Erasmus Mundus programme, to enhance the quality of education

and promote communication between different people and cultures. Participants come from all

over the world including European students as well as those from developing countries. Studying

together in BioHealth Computing EM, a highly international programme, students could know the

culture of each other countries better. Moreover, the five universities involved in the programme

are all well-known in the field of Health Science research and each has specific academic area

Motivation Letter

specializing in. Participants can take various courses in different partner countries and appreciate

the local conditions and customs of different European countries, which would help to explore

interest in diverse areas and broaden their horizons.

Peroration

Whether it was thinking about basic issues of Biomedicine or discovering research in university

the lure of studying computational biology has always guided my decisions. My advanced

research experience in bioinformatics, genomics and system biology has given me the analytical

ability, laboratory skills, and theoretical knowledge to excel in a rigorous graduate program.

During my master study, I intend to focus on statistical genomics and computational biomedicine

in order to get a more comprehensive understanding of health science. It will be convinced that

your trust on me is really awarding and worthy.