Discovering a miraculous flower that can cure cancer

How do these findings contribute to your research area?

Currently, in the realm of TNBC research, drug resistance, and tumor relapses are the two major growing concerns for our laboratory. All of us in our team are trying to find ways to manage TNBC and thus any new drug candidate would irk my interest, exactly what happened for RTME. My study emphasized the potential of RTME targeting mitochondria-dependent ‘intrinsic apoptosis pathway’ via induction of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and promotion of G0/G1 cell cycle arrest. Thus, RTME could be an alternate therapeutic approach for the management of TNBC and that would be a huge finding in our research area.

What was the exciting moment during your research?

The whole journey was filled with excitement, to be honest. From collecting those beautiful violet flowers not exactly knowing what secret ingredients they may be hiding inside, it was like a mystery thriller. Serendipity is always a blessing in science, and you never know when you dissect nature what might come out of it. Our nature holds some of the best-kept secret therapeutic regimens and it is always exciting to walk on a path less traveled. When I first found out that my brownish flower extract could vanquish those TNBC cells, observing those floating dead cancer cells under the microscope made me cry. That was the eureka moment, in that very moment I realized with science I have the power to do the impossible and I am going to find the secret recipe to kill those cancer cells.

What do you hope to do next?

For me, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I would like to further investigate to find out the responsible molecules within RTME and isolate them as pure compounds. Furthermore, my objective will be to develop and synthesize phytochemical-based nanoparticles for better delivery into the TNBC cells.

Where do you seek scientific inspiration from?

My inspiration comes from my mentors, Dr. Gaurav Das, DST INSPIRE Faculty, and Dr. Prosenjit Saha, Senior Scientist at CNCI for their help and immense support. I am immensely thankful to the DST-INSPIRE Faculty Project which has provided me with the research grant and fellowship to pursue this work. I am also thankful to Dr. Avinaba Mukherjee who has continuously encouraged and inspired me throughout my journey with his dedication and passion for the work. He always told me, “Result is not so important but the journey is important”. During this journey, I learned many new exciting skills, but I think I have a long journey ahead of me, and I aim to learn and contribute to the advancement of society and the Indian Science Community.

How do you intend to help Indian science improve?

I do not think science is regional or national, I think it has a much larger context. It belongs to everyone on this planet. An invention, let’s say in my case a cancer drug for curing breast cancer will not only benefit Indian science but I guess science in general as it will inspire researchers across the world to be brave and make discoveries fearlessly without the fear of failure. Failure in science is a must, and we all have failed or will fail at some point but our victories however minute they might be must we learn to celebrate more than our failures. So, I think my discovery will lead researchers across the world and of course my nation toward a new dawn of discovering anti-cancer drugs which will help to eradicate and manage this difficult disease.