Kathmandu, Oct. 10 -- If you had told me five years ago that I'd be writing this article from a cramped university dorm room, pursuing a PhD after a marathon of rejections back home, I would have laughed. Growing up in the dusty fields of the Terai, my family's lab was my mother's mud kitchen and curd fermentation pots. Schooling brought promise-no more kerosene lamps-and discovery via smuggled National Geographic magazines whispering of gene editing and harvest miracles. By Class 12, biotechnology and genetic engineering were either my escape or my path home to solve Nepal's persistent health and agriculture challenges through research.

By 2020, I had earned a B.Tech in Biotechnology from a reputable Indian college, supported by scholar...