Her Story
About Preksha
I am a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, where I have dedicated over a decade to life sciences research. As a wet lab scientist, my work centers on gut health and food allergy research, conducting experiments on cell lines derived from humans and mice. My explorative nature, which began in childhood when I would dissect plants, flowers, and butterflies to understand how things function, ultimately drove me toward this field. My daily work involves designing experiments, treating cell lines, preparing disease models, and investigating the underlying causes of diseases. Research is not a 9-to-5 job for me - it's a 24/7 commitment where my mind is constantly thinking about what needs to be done next, venturing into the unexplored. I earned my PhD in biotechnology from the Regional Center for Biotechnology in Faridabad, India, which provided the foundation for my current work. While the field demands many sleepless nights and requires sacrificing much of my personal life, I remain motivated by my passion for discovery and my commitment to working on diseases that affect people globally.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Preksha
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The greatest piece of advice I received was from my PhD supervisor, who told me that everyone working in research has to believe in themselves. This is something I find very important, and I really take notes over it all the time - that I believe and keep going. There are no rewards of winning each and every day, but someday there will be. I was really inspired when I received this advice, and it has stayed with me throughout my career.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I consider myself still very naive in this field, even after a decade, but I will say that it's important to be confident and believe in yourself. If you are really, really passionate about what you're doing, you should just keep on doing it, pinpoint it to your aim, and not get deviated. This field is very less rewarded and awarded compared to other fields, and it is very much under-represented. Staying in this field requires lots of diligence, clarity, and precision, specifically when it comes to your aims and goals. That would be my advice to young people entering research.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenges in research are pretty high. Research is not a 9-to-5 job - it's a 24/7 thing where you are always revolving around your science and research. My mind is always thinking about what needs to be done, constantly venturing into the unexplored, which takes a lot of time and results in many sleepless nights. The most challenging aspect is that you have to sacrifice most of your personal life to stay motivated and keep going in this field. Another major challenge is patience - we experience a lot of failures on a day-to-day basis, and a person who has to sustain in this field has to have lots and lots of patience to deal with those failures.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My top three values in my professional world are honesty, patience, and a sacrificing nature. First, honesty is crucial - we have to remain honest to ourselves, especially when we see results. We have to analyze them in an unbiased fashion, not deviating to a particular thing, because we are working on global scenarios and diseases that are globally affecting people. Whatever we see, we have to be honest in interpreting that, not biased toward what we hypothesized. We have to interpret and show or publish whatever we are seeing, not what we expected. Second is patience, which is very much needed in this role as we handle failures constantly. Third is having a sacrificing nature - it's true that you have to literally sacrifice lots and lots of your day-to-day things, your personal life, and yourself as well, sometimes, in order to be present in this field.
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