Away from home: Series comes to an end

Posted on 31 Jul 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

We bring the ‘Away from home‘ blogging series to a close today. We will have sporadic entries under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog from time to time but as a weekly, today is the last day of the ‘immensely enriching’, ‘very resourceful’ and ‘totally awesome’ blogging series. Yes, those are our readers’ words to describe the series in the nine months of its life.

We bring it to a close today not because we have run out of postdocs to feature but because we do not want it to be repetitive and boring — we will keep looking for rather unique experiences to add to the series whenever possible. Needless to say, I will miss my weekly dose of postdoc chat (#postdochat for the hashtag-friendly) as, I’m sure, many of our regular readers will. But its best to be useful rather than just be.

Through the nine months of its existence (we began the series in November 2012) the series has been featuring one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab every Wednesday. We have brought to you the lives and aspirations of 30 young Indian scientists from across the world. The posts recount the experience of these postdocs — the triumphs and challenges of lab life, the cultural differences, what they miss about India — and, most importantly, offer some useful tips for postdocs headed abroad. The series has had excellent response from the scientific and research community worldwide.

What we also enjoyed bringing to you were the monthly summaries that compiled the rich variety of the month’s entries. Also, our Away from home interactive map pinpointing the labs these postdocs are based in — we just loved the map dotting up every Wednesday with one unique postdoc experience. You an continue to dig into all these interesting entries, summaries and the map under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog.

In winding up the series, I must admit I have cherished the opportunity of learning from the postdocs we featured — interacting with them to understand the challenges they face in foreign lands and getting inspired by their passion for science. Some of the posts will remain etched in my mind for their richness, resourcefulness and emotional outpouring. Some others will continue to be guiding lights for future postdocs seeking to tread this path.

Each of the entries had a unique flavour. Some were representative for a large number of postdoc lives. So to bid goodbye, here’s a pick of my favourite ten:

‘Indian academics must welcome global desis’

Suvasini Ramaswamy is a PhD from the Indian Insititute of Science, Bangalore and works as a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California, United States. She tells us about her work in stem cells and regenerative medicine, the enviable weather in La jolla that keeps her going and that inherently Indian phenomenon of ‘jugaad’ (roughly translating to ‘a creative quick-fix’) — something she says makes Indians rustle up innovations in their backyard. Suvasini’s flair for science communication also saw her author this piece for Nature India some time back.

Engineering stem cells and vaccines

Ankur Singh is an IIT-Bombay alumnus and a postdoc in Mechanical Engineering and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) at Georgia Tech, USA. Ankur was preparing for an exciting stint in academia as an assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University when we last heard from him. He says finding a postdoc position is easy but finding a great postdoc position is rather tricky and very tough. He recommends that aspiring trainees work hard, publish well, and do their homework before accepting a postdoc position.

A journey through academia

Akhilesh Gaharwar was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. He was bracing up to join Texas A&M University, USA as an assistant professor when we last caught up with him. He tells us about his fascinating academic journey from an undergraduate student in India to a faculty in a leading US University. Akhilesh exemplifies two things — that hard work has no alternative and that you can never go wrong if you follow your heart.

Mentors make a researcher

Amjad Husain is a postdoc at Harvard Medical School in Boston prior to which he was a PhD student at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi. His heartfelt gratitude goes out to the excellent mentors who shaped his life and career and he dreams of spinning off his own venture sometime in the future.

Marital science bliss

Talking about how marriage catapulted her further into her scientific pursuits is Atrayee Banerjee. Atrayee has a Masters in Environmental Management from the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM), Calcutta, India and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Right now, she works at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Maryland, USA.

Of jalapenos & cognition

Young medico Abhijit Das is a postdoctoral fellow at the Kessler Foundation, New Jersey, USA. Abhijit completed his neurology residency at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum, Kerala, India. He tells us about his tryst with blizzards, his coming to terms with the silent ‘j’ of jalapenos, and the excellent research environment in cognitive neurorehabilitation.

Work culture matters

Shankar Das is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA. Shankar narrates the culture shock he dealt with after he landed in the US from Bose Institute in Kolkata, India. Despite the initial glitch, he suggests that every researcher must get international exposure and come back with some essential take-homes.

Maintaining life’s equilibrium

Niti Kumar, a PhD from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi is currently a postdoc at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany. Niti says her chemistry teacher propelled her into science with some funny correlations she made between chemistry and life!

Mastering industry-academia links

Dilraj Lama is a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, Singapore. Dilraj is having a great time with biological modelling and simulation experiments as he seamlessly blends in with the local community owing to similar facial features. Exposed to a healthy multi-disciplinary work team, he is also learning important lessons in industry-academia linkages early on in his research life.

Nanotech dream for rural India

Archana Swami, who completed her Ph.D thesis at IGIB, New Delhi, India is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA and part of the Robert Langer group at The David Koch Institute at MIT, Boston, USA. She has a word for aspiring postdocs who are also young parents: the US education system will imbibe logical thinking, creativity and imagination in your child.

And as always, we leave you with our interactive ‘Away from home‘ map, the one-stop resource for Indian postdocs headed abroad. Hope you enjoy our future posts as and when we update this series.

An ace biologist through the eyes of a lensman

Posted on 31 Jul 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

India mourned the death of eminent biologist Obaid Siddiqi, who was knocked down by a moped last week (on July 26, 2013) while taking a stroll near his residence. Friends and colleagues paid rich tributes to the scientist known for his go-getter attitude and towering personality. His students and co-workers wrote heartfelt memoirs of the man they adored and worshiped calling him the ‘Renaissance Man’ and the ‘Catalyst of a culture of creativity‘. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Siddiqi was among that crop of scientists who helped lay the foundation of the country’s scientific research effort.

At 81, Siddiqi had a long list of achievements — to name just a couple, he had set up the molecular biology unit at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, in 1962 and founded the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, in the early 1990s. His work on the the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, led to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of brain cell functions and heralded the dawn of behavioural genetics.

We heard from many scientists this week telling us about their rich association and life-changing interactions with Siddiqi. We put together some of these anecdotes in our feature “India mourns loss of ‘aristrocratic’ & gutsy molecular biology guru“.

And then we heard from science film maker Matiur Rahman, who has been tracking Siddiqi’s life sine 1983. Rahman was still a student of mass communication at Jamia Millia Islamia then. He sent us some rare pictures he has clicked of Siddiqi. And some more from the scientist’s personal archives. The most appropriate thing, then, was to invite him to write a guest blog that paid a pictorial tribute to the handsome biologist.

So, here’s Matiur Rahman’s impression of Obaid Siddiqi, with rare pictures, many of which will be seen by friends and colleagues for the first time:

I first came to know about Prof. Obaid Siddiqi while researching about India’s top scientists for a TV programme. For some strange cosmic (read administrative) reason, the series never got produced. But my teacher Prof. James Alexander Beveridge, suggested I keep the theme alive for a future production.

In 1988, I was told that Prof Siddiqi would be visiting Hyderabad to participate in the inaugural function of the establishment of a new laboratory by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was called the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad.

Problem was, I had no idea what Prof. Siddiqi looked like. As I passed the administrative block at CCMB, I saw a huge scaffolding with a bamboo ladder leaning against it. A graceful old man was perched upon it with his back to me – it was the celebrated artiste M. F. Hussain, who looked down at me briefly before turning back to his canvas. Someone else stopped beside me to gawk at the spectacle — staring intently at the flying brush strokes of the master painter. I was about to ask him how Hussain, perched at such a height, could judge the viewpoint of a spectator on the ground. Before I could do that, the man turned to me, eyed my odd looking camera and asked me what I was up to. It turned out that besides being a scientist, he had a keen interest in photography. That was how I first met Prof. Obaid Siddiqi. Pushing his spectacles up a bit, he said, “See you at the sessions”. And he was gone.

Some 25 years later, we were walking again together. This time, not in Hyderabad. It was Bangalore and the location was the TIFR National Centre for Biological Sciences, which he helped found. As we walked from his lab to the canteen, Prof. Siddiqi spoke in measured tones, remembering how we had met years back. Nobel laureates from the world’s best known biology labs had flocked to Hyderabad to participate in CCMB’s inaugural function — among them were Francis Crick & Robert Edwards. When Prof. Siddiqi rose to speak, he presented a picture much unlike a typical scientist. He spoke right after Severo Ochoa, discoverer of the Kuru virus — a well-fed but stodgy fellow. In contrast, Prof Siddiqi looked dapper — handsomely lanky, with stylish wavy hair and a piercing look — he almost looked like the Bollywood heart throb Shashi Kapoor. Down in the audience, I was busy wrestling with our tapes and cameras. But secretly I was elated, that one of our own, was outshining the best and brightest in the molecular biology fraternity.

In 2008, I met him again, to shoot a full television story on his life and times for a series we call “Mind Find”. He walked into his office with a graceful stoop, as if he was carrying an invisible load of huge books on his back. Sadly, this series is yet to see the light of day – I still haven’t found a sponsor or an affordable slot on any of our TV channels.

We watched him quietly, as he paused at his work table, looking blankly into the distance — like he was trying to remember something or maybe, planning his day.

Next, he peppered us with a barrage of questions — the interviewee was suddenly the interviewer. He wanted to know why I was so keen to tape him. He wanted to check if I knew any biology. Convinced we weren’t jokers, he opened up, and before I knew it, we were coasting through his past life, his journey in molecular biology. How does a brain ‘know’ what it knows. How does it ‘remember’, how does it ‘store’ information, what chemical changes take place when nerve cells talk among themselves. These were things that fascinated him — and in his telling, we got hooked ourselves.

Interview over, it was time to get some glucose. Despite being the founding director of NCBS, he didn’t sit down in the VIP corner and order lunch. Instead he lined up with everybody else, holding that standard steel thali, till his turn came.

Switching to chaste Urdu, he chatted about his other interests – photography and sarod. Cricket took up so much of his time, he said, that he had to switch to tennis.

As I look back at those tapes today, I notice the good professor picked up just twenty five handsome wrinkles over the twenty five years that separated our two interviews.

(Matiur Rahman can be contacted at matiurrahman@gmail.com)

Away from home: July round-up

Posted on 24 Jul 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

Our ‘Away from home’ blogging series features one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab every Wednesday. The posts recount the experience of these postdocs — the triumphs and challenges of lab life, the cultural differences, what they miss about India — and, most importantly, offer some useful tips for postdocs headed abroad.

We started the blog series in November 2012 and have just completed eight months, having featured 27 postdocs till now. The series has had excellent response from the scientific and research community worldwide.

For our regular readers, and those who are just joining us now, we provide a summary of the month’s entries, including an interactive map pinpointing the labs these postdocs are based. All these interesting entries and summaries can be found under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog.

We will continue to update the map each Wednesday and hope that you will join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.

In July 2013, we featured researchers from Florida, Berlin and Tennessee — each unique in the science they do and the tips they offered to postdoctoral aspirants. ‘Away from Home’ also saw its 30th blog post this month, making a series a rich resource for anyone looking at labs abroad for a postdoc stint.

Here’s a round-up of the month’s blogs:

Living with plants:

Biswapriya Biswavas Misra is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and currently a postdoctoral researcher at Chen Laboratory, Department of Biology in University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. He says his passion for plant biology surpasses everything else in his life and offers a golden tip — that postdoc is just the beginning of a researcher’s life.

Sailing my mast:

Rohit Saluja is a PhD from the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, India and currently a postdoc fellow at Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany. He invests his energies in making use of the newly discovered “good” functions of mast cells and to find ways of controlling effects of “bad” mast cells. His postdoc tip: look for a salary if you are headed for Germany, not a fellowship.

Tweaking proteins for medicine:

Anupam Goel, an alumnus of Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Anupam is researching protein interactions at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA as a postdoctoral associate now. In future, he hopes to sell recombinant proteins/enzymes for application in several emergency medical situations in India.

Have you seen our Away from home interactive map yet? Here it is pictured below with 30 flags from around the world. We update it every Wednesday with new postdoc experiences. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from unusual countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

Science blogging in India

Posted on 17 Jul 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

The Indian science journal Current Science carried a special section on science writing in India in its latest edition. I was invited to share my views on the science blogging scene in India.

Here’s an excerpt of my take on the subject:

Six years back, when I made the switch from reporting science for the mainstream media (newspapers, magazines, news agencies) to an on-line medium, I was inundated with questions from well meaning peers. Must I renounce the glamour of the printed world to embrace the vastness and click-or-miss anonymity of the cyber world? Does not a story read in black and white with the morning cuppa have a more lasting impact than one read on an android phone or tablet on the go? Concerned colleagues advised helpfully: on-line is the future, yes, but the romance of print will never fade. And one science journalist of repute gave me a clear disapproval: ‘You are going to blog too? That’s not journalism!’

Having swum in on-line waters and having passionately peeped into the crevices, I am happy to report I have survived. And blogged my head-off too. Which is one of the points of this note – what has the journey been like, is blogging journalism after all, should scientists blog and where this enormous information explosion in science communication headed for?

Before I get into these mind-boggling details, I have to admit: If there were no science bloggers, science would not be as glamorous and widespread as it has become in the last few years. Hats off to this informed, funny, adorable and quirky brood which has made life on the internet worth living.

Why blog?

The evidence is clear: science sections in Indian newspapers (and globally) are shrinking. Television wakes up to science only during a nuclear disaster, a satellite lift-off or a Higgs boson. There are very few widely read science magazines simply because they do not make great commerce. Science coverage in mainstream Indian media, like many other issues of merit, has traditionally been minimal, primarily because of advertorial pressures and the space crunch. The obvious SOS route: go on-line. Report, comment, give opinion, analyse or put all that together and just blog. The number of journalists using a blog to replace or supplement their print avatars has grown phenomenally. They might chose to be objective, sticking to the traditional mandate of journalism, or to be opinionated trying to justify a point of view.

However, an eye-catching trend is that of scientists blogging on science and scientific issues. The growth in this tribe of on-line busybees is instantly apparent at international conferences on science communication where journalist bloggers are a minority! The reason more and more scientists are debuting in the blogosphere is apparent – it gives them and their research a lot more exposure, helps them find grants or new collaborators and enhances career opportunities. It is also an intimate social-networking tool where feedback is instant, candid and ever-flowing. A newspaper story is like a movie that you might adore or abhor, but the maker might not know how you felt about it instantly. A blog piece is like live theatre, where the adulation or booing by the audience is instant. Also, a blog is an online resource that continues to receive comments years after it is posted. By contrast, comments on on-line news stories taper out within a couple of days.

Is blogging journalism?

Blogging, however, cannot and must not replace reporting on science issues. A blog is a personal viewpoint, very often informal and not bound by the classic writing structure that journalism school teaches us. It could be as free-flowing or structured as its author chooses it to be.

The best science blogs, however, retain the classical structure – answering all questions the reader might have, explaining the scientific concept in layman’s language while adopting a conversational approach and looking at the implication of the research/study at hand. They exceed the remit of a news piece by becoming invaluable on-line resources, pooling in supplementary data on the topic by way of hyperlinks, pictures, diagrams and references. Most times, space constraint and format do not allow everything to be tucked into a news article. A blog is an ideal place to accommodate such interesting asides. In that sense, blogging is not strictly journalism but supplements serious and consistent reportage.

For the rest of the article please see Current Science here.

The special section on science writing in India can be found here for the next few days.

Away from home: Tweaking proteins for medicine

Posted on 17 Jul 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

Every Wednesday, our ‘Away from home’ blog series features one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab recounting his/her experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences, what they miss about India, as well as some top tips for postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.

Today we feature Anupam Goel, an alumnus of Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Anupam is researching protein interactions at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA as a postdoctoral associate now. In future, he hopes to sell recombinant proteins/enzymes for application in several emergency medical situations in India.

Anupam Goel, pursuing one of his many interests beyond research.

Looking at protein interactions

I came across this article about genetic engineering during school days — that’s how it all started. I was fascinated that living things can be engineered. For higher studies, I went to the Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. My interest in protein structures led me to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Currently I am a postdoctoral associate at the structural biology/pathology laboratory of research hospital. The hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children’s catastrophic diseases. It is a a world leader in cancer and has the best infrastructure to do science. I study protein structure and dynamics and how they change on interactions with other macromolecules/ligands. I look at protein interactions at the atomic scale.

Living in the US

In the US, the best thing is that you can do whatever you want. All you need to do is to think of doing it, and you will mostly find easy ways of doing it. People were warm and for me, acclimatization didn’t take too long, although there were two things that took time to get used to — food and slang!

Initially, I missed Indian food all the time and saw pooris and what not in my dreams. Slang gave me a hard time. Also, some funny situations arose when using English phrases acceptable in India such as ‘passed out’, which would mean ‘graduated’ in India but meant ‘getting hammered on drinking too much’ here in the US!

My postdoc tips

1. Know that you will have to work hard. If you have an idea, pursue it hard.

2. Take charge and responsibility, drive your research and follow your intuitions.

3. The human mind could become the biggest dustbin unless one commits to go out of the way and do things others don’t trust could work.

Home is where the heart is

Away from home, you miss your family until you start your own. There are times when you question if all this distance from family is worth it or not.

I miss the culture and the colors. India has a blend of a lot of everything. Just a two-hour travel gets you different food, clothes and languages. India is unique in that sense and no other nation can ever parallel that.

I wish to start a business in india. My plan is to start selling recombinant proteins/enzymes for application in several emergency medical situations. I am looking for establishing my network in India to understand the market better. I have been away from India too long and haven’t found very responsive people sharing knowledge about the market. I would like to know more people to establish connections. And would also like to guide younger scientists looking for opportunities in the US.

We have 30 postodocs in this series now! Anupam Goel makes the 30th postdoc featured in this blog series. Find him and the rest on our interactive Away from home world map pictured below and updated every Wednesday. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

Away from home: Sailing my mast

Posted on 10 Jul 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

We feature Rohit Saluja this Wednesday. Rohit is a PhD from the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, India and currently a postdoc fellow at Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany. He invests his energies in making use of the newly discovered “good” functions of mast cells and to find ways of controlling effects of “bad” mast cells. His postdoc tip: look for a salary if you are headed for Germany, not a fellowship.

Rohit Saluja

Academic environment fueled curiousity

I was always curious about things. How and why were questions I always asked my parents and teachers. I wanted to gain knowledge about facts and to know the reason behind everything. My schooling was in a small place near Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. I grew up surrounded by engineers. The environment around me was academic and that inspired me to do something good in life.

Nobel laureates & Karolinska

My PhD was from Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, where I trained with Dr Madhu Dikshit. I gained knowledge in the field of immunology and cell biology research. I evaluated the human and rat nitric oxide synthase (NOS) from a biochemical and molecular perspective in normal physiological and pathological conditions in different immune cells. After PhD, I got the opportunity to join the lab of Prof. Gunnar Nilsson at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden). He has been working in asthma immunology and allergic inflammation. I felt proud to be the part of Karolinska Institutet, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine every year. I also got the opportunity to interact with Nobel laureates in 2010. They talked about their science, career, experiences and discoveries.

After the successful completion of the project in Karolinska Institutet, I got an opportunity to work as a senior postdoctoral fellow with Prof Marcus Maurer at Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin (Germany). He is one of the leading scientists in the field of mast cell biology. The work environment of this lab is very nice and cooperative. The best part of the lab is that I have complete freedom to design and execute my project. We are a very big group, multicultural group of dedicated clinicians and researchers. Our lab is well equipped to research on finding the solution to cure allergy and take it from bench to clinic.

Of good and bad mast cells

The major goals of my research are to make use of newly discovered “good” functions of mast cells and to find ways of controlling “bad” mast cell effects. The structural goal is to strengthen an interdisciplinary network that will (1) assess the relevance for the human system of mast cell functions discovered in mice, (2) identify and characterize pathways and signals of mast cell activation and its subsequent effects, and (3) develop ways and tools that target and regulate these pathways and signals so that we can make use of mast cells and their beneficial functions. Recently, I have started working on a very exciting project where I am exploring the role of lL-33 on mast cell functions. IL-33 is a recently discovered cytokine that can activate different immune cells including mast cells. I am also exploring the role of the mast cell and IL-33 axis in different allergic diseases.

Paperwork woes, bone-chilling winters & helpful mates

I had initial hiccups but after some time when I settled and got used to the new place, life became much easier. The main problem that I faced was the language barrier. Official affairs (tax office, registration office) are a little bit complicated here because they only speak German. Thanks to my lab mates who helped me with this. Thereafter it was very easy to live here. However, winter in Germany is typically a grim and dark and, a chilly damp that goes straight to the bones.

Salary versus fellowship

It would be helpful for young researchers looking at postdoc positions in Germany to keep the following things in mind.

1. Before joining the lab, ask your supervisor if you will receive a fellowship (non-taxable) or a salary (taxable, covers all social insurance). Try to get a salary so that you can avail of all the social benefits.

2. Look how authorship is handled. How often and where does the lab publish?

3. Where is the mentor along the tenure-track timeline? Senior PIs with productive track records are safer. But junior faculty members may be more eager to get higher publications.

4. Will the mentor help you apply for small grants or fellowships? How stable is the current funing?

5. Is your potential mentor friendly to collaborations with other labs?

India, a part of me

I have not disconnected myself from India, not for a single day. I always keep track of what is happening in India. Thanks to all advanced technologies and internet, I never feel that I am not part of India. But still, I miss a lot of things from India: first of all I miss Indians and Hindi. I also miss my friend-circle and dhaba tea. During our PhD that was the best place to discuss science and a good platform for troubleshooting. I also miss the festival season of India.

I would love to come back to India in the near future once I get a good opportunity. I am living a privileged life because of the basic education I obtained in India. I really want to do something in return for my country and contribute to research in India.

Rohit Saluja is the 29th postdoc featured in this blog series. Find him and the rest on our interactive Away from home world map pictured below and updated every Wednesday. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

Away from home: Living with plants

Posted on 03 Jul 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

Today we get to hear from Biswapriya Biswavas Misra, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and currently a postdoctoral researcher at Chen Laboratory, Department of Biology in University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. Biswapriya says his passion for plant biology surpasses everything else in his life and offers a golden tip — that postdoc is just the beginning of a researcher’s life.

Biswapriya in his lab at the University of Florida.

Curious kid, encouraging elders

My mother says when I was a kid, I used to make mixtures of things like honey, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and oil and burn them. I observed how the cats rejected their differently coloured kittens (say a black one in a white litter). In playgrounds, I uprooted the grass to look at them. Later during my college days, my father’s friend, a Professor in Botany, influenced me to choose plant science over zoology setting me to score well in biology. The constant encouragement and praise I received from my biology teachers paved way for a Masters and a PhD. That was the matrix of events that led me into science.

After a masters degree from Utkal University, Orissa (now Odisha) with a gold medal, I joined the department of biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur for a degree in plant biotechnology. My supervisor exposed me to the field of non-model plants, small molecules, hyphenated instrumentation, bioactive phytoconstituents and plant biotechnology in a holistic manner through the Indian sandalwood tree. After a short postdoc in Malaysia on rubber tree genomics (again on a non-model tree) , the natural progression for me was to look for a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded postdoctoral position. I found that in plant metabolomics and proteomics and landed in the department of biology of University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.

Passion for plants

Our research group focuses on understanding the single-cell metabolomics and proteomics of plant guard cells (the two cells surrounding the stomatal aperture on leaves) which regulate plant-environment water balance and hence affect crop productivity. Hyphenated mass spectroscopy, transcriptomics and proteomics approaches help us understand the intricate regulation of this vital phenomenon.

I cherish the amazing companionship with my Principal Investigator, the expertise that he is conferring on me and the training and enthusiasm that he has extended to me. In terms of laboratory, it is a medium sized group with a big resourceful department providing services in genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics.

In USA, I did learn a professional approach to work. You are appreciated for your work quality. There is equality, resource and the facility to exercise your imagination and passion!

Settling in with patience

The acclimatisation can never be smooth when you come from such a different cultural background. Recognising currency, finding acceptable food, bus routes, independence, housing, security, cash-less systems, professional colleagues, distance from home — all of this had to be dealt with patience.

There have been some hilarious moments while trying to fit in here. For example, when a lab mate says something like ‘finding an apartment with 1.5 toilet!’, you are stumped. Back home we have either 1 or 2 toilets but not this arithmetic! Stranger still is when the PI asks you for a beer or a drink or two! Back home it would be considered outrageous. Accents are an issue always and can cause real good confusion leading to lengthy conversations!

One thing that makes you feel ‘away from home’ is the professional approach that extends beyond the lab to life! For instance, if you ask someone on the road for directions, you are helped with the route but back home the person would actually walk or drive you to the place.

No alternative to hard work

Postdoc is a lot about whom you get to work with and how the position aligns with not just your professional but also your personal life. Self-evaluation is necessary while applying for a position to define one’s career objectives (for me it was staying with plants). Also, being open to the diverse opportunities in research (biotechnology to genomics to metabolomics/ proteomics).

There is no alternative or short cut to hard work, learning and skills. One has to be most passionate for science than for anything else to be able to excel. Otherwise you just thrive or survive in research.

Miss places, people, pointless fun

I miss the places that matter: where I was born, grew up, studied and got trained. I miss my parents, my mentors, friends, food, the air, the land, news channels, and almost everything (it’s a huge list)! Movies at cine-complexes, festivities, home, picnics with big groups of friends and addeybaji (light-hearted discussions on absolutely nothing!)

Postdoc is just the beginning

I would love to come back to India at the first opportunity. Shelf lives of postdocs are limited. There has been a huge increase in offers from funding bodies like DBT, INSA, CSIR and DST. I would like to pursue the newly established IITs, IISERs and some great initiatives like NABI, Mohali; ICGEB, New Delhi, NCBS, Plant Biology Division (upcoming) and so on.

At the end of the day, one wishes to utilise the training received to become an accomplished scientist in one’s own land. That’s the ultimate dream of all researchers ‘away from home’.

Academic life is a complex matrix. Most people fail to strike the proper balance between professional and personal lives, which is a pity. One should stop evaluating ‘potential’ from just impact factors, number of publications, first authors — it should rather be based on their contribution and impact in the area of research [the DORA Agreement reflects this nicely!].

At the end I must say, life is not limited to being a postdoc! It’s just the beginning.

Biswapriya Biswavas Misra is one of the first postdocs from the South of USA featured in this blog. He is the 28th postdoc on our interactive Away from home world map pictured below and updated every Wednesday. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.