Keerthana Nagesh Prabhu

Personal growth, in other words : What I was not able to do before vs whether I am able to do it now.

The best career advice I've ever received is don't take things personally. My manager in my previous company told me this when I would think that if something fails, maybe it was because I failed or I wasn't good enough. He said, 'Why are you taking things personally? It happens, the data might be bad. It's not you.' That really stuck with me. The other piece of advice that's been important is don't overthink it. These two things have helped me navigate challenges in my work without getting too caught up in self-doubt.

It's a beautiful field, and you need to do it with passion. Otherwise, it doesn't feel like you're contributing something worth full. The kind of work that I do is about making a real difference in people's lives, and that passion is what keeps you connected to the meaning behind what you do.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is that every patient is different, so you can't really generalize your diagnosis theory. A lot of the data I analyze can't be put into one big umbrella. Yes, there are some trends we see in cancer versus non-cancer, but it's very hard to look for something that is very common between all patients suffering from cancer. They come in different stages and different levels of aggressiveness, so it's very hard to catch it early. We're working towards detecting cancer as easily as getting a blood test, where we can tell if you might be at risk. The challenge is also that biopsies are very invasive. When you're poking a needle into something that's dormant and bringing it out, you're disrupting what's happening there, and you risk the cells spreading to other parts of the body. That's why we're working on non-invasive methods, looking at biomarkers in the blood. The biomarkers we work with have a half-life of only 20 minutes, so timing matters. As for opportunities, there are definitely a lot. We need more and more people helping because cancer is one thing where you'd think you solved it, but there's plenty more where that came from. Everything from aggressiveness to morbidity, there's so much work to be done.

Integrity is one of the most important values to me. For example, if I take an hour or two off during the workday because I'm not feeling well, I make sure my manager knows, even though he's so busy and doesn't really need those details as long as the work gets done. He tells me to do my thing and take the breaks I need, but when it comes to integrity, I sometimes feel guilty if I'm taking breaks, even though I don't have to because that's not how my work environment operates. I've seen friends struggling in other companies where they're not given proper breaks, and that makes me feel guilty, not because my work environment is like that, but because I'm aware of how fortunate I am. 'Honesty' is another core value, which I think goes hand in hand with integrity. I also value ownership, boldness, and perseverance. These were actually the company values at my previous company that I embodied, and I received an award for encompassing them.