If you are reading this, I am glad you are here! I am Priyanka and I lead a fledgling scientific team at Department of Medical Genetics, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. I trained as a Drosophila geneticist, studying mechanisms of transcriptional repression largely in the early Drosophila embryo, wing disc (precursor of the wing) and oogenesis, with Dr Gerard Campbell at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.
I graduated in 2013, and crossed the pond to go to Dr Hilary Ashe's lab at the University of Manchester, UK. Here I studied mechanisms of gene expression in the early embryo.
After these fun and (lets be real) stressful times I moved back to India to start my independent lab at the Department of Medical Genetics in 2016, where I still continue to work. At this point in time, our team has been around for ~ eight years, which for me has had multiple externally funded research grants as a principal investigator and overlapped being a Mum to a now 6.5 year old!
Fun fact: ours was the first Drosophila/Fly lab in Kasturba Medical College, Manipal.
We use flies and cells to try to understand what has gone wrong resulting in human disease, particularly from the genetics point of view. Largely we focus on rare Mendelian disorders but I am also intrigued by the genetic factors modifying complex multifactorial traits and disorders, especially in context of the Indian subcontinent.
Developing an understanding into disease mechanisms also opens a window into the marvels of biological systems, which something that also fascinates me.
I am an advocate for work-life balance and hope our lab provides a safe space for people with different views and choices as they are navigating life and a career in science. I do try my best to support them in the same.
In the blog section, which by the way, I have started more than two years of starting a lab website, I plan to share more of the background into our lab news, things that did or did not work. I may even share my take on cool science I came across. And finally I hope to share snippets of experiences and advice on doing science with joy and fulfilment.
If you are interested in any of the above, do subscribe to hear from me. Also if you made this far, thank you reading, I would love to hear from you, so feel free to comment!