Letters / Motivation Letter for PhD in Immunology [3]

Friends, Please help me to improve my writing since I am very poor at convincing writing, I would highly aprecaite your suggestions-------------

motivation statement

Thank you for reading my letter. I am taking this opportunity to express my motivation to be a member of your research team as a PhD candidate. I am passionate to understand the molecular and immunological basis of host defence in sepsis and found that your focus area of research is solely in the similar field. With a bachelor's degree in Veterinary Medicine, I got the privilege to study in a European Master's program in the field of Biomedical Science under the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. I had the opportunity to be involved in several research projects in animal science, pathology and molecular medicine including a research internship on Stem Cell culture project as well as two master theses on viral pathology and STING (Stimulator of Interferon Gene) signalling pathway respectively. Now I am looking forward to continuing as a PhD student. Considering my background, expertise, research interest and career goal I found that PhD under your supervision will be an ideal choice for my next career step.

It was my long-standing goal to be a researcher which inspired me to take the opportunity to pursue a research based European Master's program (European Master in Comparative Morphology; EUCOMOR). I have got interest in sepsis while working as a Veterinarian in a large livestock farm before the European Master's program. While working there, I experienced many cases of sepsis in small livestock animals. Since they live in a flock, infections often go unnoticed by the caretakers and ultimately lead to septicaemia only when they can be found isolated, lied down and diagnosed at the terminal stage. The prominent clinical signs included hypothermia, shivering and imbalanced immune profile. The animals were generally treated with glucose saline and corticosteroids including antibiotics, but the positive response rate was very low. What I felt that the death could be preventable, but the understanding of immunological situation and patient specific requirements could suggest therapeutic decision. Later I discovered that sepsis management is an important challenge in human medicine as well. Recent COVID19 crisis also showed the importance of revealing insights of sepsis to combat viral sepsis.

I tried to get on to the advancement in the understanding of sepsis and latest therapeutic approaches by reading research articles and gradually developed my interest to pursue my research in this field. Luckily, I got the privilege to study in the EUCOMOR program and took the opportunity to conduct my thesis on STING signalling pathway, considering the fact that in addition to cytosolic double stranded DNA, bacterial LPS also can stimulate STING and subsequent IFN production as well as innate and adaptive immune response. So, understanding this pathway would reveal wide area of research topic in different diseases.

Of late, I found that your lab is working on sepsis and produced some interesting articles. Particularly, understanding the role of Sirtuins in metabolism and immunogenicity of macrophages and their effect in bacterial infection and sepsis is highly valuable. Moreover, a recent study found a link of STING with lethal coagulation in sepsis and disease severity; blocking of STING was correlated with increased patient survival. Since STING/TMEM173 is present in myeloid cells, it is demanding to identify what role they play in innate immunity during sepsis. One hypothesis can be done that the STING is associated with the upregulation of Macrophage Migration Inhibitory factor induced by IL-1β in association with NK-κβ, as STING acts upstream of these proteins in the STING signalling pathway. Thus, question could be raised whether STING activation could improve the sepsis in Klebsiella pneumoniae infection or not, which is quite contradistic. Many questions need to be solved.

However, I feel that PhD under your supervision in your lab would be a great favour to pursue my research in my topic of interest and to implement my carrier goal. It would be an exciting opportunity to enhance my laboratory skills and scientific aptitudes while getting world class supervision and up to date research facilities. I want to take the advantage of publishing my articles in high impact journals as your lab is used to do. I would like to discuss and share the complex immunological issues with you and other super brilliant team members. While highly international atmosphere of this institute would provide me the experience of the beauty of multiculturalism.

I believe, my CV will demonstrate my expertise and skills required to contribute in your projects. Nevertheless, skills in cell culture, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing techniques, THP1 cell line development, Microbiology, western blot, flow cytometry and other molecular techniques as well as the experience of publishing papers in peer reviewed journals would fit me in your lab. Apart from this, I am a highly flexible, committed and responsible to my work. I am the person who like to take the leadership of the work, feel as entrepreneur and whose mistake or irresponsibility will have a big impact in the society. My biggest strength is the critical thinking ability, punctuality and the ability to work under pressure to meet the deadlines. Above all, having a master's degree in the European environment from four different countries as mobility tracks, I've achieved huge confidence and excellent communication skills. Another important thing to mention that, from the Bachelor to master's program, I was always at the top 5% of the students in the final results.

Lastly, from the afore-mentioned criteria, allow me to express that I deserve to be a member of your team. I want to take this PhD as an opportunity to make substantial progress towards my carrier goal. I would appreciate the opportunity for a personal interview to discuss my background and expertise as well as the project in more detail.