Crispers Application: Fill & Download for Free

Here's the thing. Faculty members know that students are not necessarily going to stick to what they wrote in their application. This is for many reasons:They will hopefully encounter areas in grad school that they didn't even know existed as undergrads.They may be inspired by a particular professor, and hence get interested in an area that they thought they didn't like.They may even find that an area is practiced at that university in a completely different way than it was at the student's previous one, and this may completely change the student's perspective.etc., etc. (there are also personalities involved).Therefore, departments are not surprised when a student changes areas. Indeed, good departments expect that some number of students will do so and build mechanisms into their process to facilitate this.That said, faculty find it hard to evaluate applicants who seem to be interested in everything. In part, this is because the typical “interested in everything” student ends up writing awfully vague descriptions that are hard to pin down and hence evaluate. In contrast, a student who picks some area and focuses on it in their statement of purpose (say) can write something meaningful and evaluable — which is what departments are really looking for.So, at good departments, don't think of the stipulation of an area as being primarily about committing to your career path. Rather, think of it as a mechanism by which you can write a crisper application, which makes it easier for a department to evaluate you. Given the intense competition for slots, improving your application is in your interests.Nevertheless, because you don't know how the department will use what you write — they may well use it to place you into an area where you will be funded by a person in that area immediately upon entry (I think this is a terrible idea, and Brown CS doesn't work this way, but some surprisingly well-regarded departments do) — it's wise to “have carefully thought about the question and your answer” [to borrow a phrase from Christopher VanLang's comment].Note that I have not directly answered the top-level question, but I've given you insight into how the information is used so that you can answer it for yourself.

One of the most common queries I receive is related to the CV format, best practices, and the elements that need to be incorporated in a good CV.While there is no standard CV format that is applicable across India, I believe that having a simple bulleted format, covering 1–2 pages works best. The CV should ideally cover the following:Educational backgroundAcademic achievementsInternships or work experienceExtra curricular activitiesPositions of responsibilityA few tips to make a good CV:Try to use bullets to make the achievements readable. However, ensure that each bullet only spans across 1 line. This forces you to make the points crisper and also makes the CV easier to read.Highlight the key words throughout the CV using the ‘bold’ feature. You need to strike a right balance of highlighting the key words to bring the attention of the reader to the right places, while ensuring you cover all the elements you want to cover.Try to bring out the impact of the projects as clearly as possible. Some projects might not have a clear deliverable associated with them, while some projects might have clear impact. Try to bring out the impact as clearly as possible. If you have numbers to support the impact, that is even better.Ensure that you do not make any spelling error or grammatical error in the CV. A CV is your lifeline to impress the reviewer - ensure that you spend the required amount of time checking and re-checking the CV to remove all grammatical errors.A balanced CV is generally preferred by most companies, while some companies might have more preference towards the work experience or the academic achievements.I have attached my CV below as a sample, that can help you while you prepare your own CVs.

CRISPR-Cas9 technology, an RNA guided genome editing system is the simplest, cheapest and the most versatile tool for efficient and precise genome editing.CRISPR (pronounced crisper) refers to Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats or prokaryotic DNA segments with short repetition of base sequences and between these short repeats there is a spacer DNA derived from previous exposure to bacteriophage or plasmid.CRISPR-Cas9 is involved in prokaryotic defense mechanism preventing insertion of foreign DNA segments of bacteriophage and plasmids. Spacer DNA is derived from prior exposure therefore provides a form of acquired immunity in bactreria. CRISPR-Cas9 plays a crucial role in microbial antiphage defense mechanism.This is how CRISPR-Cas9 works?Two key molecules are involved in gene manipulation by CRISPR-Cas9.Cas9, an endonuclease enzyme and a short segment of RNA called guide RNA or gRNA (sg RNA: single guide RNA or mgRNA: multiple guide RNA)Cas9 is an RNA guided DNA endonuclease that serves as “molecular scissors” cutting double stranded DNA at specific locations.The CRISPR nuclease Cas9 is targeted by a short guide RNA that recognizes the target DNA via Watson-Crick base pairing. This guide RNA sequence, CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) is complementary to the phage sequence or plasmid sequence constituting the natural mechanism for CRISPR antiviral defense. Guide RNA will bind to the complementary phage sequence and cas 9 endonuclease degrade phage DNA or RNA thus preventing phage gene insertion. A small portion of degraded phage DNA is retained as spacer DNA to recognize the phage easily when it attacks next time. This guide RNA can be easily replaced by a sequence of interest to retarget the Cas9 nuclease.The following link will give you a summary of CRISPR-Cas9 technology5 Quick Facts on CRISPR-Cas9 technology- A simple RNA Guided Gene Editing Tool (Summary)This is an excellent review on CRISPR-Cas9 technology. You can download it from the journal websiteDevelopment and applications of CRISPR-Cas9 for genome engineering.