The PostDocs Forum

PostDoc Nikita Malavia is our featured scientist of the month. Follow Nikita on LinkedIn and Twitter.

How did you first become interested in the science field?
For me it started in high school back home in Mumbai, India. I was always interested and good in math and science especially chemistry and biology. Doing well in these subjects made me select chemical engineering in my Bachelors studies. Even though I was one of four women in a class of 60 students, I feel it was the right choice for me. Chemical engineering is a very diverse topic that leads individuals to pursue varied professions after they graduate. Ironically I was not exposed to research until my Masters and PhD level and was drawn to it immediately.

Please share a bit about your research: How did you choose the topic of your studies? What was your favorite project that you worked on?
I completed my PhD in Chemical Engineering at University of California- Irvine with Dr. Steven C George MD, PhD. His laboratory was focused on respiratory diseases like asthma and COPD and cardiovascular diseases. Here I got to learn, explore and apply biology, chemistry and mathematics. I worked on establishing a primary airway epithelial cell culture model. These airway epithelial cells are very delicate (they need extended periods of time to differentiate at an air-liquid interface) and I spent a large amount of time i.e. extremely long hours getting the culture conditions right for reproducible model development. We hypothesized that making alterations to the airway epithelium can influence the underlying structural cells of fibroblasts and smooth muscle. Respiratory diseases like asthma are marked by subepithelial fibrosis i.e. thickening of the sub-epithelium due to deposition of ECM proteins from the fibroblasts. Another hallmark feature of asthma is airway smooth muscle proliferation or hyperplasia. We confirmed our results using an in vivo model working with physicians at the UC Irvine medical center. At the end of my PhD we established that alterations to the epithelium do influence the underlying stromal cells and modeled this diffusion of mediators, thus I was able to explore biology, chemistry and mathematical modeling.

Working with Dr. George has been inspirational, I feel extremely lucky, as he is the kind of person that brings out the best in everyone. After giving me some initial background literature to read, he let me explore whatever I wanted to pursue, yet giving me critical feed back as and when required.

I think my favorite part is presenting the data either in a poster or podium presentation at conferences or at laboratory meetings. Putting everything together and displaying it for people to appreciate, review and provide critiques is extremely satisfying for me.

What are you currently working on?
I am currently pursuing my post-doctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Childrens Hospital Boston (CHB) with Dr. Robert Langer and Dr. Daniel S Kohane. There is a great story of how I got here, in my last year of graduate school I decided wanted to do research in a more translational field. In Dr. George’s laboratory I addressed key basic questions about cell-cell communication but I felt I wanted to be at the interface of developing technologies and seeing their application to patients. At this point I also attended a “Partnering in Global Health” in Washington DC conference at my own expense without even having a poster presentation. I truly enjoyed this experience where I went around different posters and talked to many people as I could. It was quite intimidating at first, since I was just a graduate student with no expertise in this area and no one from my research group was present. But it felt great exploring my interests. Once I got back I approached via email Dr. Robert Langer of MIT/CHB, I expressed my interest in writing a grant for the “Grand Challenges in Global Health” which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and if this grant gets funded I would use it as a post-doctoral fellowship to work at MIT/CHB. For those who know Dr. Langer, know that he responds immediately and I got an email with “yes”. The next few months I spent reading scientific literature and exploring unconventional ideas along with completing my PhD thesis. Due to the unique grand challenges program expedited review process I was informed within a couple of months that we were awarded the grant. My research at MIT consists of using nanotechnology, developing particles to attack infectious disease causing viruses. The Langer laboratory is like no other; there are people from all over the world working on unconventional new ideas with an opportunity to deliver these scientific breakthroughs to the bedside of patients in collaboration with clinicians, professors, licensing offices, venture capitalists and other health care professionals. Dr. Langer and Dr. Kohane provide an intellectually stimulating environment and critical inputs as to how what you are working on can be translated. This is what I was looking work and was lucky to find it.

What is your favorite part of research and lab work? What is the worst part?
I like most is the cordial nature of the scientific community how we are all in it together weather it is developing new therapies for a disease or alternative fuel technologies. Every time I have emailed another fellow colleague, or professor about my questions I have always gotten a helpful response. I think teamwork is extremely crucial to expedite our research and save lives. The mere fact that what I am working on can help someone someday is unbelievable and I think this fact is forgotten quite often, as we get embroiled into publications and achieving deadlines.

Planning each experiment, discussing with colleagues, troubleshooting and making it work is my favorite part.  Sometimes when you put all your efforts into one thing and the results are not what you expect, well then you need to re-evaluate your results re-construct the hypothesis. This is extremely challenging yet I try and remind myself of the broader picture.

In your opinion, what is the most important quality for a scientist to be successful?
Patience and perseverance, I think one must have a lot of mental strength. Our role as a scientist is not an easy one, with grant deadlines, experiment results, laboratory dynamics to deal with, however we must possess patience to wait and persevere.

Can you share any tips for lab management and organization?
A collegial atmosphere is most important; if people are happy with each other then they will perform better. Discuss ideas and talk to multiple people this helps evaluate your own project and work out the stumbling blocks. Sometimes chatting with someone about what you are working on in the laboratory corridor leads to a new idea or a collaboration.

We are an extremely hardworking community and sometimes it helps exploring a hobby or trying a class instead of working long hours in the laboratory. This might provide a new perspective.

What is your next step? Where do you plan to be in ten years?
After completing my PhD in Chemical Engineering at University of California at Irvine, CA, I moved to MIT/CHB in Boston, MA as a post-doctoral researcher. I made this move even though my husband also a PhD started work in a start-up company in San Diego, CA. We have been doing the long distance for almost 2 years each on two extreme coasts, however once I finish from MIT by the end of this year I plan to move back to CA. I pursued my interests with the support of my husband that led me to MIT, now I feel I am ready for a family. I guess it depends what your priorities are at every stage. I love research and hope that I can find something wherever I go.

Ten years from now I plan to be involved in a technology based start-up hopefully my own. I think doing research makes you feel you can do just about anything as long as you have passion for what you do and work hard and smart.

Recent Publications:

Malavia NK, Mih JD, Raub CB, Dinh BT, & George SC (2008). IL-13 induces a bronchial epithelial phenotype that is profibrotic. Respiratory research, 9 PMID: 18348727

Malavia NK, Raub CB, Mahon SB, Brenner M, Panettieri RA Jr, & George SC (2009). Airway epithelium stimulates smooth muscle proliferation. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology, 41 (3), 297-304 PMID: 19151317