Himanshu Saraswat

Asking questions and finding answers made me travel 11,000 kilometres from the Himalayas to Hobart.

Every morning I had the same question: what day is it today? And then was left disappointed for it not being a Sunday.

Despite this, asking questions made me continue to read and enjoy my studies even though I love sleeping more than anything.

Now, I work with computers to know what is going on with our bodies at the smallest level. DNA is the blueprint or the instruction manual of the body. It is a special code that only our bodies can understand. Just as Lego blocks can be arranged in different ways and result in unique structures, DNA also creates different instructions making all of us unique.

I study DNA to know if there is something different in the blueprint of a person that may be causing diseases or protecting them from disease. I use computers to study this DNA because we have billions of molecules making DNA that cannot be read by us manually.

I started by studying plants but later went on to work with bacteria and viruses for a while, and now I work with humans. Working with plants was interesting but many of my friends and I hated working in the sun. We then decided to work with bacteria and viruses which affect plants and animals, and I got to work on a virus that can be used to treat human disease.

I liked the thought of being able to help others who are suffering and made a complete shift to working with humans. Now I’m looking at the DNA of people with multiple sclerosis to better understand the disease and by doing so help people who are suffering or may be at risk.