Meet Sangita Choudhary, a passionate scientist at the prestigious Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and mother to two beautiful daughters. As a principal investigator, she and her team work on understanding and developing cures for the aging and disease progression in the human heart by using various cutting-edge techniques.

Tell us bit about yourself and your educational background

I grew up in a small town; Durgapur, 200 km north of Kolkata, West Bengal in India. My parents were teachers and early on recognized my curiosity and provided me with every opportunity they could in the pre-internet era. I read anything and everything I had access to feverishly. From early childhood, I dreamt of traveling the world. My luck and fate got me out of Durgapur after not-so-good results in grade 12. I went to study Microbiology at Aurangabad, and further did a Master’s in the same field from North Maharashtra University. I took every summer break during that time as an opportunity to learn from real-life experiences. I volunteered to work in a pharmaceutical company, diagnostic lab, research lab, wherever I got the opportunity. These experiences helped me find my genuine interest. Towards the end of my master’s degree, I realized that I really wanted to invest in my science career, particularly work in a field that will help find a cure for  diseases, although I was not quite sure which area I wanted to work in . I applied for a Ph.D. program in Europe, and got into university in Germany; Greifswald. I completed my Ph.D. in 4 years in cell biology, and it really zeroed on my interest in understanding disease progression in the heart. Since then, I have been working on multiple aspects of cardiovascular disease, from cardiac aging, heart failure, and cardiac regeneration.

Tell us about your current job profile and your journey to your current role

At present, I am a Principal Scientist at the Department of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Affiliated teaching hospital. After 7 long years of postdoc research at Harvard and Oak-ridge National Lab, I decided to stay in academia and started applying for research funding to begin my journey as a Principal scientist. In the beginning, I applied for internal funding, foundation grant, and that prepared me to get my first independent NIH (RO1) grant in 2021.

What are the attributes in your present job that attracted you in deciding for this role?

Harvard is a happening place; I get to work on the most challenging problems with highly skilled and dedicated scientists and students. The open work culture helps establish collaborations across multidisciplinary fields. There is no limit to learning, I am still amazed at how one quest leads to another quest. I love the flexibility and I love that I get to decide the direction of my research. 

We know many of the heart related problems arise as people get older, but we have an incomplete understanding of how aging promotes cardiac disease progression. My lab is working on understanding the aging and disease progression in the human heart using various cutting-edge single-cell genomic and bioinformatic techniques. My lab also works on understanding the mechanism of heart cell regeneration. We aim to develop new strategies to treat millions of adults with heart disease associated with aging and all this is super exciting.

What are the challenges you face in your career and how do you overcome them?

Dedicating time to research and planning the next move in my career is challenging. For the first 10 years of my career, I had only buried myself in planning and executing experiments. Academic research positions are not well-paid, especially when you count the hours and effort you need to invest to succeed. I did not invest time in choosing mentors or networking outside the lab. At the beginning of your postdoc career, it is hard to balance work and family life, as that is also the age you will most probably start your own family. I learned to ask for help eventually in the lab and on a personal front. My biggest support system is my family and friends.

How do you unwind after a hectic week at work?

I love reading, hiking, and traveling. It is hard to take small breaks, but I schedule a break every 3-4 months between grants and the experimental deadlines to recharge myself and especially when kids have a school break, I plan to spend time with them.

I have accepted that there will be no balance in day-to-day life at this stage of my career, especially when you are starting your own lab. I prioritize my attention based on the situation. If kids and family need my attention, I stay with them, but if they can manage without me, I will be sciencing (this is my new word)!

What are the tips for women who want to enter academia?

You need to find a mentor from your lab, outside of your lab and in your personal life who is invested in your career development. I have many mentors in my life. In general, my principal investigators (PI) are my first mentor, but I always reached out to my department chair as they have so much more experience so it was nice to have them onboard  my career development plan. I also reached out to women PI’s in my fields to learn how they had carved their path.

Check with your mentors about your career direction and growth annually.

What are the major challenges women face in scientific academia? What changes in the work environment would make it easier for women to succeed in academia?

The big challenge is to stay motivated during this long journey. The average age at which PhD scientists receive their first grant—a sign of a successful research career—has increased from 35.7 years in 1980 to 43 years in 2016 (NIH data). In academia, women in general in any senior position face the same challenges; inequality is not only with pay scale but even with work demand. There are fewer women in senior positions, and our peer support system is not as strong as our men counterparts.

Having dedicated funding opportunities for women in science and having extra funding to hire research assistants early in their career so that women can invest more time strategizing their career plan.

What advice would you give your younger self (the Ph.D. student) and how would you summarize your career in one sentence?

Don’t be shy to reach out, ask for advice if you do not know how to figure it out. Do not let anyone demotivate you. Invest in your health. You have to find the thing that excites you. It can be anything, but following that passion will keep you going at a difficult time. Believe in yourself.

If you had to give up science, what would be your alternative career?

Once you do science, I don’t think you can leave science, science is not only planning or executing experiments, but once you do your Ph.D., you learn to think logically to solve a problem. You might move from one field to another field from bench science to policy making/consulting, but to me, that is not leaving science.

What is your professional dream (goal)? Also, what is your motto in life?

My overarching career objective is to further science and medicine by conducting research at the intersection of basic biology, clinical medicine, and bioinformatics and training and motivating a new generation of scientists.