I have taken up Biological Engineering as an undergraduate student at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. This has been my dream career. I love Biology and Math as academic subjects and want to apply Math towards solving biological problems in a way helping humanity. This is what led me into Biological Engineering.

Industrial biotechnology and bio-based manufacturing pave the way for efficient, cleaner use of sustainable renewable resources. Over the past 10 years, many companies have commercialized products that demonstrate industrial biotechnology's ability to reduce pollution, achieving biomass sustainability, energy efficiency and carbon re-utilization. Today, there are more than 250 biotechnology health care products and vaccines available to patients, many for previously untreatable diseases. More than 13.3 million farmers around the world use agricultural biotechnology to increase yields, prevent damage from insects and pests and reduce farming's impact on the environment. And more than 50 bio-refineries are being built across North America to test and refine technologies to produce biofuels and chemicals from renewable biomass, which can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

I am listing below some of the possibilities in this field, which I wish to be part of.

Recyclable textiles: PET is Poly Ethylene Terephthalate and it is an extensively used resin is used extensively in making cloth fibers, liquid and food containers. Carbios, a French company, has developed a technology that depolymerizes textile waste fibers made of PET plastics using enzymes. Plastic textile waste is more prevalent than plastic bottles. The company has developed a way to degrade plastics and recycle them more efficiently. Biotechnology aims to have enzymes for each type of polymer to help recycle any type of plastic, without the need for sorting, and we can recover the monomers. Imagine how much clothing the world uses and if all them can be fully recycled by treating them with different enzymes.

Disease control and prevention: From infectious diseases, cancer and chronic disease, our health and health care systems are at risk. New advances driven by the biotechnology have helped ensure we have a better tomorrow. Every day, researchers work to harness the power of biotechnology for the fight against global infectious diseases. Eradication of small pox and polio are examples. There is hope that biotech companies may develop better treatments for neglected diseases such as Chagas, Dengue, African Sleeping Sickness etc.

Feeding the world: With a global population of nearly 7 billion expanding every day, feeding the world with nutritious foods via sustainable agriculture is a major challenge. Agricultural biotechnology is leading the charge in meeting this challenge — providing solutions that increase crop yields, preserve and improve soils, enhance the control of pests, weeds and harmful diseases, and produce more healthful food with enhanced vitamin and nutrient levels. Biotechnology inventions such as herbicide tolerant crops, insect resistant crops and disease resistant plants have revolutionized modern agriculture while greatly reducing the need for a diverse range of agricultural chemical pesticides.  Agricultural biotechnologists are also introducing biotech plants with drought tolerance, cold tolerance, saline tolerance etc. and plants with enhanced nitrogen-use efficiency reducing the amount of fertilizers needed for high levels of productivity.

Reducing Global Warming: Carbon Engineering, a company in British Columbia is focused on commercializing technology that captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and synthesizing it into clean, affordable transportation fuels. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is one of the key aspects of global warming and climate change.

I do wish and hope that I can do my share to protect our planet through biotechnological research. Biological Engineering at IIT Madras is a 5 year dual degree and I have just stepped into my dream career.