Reeta's budding interest in the brain
Reeta was born in Mumbai, India and grew up in Italy where she went to school. At the age of 14, Italian students are expected to choose a high school with a specific educational path, such as classical, scientific, linguistic etc. While Reeta did not have very inspiring scientific environment in high school, she nonetheless decided to go down the scientific route for university. One of the reasons she chose this path was because she excelled at scientific studies and loved reading more broadly about the brain and its links to consciousness.
After Reeta finished school she decided to study neurobiology which involves looking at how our nervous system and brain function. Unable to find a bachelor's degree in the subject, Reeta instead did one in biotechnology at Sapienza University in Rome because it had a neurobiology component. She then went on to do a master's degree in neurobiology at the same university. Her master's project involved looking at how post traumatic stress disorder alters the brain at the molecular level. As part of this work she learnt a lot about microRNAs, a family of small RNA molecules that help regulate the type and amounts of proteins that cells produce. In particular she sought to understand the relationship between microRNA and behavioural patterns.
Following her master's degree, Reeta did a doctorate in molecular and cellular neurobiology with Professor Gerhard Schratt, a world expert in neuronal microRNAs. Initially she was a researcher with Prof Schratt at Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, before his group moved to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. As part of her doctoral research, Reeta investigated the role of microRNAs in short term memory and the transmission of signals between synapses in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays an important role in learning and memory. A lot of this work she did in mice as well as primary cells, which are cells that have been taken from living tissue and maintained in a culture.
Moving into industry and RNA therapeutics
After the completion of her PhD, Reeta worked for nine months as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH. During her postdoctoral work Reeta wondered how the research she was doing in the lab could be used to benefit more people, and so she began talking to biotech companies as a potential next step in her career. One of the appeals of going into industry was that if offered a chance to get more directly involved in drug development to help patients. Part of her decision was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It awakened her desire to do something more practical with quicker results than could be achieved in academia where the final outcome she says might not happen for '10 to 20 years down the line'.
Given Reeta's passion for RNA and neuroscience, she spent her time discussing potential projects and roles at a selection of leading biotechnology companies in this space. She did succeed in getting three rounds of interviews for one company in this area but in the end did not get the job. At that point she decided rather than investing all her energy hunting for neuroscience positions she might stand a better chance applying to companies focused on RNA therapeutics.
RNA stands for ribonucleic acid, which is essential for most biological functions. One of the attractions of RNA is that it can be used to modulate biological pathways to treat a specific condition. Today RNA is closely associated in the public's mind with COVID-19 vaccines. These vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA), a molecule that is pivotal to the synthesis of proteins. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, the mRNA is designed to programme the genes in people's cells to produce a protein found on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to educate their immune systems to recognise and destroy the virus.
As well as being able to get cells to produce beneficial proteins, RNA has the capacity to turn off genes that cause faulty protein production. This faulty production is often caused by an error in the patient's genetic code. One of the ways to override this process is to find a way of silencing these genes, a process known as RNA interference. Two small pieces of RNA can be used for this purpose: small interfering RNA and microRNA.
Working in a small biotechnology company
Reeta landed up getting a job with Sixfold Bioscience, a start-up biotechnology company based in London. Established in 2017, Sixfold Bioscience was founded to advance a new platform to deliver therapeutic RNA molecules to specific tissues and cell types in the body. Getting the right delivery platform has been a long-standing problem for RNA therapeutics. Most of the approaches used to date are only able to deliver RNA to liver cells or to very localised areas like the eye. Modelled on how RNA is naturally delivered into cells, the Sixfold Bioscience platform has the capacity to deliver RNA molecules throughout the body thereby opening the possibility to treating many different types of disease.
Joining Sixfold Bioscience in February 2022, Reeta has found the work really interesting. What she really likes about working in the company is the sense of being part of a cohesive team. She contrasts this with academia where she was left to mostly work on her own and felt guilty whenever she took time off because there was no one who could step into her shoes. This is not the case in the company where she says 'we take decisions together. Everyone has a task and we discuss results and how to go forward'. She also likes the fact that the company gives everyone the freedom to take on the tasks they feel comfortable with or alternatively to push at their limits and go beyond their comfort zone. Being part of the team makes her really feel valued and want to get up in the morning. Reeta also really enjoys being on the frontline of solving bottlenecks involved in RNA therapeutics, and applying her vast experience in the Central Nervous System, to build more effective delivery systems for RNA therapeutics.
One of the attractions for Reeta in working for a start-up company, rather than for a large established pharmaceutical company, is it offers a more flexible work environment. Currently no one day is exactly the same. She relishes the fact that she never quite knows what her weekly schedule will look like. Her week can consist of planning an experiment one day to then conducting it the next day followed by then discussing results. Often she also gets asked to jump in where something needs doing.
Key to a career in the biomedical industry
It took Reeta many years to determine exactly what career she wanted. To others considering a career in the biomedical industry she says the key thing to consider is what they most enjoy doing. In her case, her least favourite thing was to end up doing a repetitive task for longer than expected, which would turn things she enjoyed, as sitting at the microscope, into a burden. She much prefers having a new challenge every day and having the chance to move between different tasks.
Reeta points out that everyone is different so what she likes will not necessarily hold for others. The important thing is to get as many experiences as possible. One of the beauties of science, she says, is that it provides scope to travel and is not limited to just one field of study. The key recommendation she has for people looking to have a biomedical career is to 'find the niche that they are interested in and go for it.'
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This article was written by Dr Lara Marks based on an interview with Dr Reeta Daswani on 18th July 2023.