Rewriting Statement of Purpose
Rewrite the Statement of Purpose (below) to apply for Ph.D. program at Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology (MCMP) in the College of Pharmacy at Purdue University.
A statement should not be exceeding two pages in length.
Statement of Purpose
I am delighted to declare my intention to complete my Ph.D. at Purdue University as a prospective Ph.D. applicant. I believe that I have the necessary credentials to not only complete my Ph.D. but also to become a successful individual in the scientific community in the future. I have theoretical and experimental knowledge in organic chemistry, synthesis methods, and medicinal chemistry, in addition to several years of research and teaching experience in different academic environments.
As a high-school student, I was interested and strong in mathematics and chemistry. I read organic and analytical chemistry textbooks at seventeen in my leisure time. It was broad my mind, so I became engrossed in chemistry and the field of synthesis; then, I was accepted in the first step of the national chemistry Olympiad. Learning about novel synthesis methods and Reading different books and articles in this era made me familiar with drug synthesis and formed different questions. How is a dosage form formulated, and how is its drug molecule synthesized? How do different functional groups on drug molecules interact with the functional groups of the receptors? My knowledge and answers to these questions interested me in studying Pharmacy as a major.
In 2015 I took part in the university entrance exam in Iran (the exam is based on nine lessons learned by students during high school and all students in Iran take part in it before entering university). I was ranked 547 among nearly 250,000 students; this success able me to choose Shiras university of medical science (one of the most prestigious universities in Iran) to study Pharm.D. In the first two years of university, I got A++ scores in general, organic, and analytical chemistry, and I was the best student in these courses in our class. In the third semester, I worked as a Teacher’s Assistant. The most exciting aspect was teaching organic chemistry and how to design different synthesis pathways for one molecule. I believe teaching is an integral part of doing research. Only when you learn and comprehend something ultimately will you be able to use it in research. During our practical courses in organic and analytical chemistry Labs, we worked on molecular synthesis, different titration methods, IR, NMR, and GCmass, so I became familiar with these techniques. These courses taught me how to determine the structure of a drug molecule or quantification of the concentration of a molecule. I try to maintain up-to-date chemistry knowledge by studying and taking part in relevant courses and studying continuously. Recently, I scored 740 (percentile 61%) on the GRE chemistry subject test.
From February 2020 to august 2020, I worked in Namazi hospital as a Hospital pharmacist, which was my internship. I started it earlier due to the COVID pandemic as a volunteer because of my sense of responsibility to society. This internship taught me how to control a team, be a competent leader, improve my social skills, and be more punctual, responsible, and Altruist.
Due to my interest in drug formulation and based on the restriction of facilities in my country, I tried to work on something novel and rooted in something traditional in Iran, so I chose green tea extract as an active compound of my formulation. During my thesis, I learned different methods for preparing herbal extracts, Thin-layer chromatography techniques, learning and using the HPLC method with the aim of quantification to measure Epigallocatechin in green tea extract, learning the Folin-Ciocalteu method to determine the total phenolic and Down method to determination total flavonoid in the green tea extract, semi-solid formulation, and methods of stability, rheology and microbial test for a cream. In addition, I learned research methods and lab work rules to be organized, handle problems, and overcome restrictions.
The recent project (CADAA) in which I am taking part is based on medicinal chemistry and Drug-receptor interaction. With the help of computer programming and data science, we are designing an R-shiny application to predict an unknown substance’s Agonist/Antagonist state concerning GPCR receptors using graph theory and similarity network. For this project, I learned data analysis and data science methods. I was interested in computer programming when I was a high school student, and I learned C++ language. While doing this project, I became more interested in bioinformatics and computer programming in drug development. In addition, it helps me to increase my team working, be more creative, and make links between different majors.
Since last year after graduation, I have worked on a CADAA projects paper and as a pharmacist in the Pharmacy. In addition, I have been trying to improve my knowledge in the era of computer programming by learning new soft wares and languages like Python, my knowledge in synthesis methods, and finding links between medicinal chemistry and bioinformatics.
Due to my long and strong background in the organic reaction mechanism, my primary research objective and interest is synthetic organic chemistry. I have enjoyed applying what I learned in theoretical organic and analytical chemistry and our lab courses in drug discovery and working on creating novel synthesis methods. This way, I will be able to participate in drug discovery projects for diseases like cancer, anxiety disorders, and Alzheimer’s. I am intrigued by several exciting research projects by medicinal chemistry faculty members. In particular, Professor Altmans’ Synthetic Methodology projects are fascinating to me. In addition, I want to develop my knowledge in computational chemistry to design programs like CADAA to reduce drug discovery costs.
I want to be a specialist in my favorite major and be a qualified academic member in the future. My ultimate goal is to help people with incurable diseases have longer, healthier, and painless life duration. My learning experience under the guidelines of my advisors has convinced me not only of the potential of research but also of the value of teaching through my graduate study. I am excited and will work hard to be an appropriate researcher and teacher. Studying medicinal chemistry as a major brings me an excellent opportunity not only to be a part of a university research group and faculty, work in the industry, and continue my education as a post-doctorate student after graduation but also to help me achieve my ultimate goal. I am eager to have all these things with Purdue University. Its medicinal chemistry department is the best place for me because of its professional faculty members and their research, the latest equipment, and its supportive environment. Its program utilizes both chemical and biological methods, so in this way, students comprehend the complicated disease systems and their uniqueness in the USA. Due to my acquisitiveness, I am sure I will be an appropriate student for Purdue university.
