Selecting an EA-Aligned Biosciences Masters

I am about to finish my undergraduate degree in genetics, into which I have incorporated a bit of compsci/​compbio/​bioinformatics (my university allows a lot of flexibility with study plans).

I am planning to continue my education with a Masters in biosciences next year, which involves a mix of higher-level classes and an ongoing research project. We need to seek out the research project by approaching potential supervisors to find one that interests us. I would like to make sure that my thinking is on the right track, and so I was hoping that some of you might be happy to provide some feedback/​guidance on my plans so far.

I have met with two supervisors so far. The first already offered me a bioinformatics project around large-scale genomic/​transcriptomic analysis of a couple of invasive species, with the aim of informing the design of suppression-drive technologies for pest control. I find this project really enticing as I have a strong interest in both animal welfare (including wild-animal welfare) and bioinformatics, and I think this would be a great way to combine the two. The second supervisor I met with had projects that were less applied, and had a broader scope, all using bioinformatics to study large datasets to investigate sources of diversity among humans. This lab was a bit less exciting to me but the supervisor was more hands-off in terms of projects, giving their students freedom to develop their own projects (within reason), which might mean that I could develop a more optimal project than the other one I was offered. However, the projects seemed more about discovery rather than application, which makes me uncertain about how interesting/​beneficial it could be, although they do use a range of highly-transferable techniques.

Overall I’m trying to think through a list of pros and cons about both of these labs, as I would ideally like to a) have a project that is directly beneficial and b) gain useful experience that sets me up for an effective career in industry or research, whichever I decide. With that being said, I have a few main questions I’m mulling on:

  1. How important is making the right choice, really? Is it more important to just find a project that interests me, and hope I can transfer my skills anyway?

    1. On that point, is my choice likely to cut off other options and pathways?

  2. Should I aim for a lab that isn’t as directly interesting to me but might allow me greater freedom to design an optimal project?

  3. Is it worth going for a project that is less interesting but will make me more employable/​broaden my options?

Though the first supervisor/​project still interests me the most, I’m wondering if I’m missing opportunities to work on a more fulfilling project that would set me up better for my next career step. Some of the areas I’m especially interested in working in are wild-animal welfare and cell agriculture, so I’m trying to keep my options open there. Some of the other projects available that I was also interested in are related to pesticide design, environmental DNA for monitoring waterway ecology, threats to human fertility, and plant engineering for nutritional enrichment.

I realize I’m just dumping a bunch of information and this might feel more like a journal entry than a question, but it’s because I’m really not sure what things I should be prioritising or thinking about when making my decision, and I’m not sure what bits of information are important. I’m very sorry for being so verbose!

I would really appreciate if anyone with more experience would be willing to provide any advice or thoughts on my decision-making so far, as it would be a great help in coming to a decision. And even if you don’t want to provide any advice, thank you so much for reading to the end of my ramblings.

Thanks in advance :)