We interviewed Professor Sandhya Visweswariah - who joined us in September via the Provost’s Visiting Professorship of Biochemistry.

Can you tell me a little about your background?

My early education was in London and Stevenage, following which I moved to Zambia to complete my O levels. I then returned to India and graduated in Botany, Chemistry and Zoology followed by a master’s degree in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. I then joined the Indian Institute of Science for my PhD in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which I completed in 1987. I had a daughter by then and so was not keen on leaving the country.  I therefore started working in Astra Zeneca Research Centre which had set up a research unit in Bangalore. I learnt a lot about corporate research there, but realized after some years that I was not cut out for life in Industry, and preferred free-wheeling academia and working with young people. Fortunately, the Indian Institute of Science was looking for new faculty to join the Institute and I was recruited as an Assistant Professor, being one of the very few people who had NOT gone abroad for a post-doctoral fellowship.

Can you tell us a bit about your study prior to now? 

I joined the department of Developmental Biology and Genetics and am currently an Honorary Professor in the same department after 29 years of service. I have graduated more than 30 students with a PhD and trained several post-doctoral fellows and research assistants during these years. I have been interested in the function of a gut-associated receptor, receptor guanylyl cyclase C, which is the target for bacterial toxins that cause diarrhoea, especially in children in countries such as India and sub-Saharan Africa. We began our work initially by characterizing the mechanisms by which this receptor is regulated and the downstream signalling events following its activation in intestinal cells. Working with clinicians in Norway and Austria, we were the first to describe mutations in this receptor that cause congenital secretory diarrhoea and familial diarrhoea syndrome. These studies prompted us to develop mouse models to study the consequences of hyperactive mutations in the receptor that result in inflammatory bowel disease. We are currently developing organoid models and performing exome sequencing of paediatric IBD patients in India to investigate mutations associated with this disorder in the Indian subcontinent.

What is your new role at Imperial?

I have had the good fortune of working closely with Professor Gad Frankel from the Department of Life Sciences in connection with a grant from the Royal Society that we have held for 5 years. I also collaborate with Dr. Avinash R Shenoy from the Department of Infectious Disease, who also happens to be a former PhD student of mine. These interactions and collaborations will be pursued during my stay here. I have a student working with me now as part of her MRes project work and I hope to teach a few classes next year in a course conducted in the Department of Life Sciences. I want to utilize the time here in getting to know about the new Organoid facility that is just taking off in Imperial, since developing disease models for preclinical testing of drugs would be a great way to take things forward on my return to India.

I was involved in establishing a Bioengineering Department in my Institute in India and therefore look forward to meeting faculty in the Bioengineering Department at Imperial to foster interactions across the two Institutions.  I understand that the Provost is visiting the Indian Institute of Science soon, and I hope formal engagements are strengthened because of this visit.

What motivated you to work in this area?

I have always been interested in understanding the molecular basis of biological phenomena. My early interests were fuelled by my degree in Biochemistry and Protein Science, but they expanded as I started my own laboratory. I now realize that studying biological phenomena at a complex cellular or organismal level is challenging and therefore, extending our studies along these lines is what is motivating me now. There is a desire to obtain a holistic picture of biology, however difficult that may be to understand in its entirety.

What attracted you to working in Life Sciences at Imperial? 

My interactions with Professor Frankel and Dr. Shenoy introduced me to infection biology and I saw that as a great strength of the erstwhile Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection (CMBI) on my visits over the years. I was pleased to learn that I would be affiliated to the Department of Life Sciences as the Provost’s Visiting Professor, given the breadth of research being undertaken in the Department. I hope to meet with faculty across the department to share our research findings during my stay here and will make efforts to contact as many of them as I can.

Tell us an interesting/unusual fact about yourself.

At school in England, I had decided not to do science and was completely immersed in humanities! I was studying towards O levels in Music, French, Russian and Latin and was always interested in English Literature which is something I wanted to pursue in future at a leading university in the UK! However, when my parents left for Zambia and then India, I hesitated to stay back, and followed them back to India. I therefore had to catch up on all the Science that I had left behind and the rest is history! I have no regrets and my dream of being associated with a leading UK university has come true by being here in Imperial, albeit for a year. My interests in Literature and the Arts continue however, and London has a lot to offer on both those fronts!