“I believe if I get to a good university, there will be good people. They will keep pushing me out of my comfort zone. And that’s why I’m here.”
Abhiram Chakka’s enthusiasm in stem cells research has brought him from India to Imperial College London. Let’s hear how his journey with MSc Genes, Drugs and Stem Cells – Novel Therapies at the National Heart and Lung Institute has fuelled his passion in stem cells research and inspired him to pursue postgraduate research.
It’s really nice meeting you. Just tell us briefly, what were you doing before you came to Imperial?
Actually I applied to the course in 2021. I was supposed to start in 2021. But then because of COVID and visa restrictions, I deferred my study to 2022. In the meantime, I had a lot of adventures.
That’s good. What kind of adventure?
So I had my own startup in between, I hope I’ll still work on it afterwards. It is known as ‘to go’ where I connect those who want to go abroad and those who are already studying abroad so that they can get to know what the reality actually is on the ground.
I also did a short research internship for six months in Central University of Nairobi where I learned all the wet lab techniques and the molecular biology techniques. As the final years of my undergrad were affected by COVID, and I didn’t have any wet lab experience, so I wanted to get lab experience over there. In addition to the wet lab experience, I also got proper research experience as I worked on a novel project, instead of something which is just a redo of the experiments that have been done by others.
That’s very good. You’re getting involved in novel research. What was your undergraduate actually?
It was a Bachelor of Engineering and Biotechnology from Birla Institute of Technology Mesra.
Why did you want to do a postgrad course?
I guess there’s no straight answer for it. It is just that I wanted to do it.
So specifically, why did you choose Imperial for study?
I was really interested only in stem cells and nothing else, so I started to search for courses with stem cells online and I got a lot of British universities such as the King’s (College London), UCL, Imperial College London, University of Southampton. So these are the ones that I applied. And then I got into Imperial, I was like, why not go to a university with a higher ranking? If you go to a university with good ranking, you get good people and friends surrounding you. And I believe that is the people around you who will be able to push you forward to where you wanted to go. So I believe if I get to a good university, there will be good people. They will keep pushing me up, pushing me out of my comfort zone. And that’s why I’m here.
What made you choose the MSc Genes, Drugs and Stem Cells – Novel Therapies?
The answer was pretty straightforward because the course has stem cells in it. And then the genes part and the pharmacology part is the added advantage. But yes I took it for the stem cells part.
And what did you originally expect from the programme?
I didn’t really expect much because I would say I was a lot more apprehensive when I started the course. So my expectations were that I knew there’ll be something useful. But the expectation was more on myself. Will I be able to cope with the kind of syllabus and tough assignments going on over here?
Who inspired you during your time here? This could be other students or faculty members, academics?
I would say it’s a mix. On the first day, you obviously don’t have a lot of friends. So at first you get to know your professors. You get to know the researchers. And as you go on lectures, you get to meet friends as well. So the first inspiration came from the professors themselves because a lot of the professors are doing good research and a lot of them have their research patented. In our course, we were also taught how difficult the patenting process is. So to realise that the professors have something patented, it means that it was really worth it. And as we moved on with the course, I made a lot of good friends, of whom I’m very proud right now. It doesn’t matter how I graduated I need to have good friends to graduate with.
Absolutely. So what was your favourite module or part of the programme?
I would say it is the lab part, because that’s where you get to be a little more free. We have lab sessions during the taught components, one was to make ARMS-PCR and one was with stem cells to get to learn the basics of stem cell culturing and the freezing of stem cells. So those were all interesting.
I would really love the stem cells part to be longer. And also now that I’m doing a research project, I got to work hands-on with animals. I do primary cultures directly from rats. So that is one very exciting part of this project I’m doing.
And more broadly how do you find studying in London?
I would say it is definitely stressful because the fees at Imperial is one of the highest and when you’re coming from a country like India, in my case, I’m really lucky and thankful that my parents are supporting me, otherwise this would have been a zero case of me to be able to do it.
And also the fact that things happen a lot more fast-paced. The master’s is for just one year which means that you need to get a job within that one year. It’s a lot more stressful and also a lot of the recruitment happens in the beginning of the year. So you land in October and then the companies start the recruitment. You don’t know anything about CV, cover letters, and how you need to tailor them so it can be stressful.
But then the good part is that you are going through this with all the friends. I would say it is also important to chill out with your friends and release stress.
Just expanding on that slightly as a multi-campus university, how would you describe Imperial College London?
I mean it’s really nice and the South Kensington location is very good. Especially you have those three museums just next to the campus. I have not even completed the tour of all the three museums. But then I’ve been to some of them once or twice and that is interesting. You get to be a part of the location where there’s a lot of hubbubs. You always see people, especially in summer. And our campus is in the Royal Brompton, which is just a 15-minute walk from the South Kensington campus. Being in South Kensington is like being at the heart of the activities. And also given that you have different centres, it inevitably means that you get to go across London and see how different areas of London are like, which is also a good thing. If the campus and the labs are in just the same place, you would be stuck in that place for your entire study.
And what advice would you give to someone starting the course or considering applying to the course?
For someone who’s starting the course, just ask as many questions as you can, and just explore as much as you can. Because unless you ask, you don’t get an answer. So even if you want to do a different project or if you want to learn a different skill, do ask and just find out if it’s possible or not. And to someone who wants to apply to this course, if you think this is the right course and if you can afford it, I would say you should definitely go for it.
So the big question, what are you planning to do next?
Before the beginning of this course, I didn’t want to do a PhD. Now that I have started working in the labs, and also the fact that I’m part of a very good lab, I really like the culture over here, so now it has inspired me to do a PhD potentially. And it has always been my plan to work in healthcare consultancy before the start of the course, so anything related to healthcare or life sciences consultancy, I’m up for it as well.
Brilliant. So perhaps the vision you have before starting the course has changed during the course and very interesting. So slightly weirder questions now. What would surprise your coursemates about you?
The thing that definitely surprised them is when I told them I’m playing for the Imperial cricket team. So they were like, surprised. They didn’t expect me to play sports at that high level.
Fantastic. So assuming that you like listening to music or perhaps podcasts, if you sit in the lab for all day, what would be your study soundtrack or your recent listening on Spotify?
I usually use YouTube, so what happens is that there are a lot of mix tracks. As I know three languages, one is Telugu, which is my mother tongue, and also Hindi and English. So I keep shuffling between those music. It depends on the mood, but then generally if I want to get energised or if I want to just feel the hype, I will just listen to the India movie soundtracks. That gives you a nice bump.
To learn more about the postgraduate programmes offered by the National Heart and Lung Institute, please visit our Postgraduate taught website.