Chetana Baliga is currently a DBT-Ramalingaswami Fellow at the Department of Biotechnology, M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences. She is passionate about exploring antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and host-defense responses to find solutions for tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
PhD | Faculty Fellow | AMR | Biophysics | Microbiology | India
🔬 Career Konnect: Job Profile – Faculty Fellow
Featured Scientist: Chetana Baliga B.
Current Role: DBT-Ramalingaswami Fellow, M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore
Education: PhD, Molecular Biophysics Unit (MBU), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore
Part 1: General Information
Current Position: I am a DBT-Ramalingaswami Faculty Fellow at the Department of Biotechnology at M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore. I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students in the department, and also mentor them in research projects. I run a research group where we explore Antimicrobial peptides of diverse origins, determine their efficacy against different bacteria, decipher mechanisms of action and design superior variants with improved antibacterial activity.
University: I am at the Department of Biotechnology at M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore
Location: Bangalore, India.
Part 2: Career Path and Education
Q. What was your PhD specialization? From which university did you obtain your PhD?
I obtained my PhD under the guidance of Prof. Raghavan Varadarajan, from the Molecular Biophysics Unit (MBU), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. I studied a bacterial toxin that inhibits DNA Gyrase. Using deep mutational scanning and biophysical approaches, I deciphered how changes in amino acid sequence can potentially modify the stability, folding kinetics and target-binding ability of the toxin. I gained expertise in molecular biology techniques, protein biophysics, as well as diverse strategies for protein purification and studying protein-protein interactions.
Q. Could you briefly outline your career path since completing your PhD?
Post-PhD, it took me a while to find the right post-doc, as we had to navigate the dreaded two-body problem. I also decided to take a break of about 2 years and start a family. During this time, my husband had the opportunity to move to Chicago, and I moved along. I eventually joined the Mankin-Vazquez lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago for a post-doc in 2019, where I worked on ribosome binding peptide antibiotics.
My years as a post-doctoral research associate were a wonderful learning experience. I was involved in multiple projects and was excited at how my learnings from my PhD could be applied successfully to completely novel areas. The lab environment was very conducive towards good ethical science. The group meetings, journal clubs and department seminars fostered an open culture of questioning and inquisitiveness. I got the opportunity to mentor multiple summer interns and graduate students; and it was a very rewarding experience. I learnt to modify my teaching style to match the student’s aptitude.
Through this time, we had the COVID pandemic, which brought about delays in the US immigration process. I also had a second child. Due to visa and family reasons, we decided to move back to India in early 2022. I moved back without a position in hand, since I wanted to be free to help my children settle in.
While contemplating on future career options, I decided that I would like to be in a role that allowed me to pursue research, while also providing the opportunity to mentor young minds, at UG/PG levels. Therefore, I applied for the DBT-Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, with M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences (RUAS) as my host institute. Fortunately, I was awarded the fellowship, and I joined the Department of Biotechnology, at RUAS from Aug 2023; where I do classroom teaching, as well as mentor students in research, at UG, PG and PhD levels.
Q. How important was your PhD in securing your current position?
The PhD, as well as my post-doctoral experience, was critical for me to secure my current position. Along with fulfilling eligibility criteria, my PhD taught me to be persevering, to not accept anything without questioning, to not limit myself to my existing skillset but to be open to learning new things and to forever evolve. It also helped me find a huge network of friends who have helped me in various stages of my career path.
I also gained technical expertise and knowledge that now helps me to teach and mentor my students.
Part 3: Job Role and Responsibilities
Q. Could you describe a typical workday for you? What are your primary responsibilities and tasks?
As a Ramalingaswami Faculty fellow at the Dept of Biotechnology, I have teaching as well as research responsibilities. I teach theory classes as well as lab, and this amounts to about 10-12 hours of classroom interaction and a similar time for preparation every week. Additionally, I mentor 2 PhD students and several MSc and BSc students in their research projects. I enjoy being in the lab and working at the bench, so I try to take some time out daily for the same. Being in the lab with the students keeps me stimulated and motivates me to do more in terms of research. I was myself once a keen UG student, looking for any internship opportunity. Therefore, I do not turn away the BSc students who reach out to me for any research internship in summer. In fact, this summer I had 9 BSc students doing their internships with me! Along with all these roles, there are administrative duties, project management responsibilities and miscellaneous tasks that crop up.
Q. What key skills (technical and soft) are essential for your role? How did your degree help you develop these skills?
Most of the subject matter related knowledge, as well as technical skills gained during my PhD and Postdoc help me everyday with my job. Additionally, my post-doc advisors, Dr Mankin and Dr Vazquez-Laslop, stressed strongly on effective communication. We had regular group meetings and journal clubs, both during my PhD and Post-doc, and these have taught me how to communicate my science, work or even the subject I am teaching in an effective manner to my audience. I had the opportunity to mentor several students during my post-doc, from high school students to early career postdocs; and this helped me learn how to modify my tutoring/mentoring style based on the mentee. It has proven to be an invaluable skill, especially in the lab, with my research students.
Q. What are the biggest challenges and rewards of your job?
The biggest challenge is being able to balance teaching, research and admin responsibilities, and effectively finding time for everything.
Additionally, the initial year was challenging as I was new to classroom teaching, and I had to prepare my course content. Now that I handle largely the same courses, it is easier as I have a framework for teaching them.
The biggest reward is that my job lets me do two things I enjoy the most – research and teaching. I enjoy interacting with the young minds and I try to instill in them a passion for Science.
Q. How do you balance your work and personal life? What strategies do you use to manage stress and maintain a healthy work-life balance?
I make sure to have time in the evening to spend with my family, especially my children. I am fortunate that I stay close to where I work, so I save commuting time. I am also very lucky to have family support, especially my mother, so I have a lot of help in the household matters and with the kids. I try to finish most of the teaching related work (content preparation, assignment grading etc) in college, so that any free time I get, after the kids go to bed, can be devoted to reading a new paper or working on a project. It is always a see-saw, some days are lighter, some are heavier, but it evens out eventually.
Part 4: Future Opportunities
Q. What are the potential career paths and opportunities for someone in your position?
Beyond academia and teaching, there’s growing scope in translational research—developing novel antimicrobial therapies, diagnostics, and alternatives to traditional antibiotics. I also aim to develop projects in collaboration with the excellent hospital and doctors in our university, to explore host-microbe interactions within our body, and how they influence our health and disease states.
Q. What are the current trends and challenges in the biotech industry? How do you see your role evolving in the future?
I feel that with rapidly evolving AI, it is a challenge for students to find suitable roles. Nevertheless, AMR remains a global challenge and is rising rapidly; which is a growing concern, especially in India. Added to this, the antibiotic development pipeline has stagnated in big pharma.However, smaller biotech companies such as BugWorks have made significant advances towards development of novel dual acting antibiotics.
As a teacher and researcher working in AMR space, I see myself working towards educating the society about responsible use of antibiotics, mentoring students and developing innovative, sustainable approaches to tackle AMR. I also aim towards forging meaningful interdisciplinary collaborations between myself, the clinicians in my university, and the biopharma industry for development of novel antibiotics and antimicrobial strategies. Additionally, I aim to work on targeted delivery of antimicrobials, and development of drugs that selectively inhibit pathogens while causing minimal harm to our normal microbiome.
Q. What advice would you give to early-career researchers who are aspiring to work in the biotech industry?
Network extensively and early. While you are studying, speak to people who are in the kind of roles you envision taking up. Ask them for the skills needed to excel at that job and work on acquiring those. Do not neglect soft skills. Make sure to pick up sufficient coding and computational biology skills. Expand your skillset with courses from the NPTEL platforms. Try to secure internships that give you a taste of the company as well as the role, helping you determine if you would like it or whether it would be a good fit.
Q. Are there any resources, networks, or training programs that helped you in your career that you would recommend?
STEMPeers is a very strong and helpful network, especially for Indian students who are in the US. Additionally, IndiaBioscience, LinkedIn, BioPatrika and X (Twitter) have proven to be very helpful in providing updates on career opportunities, job openings, internships, fellowships etc. IndiaBioscience holds the YIM (Young investigator meeting) every year which provides wonderful opportunities for Post docs and Young investigators to network with senior mentors as well as with each other.
Part 5: Salary
Salary range – Salary for academicians vary depending on the position and the institute. I am a DBT-Ramalingaswami Fellow and I get paid the fellowship amount, which is Rs. 1,35,000 per month.
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