The biology academy gave me a rich experience regarding biotechnology and made me wonder further about the field. In this writing, I will explain what I learned and thought about for each activity. Firstly, the first lecture explained the importance of biotechnology in the medical field and how biotechnology is allowing the move from empiric medicine to personalized medicine using examples like breast cancer. Out of the lecture, I was especially intrigued by personalized medicine as this raises many questions about health inequality. As the professor said, personalized medicine is an eminent solution for diseases that were once thought to have no cure like cancer. However, I wondered whether this personalization of medicine might cause health inequality. To elaborate, I thought that this development would decrease the amount of research or production of original empirical medicine and make it harder for poor people to afford medications. Although I think that personalized medicines would become affordable as the technology develops, I wondered about possible solutions like public policy in a period of time when it is not. Additionally, I found the possibility of treating mental diseases using biotechnology interesting. 

The second lecture was about the development of biotechnology and I thought that using “The squid game” as a template to explain these levels of development was very effective. I liked the recent timeline of the development as it aided me to imagine what the future of biotechnology might look like. Specifically, the song made with DNA code reminded me of the song made with proteins, and this made me think about how biotechnology could be used for entertainment purposes as well as others. 

After lunch, each student went to different companies for a tour, and I and the group went to Samsung Biologics at Songdo; this was my first time visiting a big bio-related company, and I was very excited. During the tour, I learned briefly about the machines that produce biosimilar products (e.g. cleaning of the machines). I think that it would have been more interesting for me if the tour was more focused on the manufacturing process instead of its history and achievements. 

Then, I went to Gacheon university to learn about using animals (mice) for cancer research. This program in the university was divided into three activities. The first activity was learning about how to use IVIS on mice to observe cancerous tumors present in them; from this activity, I learned about the types of mice and rats used, and how they took care of the mice in the lab. For the second activity, I had to experiment on the mice by myself with some guidance; the experiment was quite simple - I had to conduct an oral administration of saline solution in the mouse. From this activity, I learned how to hold the mice, how to hold the needles, and the procedure of oral administration. The last activity was about using MRI for mice. From this activity, I learned briefly about the mechanism of MRI and how they used MRI on mice. I have learned a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge about animal research, but I think the most important lesson that I learned through this activity was the importance of animal rights in the research process. After visiting this university and participating in all three activities, my feelings about animal research for cancer and others increased very much. 

Overall I thought that the experience of this biology academy was very rich and effective considering that it only lasted for a day. All the activities not only gave me insights into the field of biotechnology but gave me something to think about as well. Also, I liked how the curriculums were planned so that we could learn about both the theories (from lectures) and real-life applications (from company tours and activities at university).