Umesh Bhattarai
Purpose Statement
Coming from a humble beginning, I understand the necessities of students coming from minority and underprivileged community. Based on my own experience, I can proudly say everyone deserves a success in life. I have a purpose in life to push as many people as possible for success. I want to grow better together with my students. The reason behind choosing Adams State University is the diverse student population we have here. Diversity is the key to meaningful education that leads to educated population with love and compassion. Here in Adams State Unversity, I will be working towards educating our future generation for a real success in science irrespective of their origin.
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My Journey to Science
I enjoy learning, being educated about the events and discovery going around feels fulfilling to me. A long process of education, persistence, positivity and hard work have made me the person I am today. My love for science started since very early days in my school. That hunger for science has made me leave early in life before finishing my highschool. My first love with science was started at the moment when I saw cells of a leaf under microscope. Then I started asking too many questions about cells and their structures. By the end of my high school, I realized that a lot of biomolecules are grouped together to make that fundamental unit of life called cells. That understanding led me to study chemistry in my undergraduate and furthermore a master's degree in Organic Chemistry. While working for my master's degree, I studied the types chemicals present in medicinal plants from the mountains of Nepal isolating a few bioactive compounds that showed inhibitory effect against against a few infectious bacteria. I started my career in science teaching after my masters, that gave me a better understanding of the domain and prepared me as a science educator too.
Knowing the potential of natural product to treat diseases, I decided to further explore the cause of diseases. To pursue my dream of knowing diseases better, I joined Prof. Fu-sen Liang's lab at the University of New Mexico to get my Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry. During my doctoral research, I explored the role of microRNA (a type of non coding RNA) in human diseases and different pathological conditions. In addition to that, I developed several molecules that showed the potential to regulate the level of microRNA of interest. Some of my publications showing my research in microRNAs are given below.
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