Personal Statement

Xinye Ren

Several earthworms were floating in the formaldehyde solution-- taupe, oversized, crumpled
worms, unlike what we saw in our daily life. The worm, itself, terrified me much; but now I was
going to dissect it. I had no idea about how to do such things until my teacher explained the
methods and announcements. With great fear, I began from the back. Deviating from the midline
in case of the damage of blood vessels, not breaking the inner structure of the brain, separating
each tissue and organ, finally, the internal structure of a creature was displayed clearly in front of
me. That was my first time to experience the knowledge learned in the textbook, the first time to
explore the mystery of life. No longer similar to vapid adjectives in Science and Education Channel,
for the first time, my mind was filled with the sense of awe for life. Since then I decided to devote
my whole life to exploring this field and contributing to human beings.

My exploration in the Aquarium Science and Technology included two parts. One is the
theoretical learning part, during which I have developed an overall understanding of my major. It is
a captivating major that requires a strong sense of responsibility and subject identity. Since the
Aquarium Science and Technology is highly correlated with creatures, students of my major need
to be conscientious or life may be destroyed because of our carelessness. This major can be very
helpful because it is closely related to the environment, even the biosphere. Therefore when I make
decisions, I will consider all the factors. For example, if I want to start large-scale cultivation of
aquarium fishes, I will think about the nutritional requirements for living and the influence on the
environment from their metabolism.

The other one is the practice part. I devoted myself to multiple projects and practices to
enhance my professional skills. I participated in the National Student Innovation Training Program
in 2015. We chose to study the protein metabolism, relating nitrogen metabolism gene expression
alterations with different content of energy matters interventions in grass carp. The experiment
was different from the others I was doing at that time because it was at the molecular level.
Sometimes it was amazing that amino acid sequences turned into colorful colloid segments.
Although I understood the principles, I still felt amazed when it happened. However, I was
confronted with endless difficulties in the early phase. When the experiment came into a deadlock,
especially getting no result even if I designed dozens of primers, the novelty was replaced by
anxiety and worries. What if I could never get the results I wanted? Under enormous pressure, I
tried my best to read references, figuring out the meaning of each technical term. Additionally,
teaching myself professional knowledge in molecular biology and bioinformatics, asking my
seniors for advice, discussing the project with my supervisor, finally, my efforts paid off. Now I have
completed my experiments and been preparing to publish a paper. I have benefited a lot from this
project. On the one hand, I mastered many principles of conventional PCR, fluorogenic
quantitative PCR and primer design. Also, I learned the application of some analytical software. On
the other hand, my interest in scientific research has been greatly aroused.

Bearing my interest and curiosity, I joined the investigation about exotic species in Tibet
project. This project mainly evaluated the ages of crucian carps through the estimation of brood
amount, the process of scale and otolith. It aimed at raising approaches to control the invasive
alien species in the Chabalang Wetland. To learn the characteristics of crucian carps in the plateau
section, we carried out pre-experiment on the oxygen consumption rate of crucian carps, which
was the most challenging part of the whole project. Due to the defective devices, the statistics we
got was not accurate. We tried our best to decrease errors, but it was useless. Luckily, we observed
a variation trend through repeated experiments. Although the statistics could not be used in our
formal report, we discovered the activity tendency of crucian carps and gained experience. Finally,
we concluded the problems we met and the causes of errors so that we could do better in the next
experiments.

As I progressed with my research experience, I became more determined in pursuing a career

as a researcher. As part of that effort, I started as lab assistant in Dr. Xu-Fang Liang’s lab- Chinese
Perch Research Center. Since July 2018, I successfully organized several nutritional experiments
with mandarin fish amino acid. These experiments introduced me to nutritional regulation and the
underlying mechanisms. As I am preparing for the publication of my undergraduate thesis on Grass
Carp GDH and AMPD to the Journal of Aquaculture, I realized that I would like to understand the in
vivo metabolic mechanisms that lead to health and performance changes observed in research
results. Upon communication with Dr. Zheng Zhou, I am intrigued by the molecular and omics
approach he utilized in his research program to help understand and improve dairy cattle
performance. I would like to work with him and develop novel solutions to the problems in the
industry.

I have researched the nutrition graduate program in George Mason University. I believe your
programs are advanced encompassing various classes in nutrition education, statistics in health
services management within your curriculum as well as top-notch academic sources. I would very
much like to pursue a MS degree in nutrition in your esteemed department and sincerely wish I can
be accepted as a candidate.