Double trouble: Meet two ANU students who have a lot in common

Publication date
Friday, 20 Nov 2015
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Two years ago Jiansi and Jianzhen made a joint decision to leave China and move to Australia, to both study at ANU, and both in similar fields.

They are also exactly the same age. Well, almost.

“Jianzhen is five minutes older than me,” says Jiansi.

They have a lot in common, because, yes, they are twins.

“I am studying biotechnology and my sister is studying engineering,” says Jiansi.

They say their passion for science flourished from a young age when they would watch movies together.

“Every weekend we would spend a few hours watching sci-fi movies. My parents were not huge fans so it would always be just the two of us watching them together.”

“I guess Iron Man was part of the reason I studied engineering!” her sister Jianzhen jokes.

They admit that learning about science, technology, maths and engineering is now more important than ever.

“It’s more relevant to our own life,” Jianzhen says.

“If I learn something from my physics lecturer then I can apply these principles to my everyday life.

"I think science is about digging around in nature and trying to figure out what is going on and engineering is about applying those theories into practice.”

Her sister Jiansi explains that biotechnology is increasingly important as we enter a new age of modern medicine.

“I think biotechnology is important because today we’re learning more and more about how genes work.

“I want to use biotechnology to make drugs more personalised, doing something like gene therapy.

“One of my friends has cancer and because chemical therapy is not personalised, it just kills every cell in the body. What if we could just kill the cancer cells without killing the other cells?”

Whether your passion is engineering, biotechnology, or even sci-fi films, at ANU you’ll meet plenty of other people just like you.

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