The true impact of Life Sciences Research comes from building processes that streamline operations and improve the efficiency of research centers that contribute to medical innovations.
Urja Verma (PhD), our next pathbreaker, works as Research Associate and Project Manager at Princess Margaret Genomics Centre (Toronto, Canada), which is part of University Health Network, a department that provides Genomics services to more than 300 Scientists across the world.
Urja talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about her work in collaboration with Scientists, Researchers and Doctors with the mission to help reduce the burden of diseases in society at a regional, local and global scale.
For students, nothing that you learn ever goes a waste, as long as you develop the transferrable skills that can be applied in a different role !
Urja, what were your initial years like?
I always loved physiology so much. Early in school time, I used to read extra books on how our gut works, how we digest things, how we think so much – the brain function. I also derived love for plants from my mom. So I was also reading about how the plants breathe and survive, and blossom or dry and come again in next season! I was very curious. My mom was a brilliant home-maker who always questioned the way we prepare things in the kitchen. There is a lot of chemistry involved in how the potatoes get boiled, or pulses need soaking before losing their shells. My dad worked in a pharmacy shop once, even though he pursued finance for his life. He knows most of the medicinal contents on the tip of his tongue. He would often mention things like – take ibuprofen for pain, or let’s avoid combiflam but take the simple painkillers. My younger brother was a gym-lover and always asked me about protein powders, the effect of exercises etc. when I started studying Science in 11-12th standard choosing Biology over Maths. My sister is a great baker, and taught me baking chemistry many times.
Now when I look back, I feel like every member of my family, their discussions in daily life, their interests, along with my interest – shaped my current career and how I reached here.
What did you do for graduation/post graduation?
I did my Bachelors, Masters, and PhD in Zoology at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Vadodara. Many would say it isn’t a great University, it doesn’t teach much. I honestly feel that no college or University is made for teaching. It is made to provide you with the resources and environment to study. It is always up to a person to select their resources, friends, and activities wisely, and make sense out of all that is given to them. The library of MSU was rich in resources. They also had subscriptions to many publications, so reading research papers for free was possible in the libraries.
What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and unique career in Biotech Research Management?
I wanted to become a doctor – not the PhD, but the medicine doctor back in school. I wanted to do so because I not only loved physiology but also loved to solve people’s problems. I thought it was an ideal career for me. But somehow, the education system is strictly based on percentage and merits instead of interest. The society comes into picture too here. Society drags people into medicine just based on their higher ranks. They don’t ask the students in India if they like medicine. Even if a person scores higher in 10th standard, if he/she/they love commerce, they can become a big trader, businessman, successful entrepreneur, CA, what not. But because like a herd of sheep, everyone scoring high goes into Science and dreams to become engineer or doctor, there is immense competition for the students who actually are interested in it genuinely. Not because of the merit. Anyway, I couldn’t get into medicine through merit. And I realized that I didn’t want to waste my parents’ hard-earned money through donations either. So, I pursued what was available locally in Vadodara, that was Zoology.
My Biology teacher Manish Gor motivated me to take up this field. While the society kept laughing at the decision I made, I kept the right attitude of humbleness, learnt from my MSU lecturers (during my bachelors), and realized that I love this subject so much. Besides, it covered literally everything that a MBBS doctor studies, except for the medicine doses. It covered physiology of not just humans unlike the medicine field, but also all animals in the animal kingdom- starting from microbes to a human! I loved it so much that I kept going deep into the field with great curiosity, and pursued PhD for higher education.
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path
During my Masters, I got immensely interested in how lizards lose their tails and grow new ones, but humans once they lose their appendage (hands or legs) in accidents, cannot regenerate them back. I wanted to study this in my favorite lecturer, Professor Suresh Balakrishnan’s lab at MSU (for my PhD). Unfortunately, in India, due to merit and prevalent biases, I could not clear the examination called National Entrance Test (NET) at the score of 104, while a batchmate cleared it at the score of 78 because of special category. I believe that biases like these are big hindrances to developing talent in India. It is fine to give them seats in jobs, but not in the examinations like NET. Because, our brains don’t get developed based on the category we belong to. And that is why, everyone should be treated equally.
Anyway, I didn’t get to work on lizards, but I helped my lab-mates to catch and release them all the time when they needed it. Failures should never stop you from doing good work. Kindness is the biggest push towards success.
So instead, I pursued embryology for my PhD. I loved that subject as well. My PhD topic was to find out what the enzyme called COX-2 is doing in the embryo (babies in the eggs/womb). We can’t sacrifice human babies for such basic science studies. Therefore, as general practice, animal models are used for basic research on embryonic pathways details. These facts are then extrapolated to make assumptions for human development and they are then researched on further for clinical studies such as drug development.
Here’s what I did:
- I got fresh eggs laid by hens.
- I added a medicine (an anti-inflammatory drug) inside the eggs. This medicine stops the enzyme COX-2 I was studying.
- Then I kept the eggs warm in an incubator, just like a hen would.
- After a few hours or days, I looked at the baby chicks growing inside to see if anything went wrong.
- If the baby chick looked different or had problems, I studied its body closely—especially the tiny parts like DNA, RNA, and proteins.
- This helped me figure out which genes and proteins were affected when the enzyme was blocked.
In the end, I learned that this enzyme, called COX-2, is very important for helping baby animals grow the right way.
More about my work on LinkedIn if you’re interested to follow!
How did you get your first break?
During my PhD, one of my labmates and lecturers Dr. Pratyush Patankar became a Zoo curator (class-I officer) for Sri Sayajibaug Zoo of Vadodara. Owing to my love for the animals, I volunteered and learnt a lot at the Zoo. I was aiming to become an education officer for the same zoo via examination. However, I got selected for the world’s biggest metabolomics lab in Edmonton, Canada for a short term research training program (5 months). I grabbed that opportunity, and to date I am the only Indian who has visited that lab under the “Research Hotel Program” (list on their website).
Metabolomics is a study of metabolites. Imagine your body is a big, busy city, there are tiny workers called cells keeping you alive and healthy. Now, just like the city produces trash, food, fuel, and other stuff, these cells also produce some tiny chemicals called metabolites. Studying their levels, structure, function, etc. is called metabolomics. It helps to catch diseases early, learn how the bodies work, and help to make better medicines!
After going to this lab, I realized the good points about living in Canada, the kind of freedom I felt walking on the streets, no one stared at anyone. Everyone was respectful to each other and very humble. I fell in love with the work culture, where no one shouts at anyone because of their position. I decided to move to Canada. After my PhD however, COVID happened and therefore visa processes halted for a bit. Therefore, I looked for a temporary job, and easily got into the life science department of a consulting agency in Vadodara itself. That was my first break into the corporate world. It was pretty easy, I gave 2 interviews and was selected soon.
I moved to Canada as soon as I got Permanent Residency (PR). And my real challenging work started there.
My first Canadian job after getting a Permanent Residency (PR) was at the UHN Biospecimen services. This was a group of Biobanks, where I was a Scientific associate. A Biobank in simple words is like a collection of freezers where people collect and keep peoples’ samples such as blood, spit, bits of different tissues (sectioned) from the brain, liver, gut, etc. Biobanks collect these from normal and patient samples from hospitals, and store them for other researchers’ use when they need it, sometimes years after the collection. This makes discoveries faster. I helped biobanks work better, made changes to how they do things, and helped scientists with paperwork to get money for their research.
After this I worked at the same company’s different department called Princess Margaret Genomics Centre. This is the place where the Scientists study genes – the instruction inside our bodies that tell our cells what to do! Our department helps other Scientists around the world by running Genomics assays on their study-samples. My role is again to understand the need of these Scientists at my workplace, and make their work-life smoother by streamlining processes, adding communication tools in the team, and providing our company-leaders with the statistics of how many Scientists prefer which assays for what type of research, etc. I also handle social media channels of my company, host workshops to train new researchers in the field, and support Scientists administratively to write grants to secure funding. I manage projects, processes, and business strategies here.
All my jobs so far have left the classical lab behind. I am not the Scientist who works with a labcoat on and pipettes in hands. But, my PhD has given me enough understanding of what the Scientists need in their work-lives to invent faster and better. I always tell people, that your PhD topic should definitely be something you’d love to work long-term on, but it is not necessary that you stay in the lab for the betterment of Science. Science, like every other field, also needs people who work on desks, computers, in the field, in hospitals, and online, to manage the work effectively. PhD teaches you to always remain open to learning and being trained, while respecting everyone’s experiences around you. So, the topic of PhD doesn’t matter as much after a while if you work away from the lab, but nothing learnt before ever goes a waste, and knowledge of Science at that depth is transferable and useful in order to understand every other research type.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Challenge 1: Being new to the country as an immigrant”, I was hearing a lot of negative points about getting a job and making a career in Canada. I still hear those things. But, I like to stay positive, and see possibilities over challenges. I would say that attitudes and conversations you have with people around you matters a lot in shaping yourself. You cannot change the way people think, you have to work on your own thinking. This helps you stay ahead in the game. This is the biggest challenge at every point of life. Hear everyone out, but do your own research before doing anything for yourself.
Challenge 2: Getting a job anytime is always a challenge. When I finished my PhD, it was Covid era, so the job market was bad. When I came to Canada, companies were slow in hiring in the post-covid era, it was slow again. I got my first Canadian job at the University Health Network (union of 5 hospitals and so many departments). I got that job after 4 months of interviewing with many companies, and doing my own certification of Project Management. It was challenging, but I attended all on-site job-fairs for Science, talked to many real professionals on LinkedIn, and gathered lessons on how a resume should talk about yourself. With enough research and efforts, I got a great job, which was not beginners’ job and most immigrants don’t start from that level. Trying hard isn’t important, trying in the right direction is important.
Challenge 3: Lay-offs are very common in North America and I got laid-off after 7 months into my first job here. I was disheartened like anyone would be. But I gave 11 interviews in the span of 3 months, and got selected for two of those. I chose this position where I am now. It was again challenging to focus on getting a new job instead of the unfortunate lay-off situation. But I looked for solutions, and trusted the process that hard times always give you good times afterwards.
Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?
I work at the Princess Margaret Genomics Centre, a core service department at University Health Network. University Health Network is network of hospitals and science centres made of Scientists, Clinicians (doctors, nurses), Patients, and Students (from University of Toronto). We work to take care of sick people, teach future doctors and nurses, and do research to find better ways to treat diseases. This includes a famous cancer centre. Princess Margaret Genomics Centre is part of University Health Network, a department that provides Genomics services to more than 300 Scientists across the world. So, our customers are those Scientists looking to include Genomics studies in their research. Our team is made up of Scientists, Researchers, trained staff in Genomics services. We provide those services. My role is to streamline processes, push the teams for data uniformity, derive statistics out of service metrics. All the things that help my senior leaders to run the operations smoothly, and makes my team members’ work life easier. Effective operations at the service department can help us to process samples faster, the samples that other Scientists give to us for their research. This way, we contribute to faster research and ultimately solutions to the diseases.
My role has been purely operational since a long time, right after my PhD when I worked in India in a consulting agency. I shifted to desk from the lab since a long time. I led people at first, and now I support people work better by managing projects, processes, grants, social media, operations, and overall departmental strategies.
What are the skills needed for your role? How did you acquire them?
Communication, you have to know what you’re talking about and who you’re talking to. I have to talk to strangers, cross-team members, and scientists as well, and selecting the right level of jargons, words is important. Also not being shy is necessary, own the awkwardness!
Research: You have to research about the tools, techniques, and new developments in the field all the time. Read read read. Knowledge is the mother of success.
Attitude: Right attitude with a mix of humbleness, respect for everyone for what they do everyday, and nature of supporting others – help you to thrive in any environment.
Office tools: not just Microsoft tools, but also PowerBI for company stats, dashboarding, visio for charts, and project management tools.
Graphics tools: Biorender for Scientific diagrams
What’s a typical day like?
My everyday job is to find gaps in operations, suggest changes to senior leaders, write grant applications to get funds from agencies for research, handle social media channels to spread the word about our discounts, hosting scientific events, and helping research teams to work more efficiently by providing them tools they need.
What do you love about your job?
I love that I am able to make a difference each day. For example, I am reducing the pain of people’s everyday life by adding the tools in their work that can help them to work more efficiently without wasting time on unnecessary things. I love being a part of this company, which has a cancer centre. Scientists, Students, Doctors, and nurses working with me, all of us ultimately help society at regional, local, and global scale. Research is to reduce the burden of diseases as an end result, and I am happy to be a part of this department which helps 300+ researchers with their research quality and speed.
How does your work benefit society?
The science my company supports helps find new ways to treat diseases like cancer and mental health problems. I help scientists save time so they can focus on their important work. My job makes their work easier and helps make the world a better place.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
Apart from primary work I do at my company, I teach Biology to Gujarati medium students on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@Biology-Simplified-in-Gujarati
This work is very close to my heart because I feel I am giving back to my community in India. I was in Gujarati medium in School and I can understand the struggle of students who go to Universities from Gujarati medium. I make these videos to help students understand Biology in the language they’re most comfortable with.
If you or someone you know studies in Gujarati medium, please check it out! It might just make learning Biology a lot easier—and maybe even fun 😊
Your advice to students based on your experience?
Always stay positive, and don’t make decisions based on others’ experiences. Read a lot and do research before making big decisions in life such as taking science or commerce steam, or changing countries. Don’t expect help from people, depend on yourself more. But never forget those who helped, or who did something that indirectly helped you in any way. Give back to the community when you grow up. Even if the community doesn’t thank you personally, your help that changes someone’s life even a bit, helps you to grow indirectly even if you don’t realize it.
Future Plans?
I am working towards Business Analysis now. I am a BSc, MSc, PhD, PMP person. But all the time working in service provider setups I realize that scientific firms direly need good business analytics. Especially from someone who also knows Science, and how things and people work in the field. I believe I will be able to provide more value to the field when I know all of this – BSc-MSc gave me fundamentals of all Scientific areas, PhD gave me deep Scientific understanding of most of the research work and field, PMP gave me a training to run projects in literally any work environments, and BA will teach me how to run analytics to support leadership decisions and company-wide changes.