Pursuing Synthetic Biology in my 40s
I am a 41 year old computer scientist. For quite some time I have been trying to build a life of purpose. I wrote all about it in my previous post. After lot of reading/thinking/searching/talking I believe I can lead a purposeful life as a synthetic biologist. Synthetic biology is a new and interdisciplinary field, which will impact therapeutics, climate, agriculture, manufacturing and many many other fields. It heavily relies on modeling, artificial intelligence and machine learning, which means that I can utilize my background in computer science as I build this new set of skills.
It took me a while to understand the basic idea behind synthetic biology. The key idea is that we design new organisms and biological functions by modifying existing DNA or creating new DNA and then executing this new DNA in a chassis organism (E.coli is the most common chassis organism in synthetic biology). An example of synthetic biology is cells that change color when they detect arsenic in water. There are a number of really good books on synthetic biology, but BioBuilder: Synthetic Biology in the Lab really helped me understand the field from a novice point of view.
Now the key question is how do I become a synthetic biologist in my 40s? I do not have any training in biology or life sciences.
There are lot of parallels between computer science and synthetic biology. During the 60s and 70s computers were not a household item and personal computing was still a decade or two away. Access to computers was privileged and only limited to scientists and government officials. Programming computers was a rare and specialized skill. There were a handful of high-level programming languages and very few standard ways of interacting with the computer hardware. Standard network protocols either didn’t exist or were in very early development. Fast forward to today and programming computers has become so easy and efficient that a 6 month coding bootcamp can give a person a really strong start in the field. Thanks to the cloud, lot of the networking and distributed systems issues are handled with reasonable assumptions. In short, the barrier to entry in the field is almost non-existent.
Synthetic biology is currently at the stage where computer science was in the 60s and 70s. Access to wet-labs is currently limited to univerisites and well-funded startups (there are community labs and despite their best and most well-intentioned efforts, serious funding still flows to universities and startups). Libraries of standard biological parts are being developed, but that work still has a long way to go. Part of the difficulty is that biology is unpredictable becuase there is still so much that we dont understand about biological processes even in single cells. All of this is to say that synthetic biology is not at a stage where I can simply join a bootcamp and start creating new organisms.
From what I understand from my search so far, the best way to become a synthetic biologist is to pursue a Ph.D. This creates a very high barrier to entry into the field. Pursuing a Ph.D. is challenging to begin with (I speak from experience; I have a Ph.D. in computer science) and is even more challenging in one’s 40s due to additional financial and familial responsibilities. Nonetheless, that is the only reliable path to achieve the goal of becoming a synthetic biologist and that is what I have to do. Once I finish, I would either start my own biotech or work as a scientist in industry. Given my age, an academic position is pretty much out of the question. My understanding is that universities tend to hire assistant professors at much younger ages with the hope that a tenured professor will serve the university for many years before retiring.
So how do I get into a strong synthetic biology Ph.D. program in my 40s? Admission to a Ph.D. program requires some background in the field and solid research experience. In order to gather research experience, I first need to learn the basics of biology. I have started learning the basics of biology from biology courses at the Harvard Extension School. Some of these courses also include hands-on labs. Once I have learned the basics, I plan on applying for a summer research job next year, which will get me started into research. Next, univerisites in the UK (e.g., UCL, Imperial College) have started offering 1 year MRes degree in synthetic biology. A significant portion of the degree is dedicated to research. I believe these 2 experiences would give me enough research background that I could apply for strong Ph.D. programs. If all goes according to plan, I would finish my Ph.D. by the time I will turn 48 or 49. This is a very long process to enter the field, but I am looking forward to the learning and eventually the impact and purpose that comes with it. If you know a better way, please let me know in comments.
