Away from home: The two-body problem

Posted on 31 Jan 2014 by Subhra Priyadarshini

As promised our ‘Away from home‘ blogging series will feature sporadic entries under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog from time to time. The series was earlier a weekly featuring 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.

Here’s the account of a scientist couple, looking at opportunities to come back to India. Naresh Bal, a PhD from Jawarharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and a postdoc from the Ohio State University, USA is currently wanting to start an independent research group of his own. He is busy writing grants overtime given the “current grant situation in the USA”. Naresh urges the Indian government and institutions to think of schemes to recruit scientist-couples to work as a team. Read on and leave your comments — have you had a similar experience, do you know someone who has or are your bracing up for this now?

The scientist couple: Naresh Bal and Nivedita Jena

The enigma of protein structure

My interest in science originates from my curiosity about the incredible diversity in protein structure and the unique ways they perform their functions.

My doctoral research was from the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow and a the PhD from Jawarharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. I evaluated three postdoctoral positions in three different places — Paris, Amsterdam and Vancouver. At the same time I got an offer from Dr. Periasamy of the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio to work on a “calcium-binding protein” called calsequestrin. As I always wanted to work on structural aspects of proteins, this sounded like my type of research. So I chose to join Dr. Periasamy’s lab and came to USA.

Changing track

After joining Dr. Periasamy’s research group, I applied my doctoral experience of protein structure on calsequestrin. But a major twist in my scientific career was waiting for me. I came across two publications showing role of sarcolipin (a muscle protein) in heat production. Since a knockout mouse model was already available in our lab, I became interested in investigating this at the whole animal level. Not being a thermogenesis study lab, many challenges came in the way of my testing the idea. Finally, after two years I became successful and the study is now published in Nature Medicine.

Pursuing this project changed my career and I became a physiologist. Now, I am working as a research scientist and looking for an opportunity to establish my independent research group.

I like our current group, as each of us have our own independent view points about the mechanistic details of our project, but in the bigger picture we are united towards a single goal. I also like the efficient work culture in the scientific field and opportunity to work with people from diverse background here in the USA.

Small world

I was able to acclimatize quickly and my transition was smooth. On the very first day, when I was introduced to all the lab members, I found one among them was from Lucknow whom I had seen many times while working at CDRI. Although we did not know each other well, soon we glued to each other like old buddies: realizing world can be so small at times.

Hot tips

I think many things might have changed in the way a PhD student in India looks at doing a postdoc today. When I was at that stage in 2007, we used to apply randomly to hundreds of labs worldwide and based on the response, we decided. But now I think defining a long-term career goal and then applying to the labs that fits those goals is very important. The early years of postdoc are very important to become successful in academic career here in the USA.

Indian needs schemes to recruit couple-scientists

Being in the West, I miss near and dear ones. I am fortunate enough that my wife and son are here with me, which compensates for the loneliness here. I would love to come back to India. I have been looking for opportunities all over India. Till now, I have had no success, even though skeletal muscle biology (my field of research) is a rapidly expanding and promising research area, it remains almost invisible in India. My wife Nivedita is also working as a senior postdoc and looking for an independent faculty position. Her field of research is organic and medicinal chemistry. Her current research is related to cancer and infectious diseases. Nivedita is a PhD from IICT, Hyderabad and works in the Ohio State University.

Many postdocs and postdoc-aspirants have a two-body problem like us and getting employment for both is a very difficult issue. Therefore, it would be encouraging if the Indian government and/or institutions think of schemes to recruit scientist-couples to work as a team.

The Indian government has done a great job in creating many new central universities and institutions in last few years. However, the process of recruitment in most of the organization is not impartial. Moreover, Indian science has to shed its “me too” approach in science. In most places, I find that Indian scientific recruitment follows the scientific trend that was hot a couple of years back in the USA. But I urge the directors of Indian institutions to give opportunity to people with potential to create a whole new area of research.

Find Naresh Bal in our ‘Away from home’ interactive map featuring Indian postdocs from around the world. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

Away from home: Lovelock during postdoc

Posted on 30 Sep 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

We promised than when we hear something exciting or interesting from an Indian postdoc abroad, we will bring it to you. So here’s the first ‘sporadic’ entry coming from Anupam Jhingran, a postdoc fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), New York. Anupam tells us about an extremely important facet of the Indian postdoc’s life abroad — finding the right match to marry! Anupam has been successful in getting a bride for himself but recounts for fellow mates what it has been like go through the process. He gives us a blow by blow account of what all an Indian postdoc might encounter before he strikes gold! Read on and leave your comments — have you had a similar experience, do you know someone who has or are your bracing up for this now?

[At MSK, Anupam studies host response to Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) infection. His lab got relocated from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), Seattle where he was originally recruited. “Moving from a relatively laid-back (but equally productive) West coast culture of Seattle to a lot busy and fast East coast culture is an experience in itself and I am currently adapting myself to this new environment, ” he says.]

Anupam Jhingran with partner Pooja Shukla on a vacation in San Juan Islands, Washington.

The postdoc’s dilemma

The postdoc culture is relatively unfamiliar to the non-academic crowd in India. The education system is such that students take up medicine or engineering right after high school. Those who earn a bachelor’s degree in other courses often target professions like business administration or civil services, resulting in fewer students taking up PhD positions. This mindset has led to non-recognition of the PhD/postdoc career path in our society and a postdoctoral stint is often perceived as an extended study period as opposed to a full time job.

Right from the beginning of PhD, we always struggle to convince our families about the importance of our job, its potential to solve biological problems and improve living conditions. But the inability to convey that in easy-to-understand language couple with the fact that PhD scholarships, despite being very competitive to earn, provides a modest income, doesn’t usually help build a good reputation of research as a career options.

As a result, we stop indulging in such discussions to avoid unnecessary frustration.

This peace of mind doesn’t stay for very long. At some point, we find ourselves in a situation again where discussing career prospects with someone uninitiated to a scientific career becomes inevitable. This is the time when we start seeking a matrimonial alliance through the ‘arranged marriage’ system. In a typical arranged marriage, it is always the families that get in touch with each other to talk about cultural compatibility and career prospects of the groom, but it usually doesn’t happen with postdocs as our families refuse to talk about something they themselves don’t understand.

The matrimonial process

So for postdocs it’s a different modus operandi, something pretty similar to finding a postdoc position. Although there are no applications cover letters involved but we have to have our biodata (or CV) ready! The biodata generally describes our education, profession, career path and prospects, birth information (astrology), caste and hobbies.

The traditional method to initiate the bride-search was to send the biodata to families who would then pass it on to potential ‘in-laws’ for assessment. However, with the recent emergence of matrimonial websites, the biodata dissemination process has become a lot easier and expeditious. These websites require us to register our details, upload a picture and then begin the process of “expressing interest” (something like a “friend request” on Facebook) in profiles of people we consider a potentially suitable match.

The profile moderator at the receiving end (usually a guardian) then visits the profile and conducts a preliminary screening based on our registered information. The problem with this profile-based, non-verbal representation of ourselves is that, our profession is not clearly understood by the visitor and a message is sent back to us stating “interest declined”. Some postdocs showcase their foreign resident-status to impress the visitor but since we have a huge number of Indian physicians and software engineers abroad, the poor postdoc is relegated to the back seat again. We are also required to state our annual income but an honest postdoc always leaves the salary column blank for the simple reason that his honesty will only have unfavorable implications in this situation.

The second phase in the search process is the interview with the would-be partner’s family members. During this entire conversation there are few things that we try to avoid, such as the discussion on funding situations, contract period with the employer, visa status (implications of 212E rule for J-1 visas) or anything, which in reality makes the postdoctoral stint look unstable. We try to hard to make them understand that postdoc is a full time job and not just a continuation of higher studies!

The third phase involves talking to the prospective bride and discussing compatibility. This is a very long phase and involves brutal revelation about job-related insecurities and financial limitations and ends with a mutual agreement to shower affection, provide support and long-term commitment, which would always withstand professional calamities.

How I fared

The first two phases were relatively quick for me because my future partner, Pooja shares a similar professional interest and background and luckily therefore her parents were familiar with the scientific career path. My only challenge was to convince them that except for my career, everything else with me is fairly stable, which I successfully did and cleared for the third phase.

This third phase, however, has turned out to be the longest. Pooja is a highly career oriented woman and was in the second year of her PhD at the University of Nottingham, UK when we met. I was a first year postdoc at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. Relocation at that point for any of us was not a sensible option. Therefore, we continued dating on Skype thinking that at some point, one of us would be ready to start a fresh job hunt.

Two years hence, nothing much has changed but only marriage dates. We still Skype but thankfully her PhD is coming to an end and so is our families’ eternal wait to see us married.

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.

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.

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.

Away from home: Sailing my mast

Posted on 10 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.

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.

Away from home: Engineering stem cells and vaccines

Posted on 12 Jun 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

Our postdoc blogger today is Ankur Singh, 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 is preparing for an exciting stint in academia as an assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University.

Ankur Singh loads a biomaterial vaccine into a syringe.{credit}Beverly Barrett{/credit}

Merging disciplines: engineering and medicine

I was born and brought up in India where the education system is still traditional. The society in general and family in particular expects you to choose between engineering and medicine. Mine was no different. Combining the best of both worlds in the literal sense, I chose engineering and went on to apply it to medicine.

My undergraduate training in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology originally motivated me to make the next generation wine and beers using engineered microbes and agriculture produce in India. But someone close to me suggested in jest: why ruin lives, try saving some! This changed everything for me. I qualified in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering with an national rank of 13 and chose IIT-Bombay for its outstanding biomedical engineering programme, with eminent scientists working at the interface of engineering and cancer biology, neuroscience, and cardiac electrophysiology.

IIT-Bombay and working with Prof. Rinti Banerjee towards my M.Tech have been the monumental milestones of my life in carving out the scientist inside me. The working hours at IIT-B were intense and the institute provided a hi-tech research environment which gave me an opportunity to realise how materials-based drug delivery platforms work to cure diseases like cancers. Many of my friends and family urged me to for pursue biomedicine given that the field was under-represented in India at that time, but I followed my heart.

Personalised medicine

I moved to the US in 2006 to gain experience in two prime emerging areas of research — stem cells and engineered vaccines. In my postdoc at Georgia Tech, I worked with a special type of stem cell called the human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells,which can be derived in the lab by reverting the human adult skin, blood, or even urine but behave like embryonic stem cells to form any mature cell in the body. Derivation of these cells is a non-trivial process and requires state-of-the-art culture facilities like the multi-million dollars funded Stem Cell Engineering Center (SCEC) and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) at Georgia Tech, where I did a significant part of my research work (published recently in Nature Methods).

Working in IBB, where my postdoc advisor Andrés García’s lab is housed, has been a unique experience. Faculty of most disciplines (biology, engineering, medicine, physics, chemistry) are housed under the same roof in this hi-tech building along with some of the finest biomedical research equipment. These resources have helped me establish connections with my peers and foster transdisciplinary collaborations, which I found was difficult to do in India where I had to travel for two hours in Mumbai local trains and buses to reach the collaborative institute outside Mumbai. One of the great things I have enjoyed living and working here is the mixed culture and the global talent pool that the US is able to draw.

A postdoc is a temporary position and several institutes in the US (like Georgia Tech) offer competitive salaries and benefits along with subsidized health care, retirement planning, and childcare. However, a major downside is the high level of competitiveness among the postdocs and you literally have to be on your toes to publish, protect ideas and grow. I have also struggled in finding fellowship opportunities similar to those accessible to US citizens. This is sometimes disheartening and could be of potential concern if your advisor runs out of money.

I worked with Prof. Krishnendu Roy (’93 IIT-Kharagpur) for my Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin to develop biomaterials based vaccine platforms that could be used to engineer immunity. Among the peers, there was a big respect for IIT students — I was praised for my mathematical abilities as an engineer, and yet questioned for my knowledge of biology, something attributed to the misconception about the education system in India. When I started my work in Texas I realised that while we had a sustainable research environment at IIT-Bombay, there was more government funding to support research in the US. I did not have to wait for several weeks for research material to arrive from vendors. There were well-established state-of-the-art core facilities with some of the best imaging, testing and analytical tools to support biomedical research. These helped me significantly to achieve my goals.

On the move

I have been fortunate to live in some of the best cities in the nation — Austin and Atlanta — and now moving to upstate New York, known for its incredibly beautiful landscapes and notoriously cold weather. My wife Shalu (’05 IIT-Bombay and a biomedical scientist) and I often miss India — our parents, siblings, cousins — and celebrating festivals with them. Although technology cannot really replace the human touch, the warmth and blessings, it still forms the best alternate when you want to pursue your dreams.

Into academics

My strong research interest and interaction with peers in the field motivated me to become a professor in the biomedical field. I am starting as an assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, an Ivy League research university in upstate New York. I am extremely excited about this transition to the faculty position and am currently in the process of setting up my research lab — Immunotherapy and Cell Engineering Lab (ICEL). Moving forward, I realize the initial years of a tenure track faculty position are going to be highly demanding as I set up my research lab, hire students and postdocs, travel, and balance my life to concentrate on my family — my wife, daughter, and parents in India. The current recession puts most of the researchers on the edge of economic precipice, but we are in the same boat enjoying the unique funding situation around the globe.

For aspiring postdocs

Finding a postdoc position is easy. Finding a great postdoc position is rather tricky and very tough. My recommendation to aspiring trainees is to work hard, publish well, and do your homework before you accept a postdoc position. Look for publications, mentoring style, funding, and where the past trainees have transitioned to. You need to be clear on what you want out of that postdoc training. This phase of your life is extremely crucial, fundamental to your long term future. I also suggest actively looking for funding opportunities and attending conferences to establish connections.

Find Ankur Singh and 25 Indian postdocs featured so far in this blog in our interactive Away from home 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: Science on the beach

Posted on 05 Jun 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

We are delighted to bring to you the 25th entry in our ‘Away from Home’ blog series. Every Wednesday, the 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.

We hope you have had as much fun reading these wonderful success stories as we have bringing them to you. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.

For the 25th edition, we chose to feature Arun Kumar, a PhD from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi and currently a postdoc scientist at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain. Arun’s incredible journey is a story of hope, grit and ambition — from small town India where he couldn’t take up mathematics for want of a maths teacher to researching molecular mechanisms of cancer cells at a premier lab in an exotic location. It is stories like these that inspire the next generation of scientists.

We hope you enjoy this narration.

Arun Kumar

The tough path to science

I come from a very small town called Jhajjar in Haryana, where people aspire for a government job with retirement plans or want to join the army or police. If these options don’t work out, they settle for farming. If you are exceptionally intelligent, people expect you to become a doctor or an engineer. These were the ‘options’ I grew up with. So my becoming a scientist was a completely new thing in the entire neighborhood. Here was someone who had dared to do a PhD in science and walk on new grounds.

My pull for science began with the TV show “Turning Point” presented by Prof. Yash Pal on Doordarshan. And thanks to the public library in my town, I got to read science books and magazines. I was curious about how things work around us to the extent that I dismantled all electronic gadgets and toys to see how they worked. I generally ended up destroying them for good as I could never put them back together!

I wanted to be a topper in school. But that never happened despite working hard for the exams, except in the science subjects. I was very good in mathematics. So another turning point came when I chose biology over mathematics in senior school. The reason: there was no senior school teacher for mathematics at the government high school I studied in.

Later, I completed graduate and postgraduate studies in life sciences from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana. During masters, I got a CSIR research fellowship which meant good money (equivalent to a government lecturer’s job!) and motivation to go for higher studies (PhD). I enrolled for PhD at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi. From childhood to adulthood, my reasons for doing science had changed. Now, I wanted to do something novel to escape the monotony of regular jobs and make a career that would also get me international exposure and an opportunity to experience new cultures.

The breakthrough

I was excited to get a break after PhD to work in one of the topmost biology labs in the world, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory at Heidelberg, Germany. I worked as an interdisciplinary postdoc. Despite the wonderful opportunity to work with the best biologists of the world, soon I realised that I was not at the right place given my research interests. Some time later, I got an opportunity at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona and instantly grabbed it since it was closer to my research aspirations.

I love working at CRG not just because of the good working environment but also because of its location — its on the beach! What more can you ask from life if your workplace is on a sea beach. Whenever I feel tired, stressed or clueless about an experiment, I come out to see the waves and people playing on the beach. I feel almost instantly energised and come back to attack my work problems with renewed vigour. If you are looking for nice sunny weather and a wonderful place for research that offers the best work-life balance, CRG is the best.

Research interests

I work with the group of Manuel Mendoza in the Cell & Developmental biology unit of CRG. Our group is focused on studying coordination of chromosome segregation and cytokinesis. A failure of this coordination can lead to improper chromosome conditions like aneuploidy or polyploidy which lead to cancer cells.

I have been pursuing a new research question in the lab about studying asymmetric nuclear cell division in yeast. It is interesting to note that yeast cells give rise to new daughter cells upon mitotic division, which are different from mother cells in many aspects. For example, certain extra chromosomal DNA do not get transferred to daughter cells during cell division and remain in the mother cells. This sets the age of mother cells (life span) as they die after 30-32 divisions while the age of daughter cells that do not receive this DNA is set to zero. My research is now aimed at exploring different molecular mechanisms on how yeast achieves asymmetric nuclear cell division. As mammalian cell gives rise to different cell types using these asymmetric principles, my work could shed light on these molecular mechanisms in future.

Workplace a breeding ground for new ideas

I like the work environment in my lab as our principal investigator Manuel has enough time for day-to-day discussions on research. New ideas are always welcome in the lab and he provides a lot of freedom at work.

I like the Spanish culture with its plethora of festivals sprinkled through the year and cuisine that’s close to India’s. Spanish people are very warm, enthusiastic and helpful. You will find people laughing, enjoying and talking loudly on streets, which is not common in many European countries. I feel infected with their enthusiasm for small day-to-day activities.

Communication, weather could be issues

Sometimes, it is not easy to communicate with locals in hospitals, administrative offices or police stations if you do not know the native language. If you are sick or need medical emergency, it is not very easy to use the medical facilities in town.

Earlier, I faced harsh winters in Germany with no sunshine for many weeks. If you are used to sunrises every morning like in North India, it could be depressing to live in the such dull weather. It also affects work efficiency a lot. However I enjoyed the snowfall in Germany.

If you are a vegetarian, you could have a hard time in many European cities. For example, if you ask for a vegetarian sandwich in a shop, you might end up getting a fish sandwich. It was shocking for me to see people consider fish as a vegetarian dish here. For them only red meat is non-vegetarian. Quite funny!

For fellow postdocs

Following is my advice from experience:

1. Don’t overwork yourself, think well and enjoy: Indian PhD students are trained to work very hard and stay longer in the lab including on weekends or holidays. I would advise you not to overwork yourself. Try to minimize effort in experiments by thinking hard through it first. Increase productivity, which might not mean more number of hours in the lab. If possible, don’t force yourself to work on the weekends. This will allow you to find time for yourself to become more creative and productive in life.

2. Choose the best mentor: When you are looking for a lab for postdoc, do not just consider publication record or the institute’s name. Pay enough attention to see the group leader’s abilities as a mentor. For example, look at how many ex-lab members are established in their scientific careers. What kind of relation did they share with the group leader? You will be more productive and enthusiastic if your PI gives enough time and encouragement to your scientific accomplishments and acts as postdoc mentor rather than a scientist or boss.

3. Choose questions wisely: I would say your success as a postdoc is not by chance but by the choices you make. If possible, try to find a good project with important questions to study. You should avoid the rat race of publishing many papers or worrying all the time about academics jobs. After all, postdoc is the best productive time of your scientific life and you should enjoy doing good science as much as possible.

Spicy food, chaos, movies: miss them

I miss the roadside chaat shops in Delhi. Also hanging out with friends to generous helpings of my favourite snacks pani puri, samosa, aloo tikki and the pointless gossip. Reading newspapers in the morning and watching movies in the theater are not possible here. They are not in English most times. The chaos and bustle of people all around in India is missing in some European cities. This could make lonesome at times.

Giving back to the society

It would be great to go back to India and put to use the knowledge I have gained over these years. I know that getting a good job in academics or industry is not always easy. I would love to associate with or visit local high schools and colleges in my area to provide free education about modern science and to create awareness about new scientific career options. If I continue to work abroad for a long time, I would like to associate with local people who do not have access to such information. It would give me immense satisfaction if I can give back something to my own people.

So here’s the 25th flag going up on our interactive Away from home map! Pictured below and updated every Wednesday, the map now features 25 postdocs from eight countries. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

Away from home: May round-up

Posted on 29 May 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

The series has had an 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.

This month we covered a wonderful mix of postdocs in terms of their geographical spread, disciplines and dreams. We featured postdocs from the US, Canada and Singapore with a wide array of interests — from biological modelling to regenerative medicine and from healthcare delivery to academics.

Mastering industry-academia links

Dilraj Lama, a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, Singapore was our first blogger for the month. 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.

Marital science bliss

Talking about how marriage catapulted her further into her scientific pursuits was 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.

Regenerative medicine & skiing

Next up, we had Anand Krishnan, a PhD from the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India and currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada. Anand is focusing his energies on regenerative medicine under a clinician-scientist mentor. Anand relieves his research stress in multicultural and beautiful Calgary, a place that comes with enviable perks in the form of skiing holidays and cool summers.

A journey through academia

Our fourth and final blogger of the month was Akhilesh Gaharwar. Akhilesh is currently a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, and will be joining Texas A&M University, USA as an assistant professor a couple of months later. 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.

Don’t forget to take a look at our Away from home interactive map, pictured below and updated every Wednesday. It is dotting up quite nicely with some enriching Indian postdoc experiences. Next week, we will have the 25th flag on that map! Stay tuned as we add more from around the world. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from unusual countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

Away from home: A journey through academia

Posted on 22 May 2013 by Subhra Priyadarshini

Today we feature Akhilesh Gaharwar. Akhilesh is currently a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, and will be joining Texas A&M University, USA as an assistant professor a couple of months later. 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.

Akhilesh Gaharwar

Follow your heart

I was always interested in engineering and wanted to design and develop complex machines as a child. During my undergraduate years, I realized that I didn’t want to go into the software industry and opted for core engineering through campus placement. While working in one of the biggest multinational engineering conglomerate in India for a year, I realized that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life!

Then, I decided to join Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT-Bombay), and quit the well-paying job. Choosing research work over industry was one of the biggest decisions of my life. I am glad I followed my heart! I realized that immersing myself in learning, research and technology is what I enjoyed doing the most. While working for my master thesis in Germany/India, I recognized that I can apply my engineering principles to the medical field. I was always fascinated by the most complex machine known — the human body. One of the aspects that particularly grabbed my attention was the healing properties in the human body. Although man-made machines can mimic many of the functions of humans, they completely lack the ability to heal themselves. I was interested in finding out how applying engineering principles to medical science can enhance this remarkable healing ability and to probe that aspect deeper, I decided to work in the area of regenerative medicine.

The academics dream

After a masters from IIT-Bombay, I moved to Purdue University (USA) for a Ph.D in biomedical engineering. I started designing new materials that can talk to stem cells and instruct them to make certain type of tissues. I joined the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University as a joint postdoctoral associate. I decided to join MIT/Harvard, as I was very excited to work with the Demigod of Biomaterial – Prof. Robert Langer along with Prof. Ali Khademhosseini on “Living Legos”.

At MIT/Harvard, I started designing complex tissue architecture to mimic native tissue structures using smart nanomaterials. These experiences trained me well for my dream job — a tenure-track faculty position. In August this year, I am joining Texas A&M University as an assistant professor and will be directing the “Inspired Nanomaterials and Tissue Engineering (iNanoTE) Laboratory”.

From postdoc to faculty

I am enthusiastically looking forward to my upcoming transition from a postdoctoral associate to a faculty member. I aim to leverage principles from nanotechnology, experimental stem cells biology, bioengineering and materials science to address some of the daunting challenges in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.

Tissue engineering is a process of restoring, maintaining or enhancing tissue function by replacing or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs. I am devising new ways to instruct human stem cells to regenerate and restore damaged tissues. I anticipate shedding new light on some of the remarkable properties of nanomaterials and hope to introduce new customs that will revolutionize the way we look at regenerative medicine.

Cultivating creativity

Freedom of thought (to cultivate creativity) and a word of appreciation are two things that a researcher desires. From my experience, USA is a perfect place where you can get both simultaneously. Your hard work will be appropriately recognized. Apart from this, intellectual stimulation and feeling of getting constantly pushed (to think outside the box) are other notable factors to consider about USA. Moreover, while working at MIT and Harvard University, I also learned about time management, organization skills and supervisory skills, which are of utmost importance to be successful in an academic career.

Understanding cross-culture communication

Adjusting to a new culture can be a daunting challenge. Fortunately, as a child I had to change cities, schools and friends every three years as my father was in a transferable job. Before coming to USA, I was in Europe for a year and I also did an internship in Singapore for a short time. My European experience has made a significant impact on my thinking and provided a new outlook.

In Germany, I enrolled for a “cross-culture communication”workshop and it made me inquisitive about other cultures and customs. As the world is becoming a global village, we as a scientists need to unify our ideas to work towards a common goal. It is so much fun to work with people from diverse backgrounds and culture. We get to learn so many new things, meet interesting people, and know new cultures/customs. Apart from that, I also enjoyed sightseeing in Europe, USA and East Asia. There is so much to see and feel in this world! Life is beautiful out of the research laboratory as well!

Missing Indian culture

With the advancement of technology, world has become a global village. Almost all materialistic things are available in USA. But, I miss two things about India – my parents and Indian culture! I always feel disconnected with India as it takes around 15-20 hours to get back home. But this did not deter my enthusiasm and I visit my family every six months. I hope I can continue this trend in future as well. Compared to a regular industrial job, working in academia gives us a lot of flexibility in our daily lives, and I love this!

Aim high, nothing is impossible

A postdoc position is the next big thing for a Ph.D student. I would advice Indian students to follow their passion. I acknowledge that the academic journey is not easy, but your motivation, knowledge and hard work will empower you to get through the toughest of times.

I would suggest you to give careful consideration to all the aspects of life. Don’t just jump at the first available position. Always aim high.

And most important follow your research interest. If possible visit the laboratory before making a decision. If you are good, you will be in demand! To be good, you need to publish high impact papers. For undergraduate and graduate students, I would recommend that you explore international opportunities and get some research experience before making any big decision in your life.

Find all the 24 Indian postdocs featured so far in this blog in the interactive Away from home map pictured below and updated every Wednesday. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.