Reach out

“Usually in our country if you love biology, people think you will study medicine. This is very much normalized and I internalized this as well. But in Standard IX, I came across this book called ‘Outbreak’ by Robin Cook, which talks about an Ebola outbreak in the United States. It was the first time I got to know about the concept of research and microbiology, to be specific, and I was fascinated by it. That book changed my perspective and I got inclined towards basic sciences instead of pursuing medicine.

I majored in Biotechnology, which touches upon a lot of different areas of biology but I was still attracted to microbiology and opted for a Master’s project in the same. However, during an assignment in which we had to write a grant proposal, I read a lot about X chromosome inactivation and how its misregulation is associated with psychiatric conditions in females. This shifted my focus to neuroscience. I looked up laboratories which aligned with my new found interests and eventually enrolled myself at CCMB for a PhD.

It has been a learning experience for me, with both ups and downs. I consider myself lucky to have received a very good supervisor, who not only gives us scientific inputs, but also involves us in the formal procedures for a paper submission.

Last year, we conducted a conference called Hy-Sci here in Hyderabad. It was completely student-centric and was…