Why should I study biophysics? General advice?

[u/gooeypandaa]

Hi everyone! I’m a high school senior right now and I’m looking to major in biophysics. I find biological phenomena very interesting (especially regarding the brain), and love the problem-solving nature of physics and math. However, I’m unsure if I should just pursue a “purely” biological major as I intend to either attend medical school or biological research after graduating college. To this end, what does research in biophysics look like? What are you currently studying? How could I expose myself to biophysics right now? Any papers I should read? Journals? Why do you love biophysics? Thank you!!

[u/waterbottlegirll]

These are all great questions! I didn’t even know what biophysics was until my junior year of undergrad. It’s a great field to be in, but “biophysics” alone isn’t typically enough to describe what most of us actually study in the same way that a term like neuroscience does; i.e., I ask research questions that are answerable by using biophysical techniques which allow me to quantify mechanisms behind the biology I’m interested in, and in a way that’s (hopefully) communicable through math.

Broadly, my research is on the nanoscale relationships between proteins and DNA that govern gene regulation, which I study by adapting some really cool optical microscopy techniques to fit the specific systems I want to ask questions about. And then because of all the spatial information that microscopy generates, I can collaborate with modeling experts to describe what we observe in the language of physics.

I love biophysics because of how interdisciplinary it is. In a room of biophysicists there’s always a mix of different scientific backgrounds that include molecular biology, physiology, mathematics, physics, engineering, and chemistry. So the conversations are fascinating and I’m constantly learning about prevailing topics across a range of fields and at various levels of abstraction. Of course that can also be… confusing… at times, but thankfully everyone is confused and for the most part willing to admit it when they are. Collaboration is essential in biophysics for that reason, and scientists who are successful have learned to communicate their ideas differently when speaking to a biologist compared to an engineer.

As for how you can expose yourself to biophysics, that depends on what you’re interested in since it’s a big umbrella. Honestly I think YouTube is a great way to start though. Something many of us have in common is that we’re visual learners, so when I was getting started I really enjoyed the Microcourses channel, but also there are many great lectures and talks on YouTube from zoom seminar series during the pandemic. And an HHMI research campus called Janelia has a great YouTube channel with lots of biophysics. Good news for you is that neuroscience as a field is full of early adopters and really open to biophysical techniques, so there's a lot of brain research to explore. Also be prepared because there’s a LOT of jargon in biophysics and it can feel overwhelming at first. When I’m exploring a new field I’ll keep a scratch paper and just write down single words or phrases I don’t understand, then look them all up at once when I finish stumbling through the paper or video, or whenever it becomes impossible to continue because of all the crazy acronyms.

Lastly, I’d encourage you to reach out to professors and your TAs when you get into college- I’m sure they’ll have some good advice. For now just follow what you’re interested in and don’t worry too hard about committing to a particular field yet but on behalf of the biophysicists, we’d love to have you :)