I was reading up on some different degrees, and came across Immunology and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at the school I was interested in. What's the difference between these? I'm interested in creating medicine and vaccines, so which of these would be more beneficial for that

Immunology is the study of immune systems.

Molecular Virology is the study of viruses at the molecular level.

Microbiology is the study of microbes.

 

I helped create medicines and vaccines, and I don't have a degree anywhere close to these.

 

Apart from the ultimate goal of "creating medicine and vaccines", how do you intend to contribute to these goals? Drug discovery, Clinical trials, Manufacturing, Quality control, Patent applications, etc? The field of "medicines" is rather broad, but the field of "vaccines" is more specific. Vaccines trigger immune system response, so IMO, you mostly want to study Immunology.

 

Another point, too, is that most people focus on their desired field of study and then zero in on the school, and not the other way around.

A good idea (that's very easy to search for on the Internet) is to find job ads for the exact kind of work you want to do, and to see what sort of education it requires, including years of schooling (ie, BS, MS PhD, post-doc, ...).

you need to see the research areas of different science groups,and choose a prof. who works directly in the area you like to be your tutor.

Apart from the ultimate goal of "creating medicine and vaccines", how do you intend to contribute to these goals? Drug discovery, Clinical trials, Manufacturing, Quality control, Patent applications, etc? The field of "medicines" is rather broad, but the field of "vaccines" is more specific. Vaccines trigger immune system response, so IMO, you mostly want to study Immunology.

 

 

Making vaccines is a biochemical process. This process requires high sterilization condition and highly purified separation. Recently developed process are mammalian cell culture method and insect cell culture method, these methods reduce egg allergy. And, the methods reduce the period from developing vaccine to producing it.

Edited February 25, 201114 yr by alpha2cen

Well, you have to distinguish between basic research in the areas (which is often done outside of companies), drug design and galenics and the actual manufacturing process. Each of them represent several different career tracks.