Write a clear and detailed description of your study/research objectives, and give your reasons for wanting to pursue them․ Be specific about your major field and your specialized interests within this field․ Describe the kind of program you expect to undertake, and explain how your study plan fits in with your previous training and your future objectives․ This statement is an essential part of your application and is required․ Do not mention specific U․S․ universities at which you would like to study․

For nations to develop, individuals should have a healthy and active life. To achieve this, we must solve one of the most challenging issues facing our world today, which are the deficiencies of essential compounds and elements in our diets. One of this essential compounds is the folate; the natural form of folic acid. Folate plays a crucial role in a plethora of metabolic processes, like DNA replication, repair and methylation, as well as RNA synthesis. The deficiency of folate during embryo development causes neural tube defects, while during adulthood causes serious health problems including cancer, heart diseases and macrocytic anemia. Besides, a research in Egypt in 2018 found that folate deficiency is correlated with erectile dysfunction problems. Since folate deficiency causes adverse health effects, it attracted the world for finding a solution. Despite the folate food fortification programs and the availability of folate in various food products, the deficiency of folate is still prevailing. About 1 per 1000 child birth has neural tube defect in USA, and 4. 5 per 1000 in India and some ethnic groups in Egypt. A study in Ireland showed folate deficiencies are found in 14% of people above 50 years and 23% of people above 80 years old. The problem might still be there for several reasons. First, not all the natural forms of folate are bioavailable. Second, the folate is easily degraded by cooking. Third, although the synthesized folic acid is as twice as bioavailable as most of the natural forms, the majority of people are not compliant to take food supplements. Tackling such problem requires taking into consideration all the mentioned obstacles. In my point of view solving such problem requires three criteria which are the production of folate in a bioavailable form, in a sufficient daily quantity, and in a popular food that is already eaten by the majority of people. After researching, and analyzing the alternatives, yoghurt was found to be the best option, since it contains two important factors; the probiotic bacteria that can be used as the folate factories, and the milk protein that acts as a folate carrier thus increases the folate bioavailability. In addition to, Yoghurt is not cooked, thus it will not degrade the folate. Last but not the least yoghurt and dairy products in general are very popular nutritive food stuffs, that can be eaten alone and can be added in different recipes and deserts. My research objective is to increase the bacterial folate production used in yoghurt production up to 1000 mcg/liter. Reaching this concentration will allow the dairy product industrial companies to produce folate fortified yoghurts, and through further research, it can be added in other dairy products as well. Achieving this would be done in two steps, the first step is learning more about the folate pathway of the bacteria and how it works? Through studying the effect of different compounds on folate production and how it affects the gene expression of the folate pathway. The second step is the metabolic engineering of the pathway to favor the folate production. Performing such research, requires LC MS/MS, Real-time PCR, conventional PCR, fermenter and basic microbiology laboratory facilities. It would be a a turning point in my academic career path, if I could join one of the biotechnology and/or genetics department that is specialized in microbiology in one of the US outstanding universities. In my undergraduate graduation research, I have researched this problem and proposed the solution. Later, I started in the research project practically in my master’s research work, where I was able to isolate two folate producing species, and more than 25 strains from yoghurt. By comparing their folate production, the Streptococcus thermophilus strains were found to be the best. It produced around 150 mcg/liter. The folate measurement was done using a bioassay method. Moreover, we needed to know wither the obtained strains all had the same set of genes or not, thus 8 primers were designed for isolating the 8 genes of the folate pathway and they were isolated from 3 strains and all of them were found to have the same set of genes. Which made this strain an excellent choice for folate production, specially that it is the main strain used for yoghurt production. I wish I can carry out the rest of the journey in USA, where having facilities will allow me to conduct a high quality research that can be published in high impact factor journal so that a lot of people all over the world can benefit from it. Moreover, I need to learn from the American society how they make the dream come true, learning about start-ups and start-up formation will be one of my focus areas, as I am willing to open a microbial factory start-up when I come back to Egypt, were we will be working in research and development in the area of microbial biotechnology to produce economical strains with special features. To be used in different sectors, bioremediation, feed and food industries. The bacteria that will be produced during the Ph. D. will be used as the first prototype for the start-up.