Her Story
About Khushbu
I have been in the pediatric research field for 8 years now, working as a Bioinformatics Scientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute. I've always been a bioinformatics scientist, but I rose up the ladder in the past few years, reaching Level 3 about 2 years ago. My work mainly deals with pediatric sequencing data - these kids get enrolled for genetic sequencing which helps them diagnose diseases. I process that sequencing data, harmonize it, and work with different physicians and professionals to come up with best practices and generate insights from it. For 6 out of my 8 years, I was focused on a pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma, and all my efforts were focused towards leveraging therapies and development of therapies for neuroblastoma. I've been involved in CAR T-cell therapy projects for neuroblastoma, and those have been by far the most impactful projects in my career so far. In the last 2 years, I've migrated to a slightly different role within CHOP that caters to a wide range of diseases. One of the very significant impacts of this work is the undiagnosed disease program, where children get sequencing done and that is used to diagnose diseases that haven't yet been diagnosed. We have had a very positive impact, and a lot of cases being solved because of the data that we processed and researchers leveraging that data to identify the cause of the issue. I'm passionate about outreach and education, and as an effort of that, I started a YouTube channel to educate people. My goal has been to provide education for free - I do not want to charge anyone. I have a good community of bioinformaticians on YouTube, and I'm glad that I'm doing some part of it in my power.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Khushbu
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say my teachers, for sure, because I have been fortunate to get a quality education and good teachers, and I think that has been instrumental in me being where I am. Of course, family goes without saying, but I feel after family, what comes is teachers, and I think I have been very fortunate to have met the right people at the right time.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I had this one teacher who said, you don't have to follow the herd. And yeah, I agree, and that has been important to me. It was funny when you asked me this, because when I wanted to come to the United States to get a master's in bioinformatics, back in India, everyone was like, you're making a wrong decision. I don't think you're going to end up anywhere, because we haven't heard anything about this, and not sure if you could do this, but here I am. I'm glad I did it.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say go for it, do not second-guess yourself, even if people around you are second-guessing you. I think you should follow your heart, do your research, do your homework, and trust the choices that you're making. You should go for it. Women are such good researchers, and I think women don't give themselves credit for that. They are such good researchers.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think that not many people still understand the potential that we have in this field, considering with the growth of AI, as well as the growth in genomics, with sequencing becoming cheaper by the day. We have so much data, but we do not have skills and the skilled manforce to process that data. So I believe this field is still selling itself short, I think, in a way, and not a lot of people know about it, and I think a lot of people need to know about it. That is a challenge and opportunity in itself, I think. Like, once people understand the tremendous potential this field has, and it is such a viable career option, I think that there are so many, so many opportunities, and it's growing by the day.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Hard work. I have always believed hard work breeds talent when talent does not work hard, so it's always, always, always hard work. Hard work, persistence, and consistency.
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