Interview of Ms. Sarika Saxena
by Paras ChopraFor the second edition of Jeev, I interviewed Ms. Sarika Saxena, who is presently teaching us at our college as a guest faculty and doing research in the field of structural biology. Below is the interview:
1. Brief Biography
I am a simple, down to earth person. Whatever I achieved in my life is the outcome
of my hard work, dedication and my sincerity towards my work. I completed my
graduation from Delhi-University, post-graduation in Biochemistry from Jamia-Hamdard
and then entered into research field and completed my doctorate in Biochemistry
from Delhi University. I qualified All- India level comepetitive exam of NET
(National eligibility Test) conducted by CSIR-UGC.I qualified another exam of
Net (in Plant Biochemistry) conducted by ASRB (Agricultural scientist research
board). During my doctorate I got S.R.F. (Senior research fellowship) from Lady
Tata Memorial Trust, Mumbai. After completing my doctorate I joined IGIB (Institute
of Genomics And Integrative Biology, A CSIR Research Institute) and worked there
on functional genomics (i.e. to identify the mutations) in projects related
with drug response in Asthmatic/schizophrenic patients. I’ve lot of interest
in research field and implementing my own ideas so decided to move in academics
and in free time to start my research career on my own projects. So, I joined
DCE (Editors' note: our college, Delhi College of Engineering). and
going to complete one year at the same place.
2. In what field are you currently doing research?
My current field of research: is functional genomics and structural biology
(oligonucleotide therapeutics).
3. How did you get inspired to work in this field?
My inspiration is due to my interest in the concept of oligonucleotide therapeutics.
There are so many incurable diseases like cancer, AIDS, leukemia and so on and
to treat these diseases no ready drug is available with us. In such situations,
certainly the patients life becomes miserable. In curing these diseases the
concept of oligonucleotide therapeutics provides the best hopes, though limitations
are there but work is in progress actively in the same field.
4. What exact research are you doing?
I did the work on antigene strategy (i.e. Triplex formation) and applied the
same to block the gene target of one of the protooncogene (i.e. cancer causing
gene). My aim was to use the synthetic oligonucleotide stretch as a drug so
that it can bind to the target DNA duplex of protooncogene. Target was located
near 3’-UTR region (i.e. regulatory region) and the basic idea was to
form a fairly stable triplex so that it can inhibit the poly-A tail formation.
This is because the all the proteins and accessory factors required for poly-A
tail formation are specific for duplex not for the triplex one so it’ll
inhibit the poly-A tail formation and in the absence of Poly-A tail formation,
mRNA will destabilize and no oncoprotein formation will be there and hence it
can prevent the cancer. This strategy can be used to block any biologically
significant process like transcription, replication, recombination of any gene
depending upon the target availability. I studied all possible structural changes
in different conditions of the target duplex by using CD (circular dichorism),
stability by UV-thermal melting and qualitatively by Gel electrophoresis. First
time, I observed the different competitive structural existence within the target
duplex itself, going to publish very soon. I learnt the peptide designing and
did the synthesis on my own and first time design the series of peptides that
can selectively recognize the specific structure (i.e. G-quadruplex) and destabilize
it. Apart from that I’m doing the work on functional genomics (i.e. mutation
detection) and then to relate these mutations with structural changes within
biologically relevant gene target.
5. What do you think is future of life sciences?
Future of life science: is certainly very bright. Life science is the only field
that opens the fields for active research. Basically life science includes all
the fields like Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Microbiology,
Bioinformatics, Environmental biology, toxicology. Knowledge in all these fields
can only give the idea related with any disease and to find ways to eradicate
them. In today’s time we all living in very competitive and tense life
and it’ll not be wrong to say that disease progress rate is much faster
than cure. In such situations life-science is the only hope for all of us.
6. Any advice for students?
Always believe in selecting and moving the right direction for your career depending
upon on interest. Always keep an eye on your target and do maximum efforts whatever
you can with positive attitude, your hard-work and sincerity. Nothing is impossible
and always remembers ‘THE MAN WHO WINS IS THE MAN WHO THINK HE CAN’.
So, believe in yourself and move ahead always with full confidence.
7. Are there any Job/Research opportunities in your company/institute?
One can apply for basic training if you’re fresher. After completing your
masters and qualifying NET (Editors' note: National Eligibility
Test) one can apply for research (Ph.D.) also. If interested in doing job,
one can join as project trainee/ project assistant in any ongoing research project.
8. What are your plans for the future?
Research is my main aim. I never believe in rushing towards anything blindly
always prefers to be different and to perform something satisfactory. So, planning
to move in my research field actively, so I’ll apply for post-doctoral
fellowship in future. Presently, my preference will be to enter in academics
and side by side in free time to start the work on my own projects.
9. How can society contribute to the development of life sciences?
Society can certainly contribute by increasing their awareness about themselves
like they should have the basic idea about their health and about biological
processes in human body so that they can understand and differentiate themselves
about the advantages/disadvantages of selecting their diets, importance of balanced
diet, importance of routines to feel fit and fine, selecting their life-style
and to understand the concept about the new developments in all the main fields
of science.
10. What should future research be directed at, according to you?
In every field of life-sciences all over the world the research is going on
very actively in every field. Main aim of all the fields is to find the ways
to cure incurable diseases (i.e. drug targets), to synthesize new compounds
that must have biological activity, to clone the important genes may linked
with any disease or with regulation of some biologically significant process.
Understanding the basic concepts of gene regulations, identify the mutations,
structural studies to identify the changes in conformations within DNA/Proteins
and to identify the targets for selective ligand binding. Knowledge in genome
application mainly is opening the new fields for selecting the best candidate
genes that may be linked in any developmental pathway of any disease and to
find out the molecular markers. Bioinformatics mainly play important role in
managing all the data and playing the major role in genome applications. Using
bioinformatics only it could have been possible to sequence the genome and in
microarray, it plays very important role in compiling and analyzing the data
of genomes. In agricultural fields, scientists are doing the work on increasing
the productions within short time and to generate new and best varieties by
cloning the selective genes and so on.
June 2006, Jeev
http://www.dce.edu/jeev
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.