Luck was on my side

“I had an inclination towards biology while growing up in Abu Dhabi. So when I moved back to India for further studies, I developed a keen interest in a course on medical biochemistry during my undergraduation mostly because of the translational potential of the subject. A part of that inclination also came by watching my grandmother suffer from chronic diabetes and undergoing painful invasive treatments every now and then which affected her quality of life.

It motivated me to work around diagnostic tools that were less traumatizing for the patients. And I was fortunate that I got a chance to hone that research area during my Master’s at Kasturba Medical College in Manipal. A dental surgeon had come to our laboratory to enquire about the possibility of using saliva as a diagnostic marker. Saliva mirrors the blood in many ways and it was during this period that I came across the concept that salivary tests might be a cheaper and less painful diagnostic tool and can be used in conjecture to blood tests for health assessment. My postgraduate supervisor pushed me hard to get a small project done in this area and publish it, something we don’t see often amongst Master’s students in India. Getting such a brilliant exposure and encouragement made me confident that I wanted to pursue a PhD in the same field.

However, I wanted to shift back near my hometown in the North and therefore I took…