So, so my name is Latia Pandi Narayanan and currently I'm working as a research scientist at Mayo Clinic, one of the premiere. Hospitals in the world. The number one hospital in the world. From a. Like a bachelor's degree, I did a biotechnology where? I study the concept, basic concepts and the inter. Of molecular biology and cellular biology, as well as with some disease biology as well. So then I did a masters in the VAT, that's one of the premier institution in India. I studied the biomedical genetics, which is the course is basically centered RMD. Jenny takes uh. Uh, also the, the genetic diseases and then. Multiple components of the genomics as well. So I got a lot of. Experience with your. The genetic. The field of genetics. So then I moved to do my PhD. I did my PhD in at Madurai Kamaraj University. So I chose like in cancer biology field. So my PhD was on basically. Characterizing that every anti signaling pathway in gastric cancer which is again centered around the. Molicare biology as well as genomics.

Right, Professor — you've covered a lot of ground in genetics and cancer biology. When you're teaching undergraduates about something foundational, like Mendelian inheritance or gene expression, what's your favorite classroom technique to help students really grasp those basic concepts?

So the academia.

I did my PhD at Madurai Kamaraj University. I studied. Gastric cancer. How the cancer progression? Progress as how we can control the cancer and treat the cancer. That's that's my PhD. Then I moved to. IAC or Bhopal where I did my postdoc. Studying categorizing the oral and. Uh, multiple different cancers. Then I moved. I moved. In 2000, 2017 I moved to. University of Michigan. I characterized. Are you using a lot of different? Omics technologies, including the single cell sequencing. To characterize the. Different cancers.

Okay. Just to repeat my last question — when you're teaching a foundational concept like Mendelian inheritance or gene expression to undergraduates, what's your favorite classroom technique to help students really understand it?

Yeah, in 20. 22 I moved to Qatar. I was working at Sidra Medicine. Then I characterized a lot of pediatric tumors. With a lot in the emphasis of lot of genomic aspects. Then 2424 I moved to Mayo Clinic and here I'm a research scientist. Are you? I I'm working on a lot of different generic diseases including cancer as well as diabetes and multiple other. DC styles. I'm using cutting edge technologies as well as. Lot of different methods to characterize all those things. And I have a lot of experience working on genetic diseases and. UH, as well as a genomics UH field.

You've got a strong research background, especially in cancer genomics. Let me bring us back to teaching for a moment — when you're explaining a complex topic like single-cell sequencing to undergraduates, how do you make sure students from non-genetics backgrounds stay engaged and actually understand the core idea?

You've clearly worked across a range of genetics-focused environments, from India to the US and Qatar. Outside the lab, when you're mentoring or guiding student research projects, what's your approach to helping a student who's struggling to make progress?

So my approach to Let me put this way, I have a lot of mentoring and guiding approaches from my. Uh, starting on my PhD, I have a lot of uh. Most students as well as during my post docs I guided even masters as well as a PhD students. My approach is very simple like. I have to let them know that to learn the basics first. So the basic is like I have to be there for them even though whatever the concerns are troubleshooting everything. I'll be with them my interaction with the one-on-one always and I'm available to every time. So I'll let them know that. Problem algorithm. So. To troubleshoot it and then make them understand that the best way move forward to. Make some progress, yeah.

Yeah, so the the. So the basically a lot of students need guidance, especially in the in their early careers. They need a lot of guidance. I I said with them day by day to. Understand what's their needs to progress further. So my one only interaction always will be unfocused on their problems as well as how. They can solve the issues together. To move forward. So we we will be always having a lot of scientific. You know, conversations and the discussions as well as the. Discussing lot about the research articles recently published as well as the ideas. So make sure that they add they understand this and then they apply in their research. Projects. So that would be a. The kind of they, they, they mostly, uh. Understand that. Issue and then. In trying to work on it with the help with our help and then. Try to. Troubleshooting. When it comes to the teaching, obviously I'm I'm, I'm helping them like. To understand the basic concept of the when it comes to research. Even the science field will be Understanding the basics is very important. So I'll be with them to help them to understand the basics as well as. Before doing any any kind of experiment or projects. So they they, they need to know the basics. So I'll always help them to understand the basics as well as so. Promote them to. Read the scientific concepts and then recent literature to understand. Besides.

That's an interesting point. Could you elaborate a bit more on that?

When it comes to the cancer genome excerpt, the Cancer Research, I think the field is moving pretty fast, especially the genomic aspect that. Every every there is a new technologies and coming and. That the technologies are getting the older technologies are getting older and people are getting rid of that. So since I have a lot of experience in. The space yellow mix and single cell sequencing that is one of the cutting edge technology and then basically? That is what driving the field right now. So I have a lot of experience with that. So I think that I I could get lot of. Funding from the that field, especially in the spatial omics and. A single cell. The the problem if they the the Cancer Research is that. Previously many people use Pulkar and ar pulk. Any sequencing obviously. Is that the method previously uh? Was there and then people used but since the field is moving faster with a single cell and spatial omics. I think there is a lot to explore and then that will be helpful for the. Translating to the website to uh. Uh, sorry, uh. Bench to bedside, uh. So that it will be helpful for. Patient recovery as well as the improvement also. So I'm thinking that so I will my my my focus will be on single cell and spatial omics field. To get a grant to further characterize the cancers. There are a lot of unexplored things, so I think that this is. These these are the. Feel, I think I'm I'm thinking that it will be a. Really. Uh. Uh, better opportunity to attract my grants? And I'm thinking that probably a DBT or. Uh, DST as well as I will also think in be welcome to us one of you. Premier. Grant agency, which gives a lot, at least the higher amount of grant. And I'm thinking that writing one of those. A grant within this a single cell and special spatial field. Well, I would be a. Applying to grandfather all these things as well as ICMR, that's one of the Indian Council of Medical Research. So I feel that I could apply that migrants in that agencies too.

Professor, given your extensive background in cancer genomics and pediatric tumor research, where do you see the most fundable research directions over the next three years? Which specific grant agencies or funding sources would you target to support a research group working in your area?

Professor, shifting to your teaching practice — imagine you're running a core Biomedical Genetics course at VIT University. Suppose you have a class of 150 undergraduates and you're not allowed to use PowerPoint or slides. How would you design a session that keeps students engaged and ensures they're actively working with the material, not just passively listening?

So yeah, the genetics is really, really a great field. You have a lot to understand. It's more exciting. So the important thing to make a student. Investing in the field is to. Teach them a basic concept and how the genetics will be utilized for. You know, improving the patients are improving the. People's health and other stuffs. So my my approach would be. Teaching What are the? How the genetics basically shaped the human health. Are the medicine. So once you tell them that how these are the things helping the. Basically improving the medicine. So I think the that students will be more interested to learn, learn, learn those opportunities as well as I, I, I would be happy to present some of the case studies. Look through the students so that they will understand how the genetics can be used. To treat the patient very precisely, or. It's a kind of, again, the precision medicine concept is basically based on the genetics and. Genomics Aspects.

If you tell all these things to students and then make them understand. And understand the basics of the genetics and then make make them interested in the genetics. I think it would be there. Easiest way. To teach them without even these slides or. This whatever the electronic materials also like. You give them that lot of. Uh, conceptually thinking questions in genetics, for example. If you have this this parents, are they having these mutations or other stuffs? How the progeny is going to so engage in some kind of assignments, a sense of. Critically thinking assignments and it doesn't take a lot of writing, but. Just thinking and then they try to find out what is the. Like the offsprings are going to get from the genetics. Genetic. Genetic issues. So those are some days like a. I I feel that I I can teach them. Uh, without that slides or other materials.

That's a reasonable start, bringing in real case studies to connect genetics with medicine. But say half the class is still disengaged — how would you know if your session design is actually working, and what metrics or feedback would you use to evaluate the impact of your teaching method?

Let's move to a different aspect of faculty life. Accreditation cycles can be demanding — if you joined our department and found that outcome assessment data was inconsistent across Biomedical Genetics courses, how would you approach fixing that?

Obviously, the accreditation cycles are very important for any institution and then it defines the the quality of the institute as well as the. I I basically if you get a good aggregation and then you can get lot of uh students to the institute and all. Obviously there is a flaws there. There is a fundamentally we need to work on it and then try to understand that issue where that issue is high trying. Happening and. All these things. It is a kind of, you know, you have to approach it as a holistic approach. Where you try to find out. That is the issue and then try to solve it us. Uh, solve it as from the basics. So that's that's one thing I would do. And obviously they're they'll try to.

Improve the quality and then working on the. Other aspects to improve their overall. Issues like what is happening? So that it will be better to. Approach the you know the improve the. Quality for the accreditation cycles. And then I, I know it's very demanding, getting that good aggregation is very demanding. And then. But with the expertise what I have and then the the the with my. Lot of experience also gone through lot of other demanding work and all. I think it it would be for me, it's it's a kind of challenging part. To achieve more and more so I would think that.

Professor, imagine a student formally alleges that your grading was biased, while at the same time your department head is urging you to raise pass rates to meet institutional targets. How would you handle this situation?

Professor, given your background in advanced genomics and research at places like Mayo Clinic and Sidra Medicine, do you have industry collaborations or connections that could help Biomedical Genetics students at VIT University access internships or real-world project opportunities?

Do you wanna go for next question?

So basically is there a lot of techniques you could use? The one is that sequencing based technologist. So. Uh, first you need to identify the novel genetic variant and then. So once you validate it in multiple cohorts of the samples and then try to find out that the generic variance. So what's the proportion of the genetic variant and then how it's related to? Particular disease are uh. The condition. So then when you have this, then the the the the easiest methods would be uh. The AAA that the mouse model of the genetic variant and then you you create a genetic variant and. CDs. Offsprings as well as you could do it in the kind of in a selling model, but. Uh, and then characterize what's happening at the, the. The the cellular level, what is happening the affecting the you know the signaling pathways or other. A phenotypic as well as genotypic levels. And however, the genetic uh. Engineering based mouse models are the great. Method to. Validate the novel genetic variance because it's closer to the system is more. Instead of the cell line model where it's cultured in, uh, you know. In a plate in a 2D way, and then there's a 3D model. And that this the mouse model is basically 3D model. And then you, you, you can basically try to find out what is happening, happening to the phenotypic level, what's happening to the mouse. You know at the phenotype as well as the. You could use the sequencing approach to spatial omics approach to identify what's happening at the. The cellular level, basically the genome, gene or transcript level or protein level. To find out which are the transcripts are. Our proteins are affected because of the. W genuine novel genetic variant. And then how does that create a phenotypic level changes in the mouse? Like for example if it is creating any? Impair maintaining any of the phenotype. Also we can we can check out. Yeah. I think I think I would say the genetic engineering based mouse model would be. Easiest to molecule like best method. I would say best method to validate the novel genetic variant.

Switching gears now—when you're working in the lab and need to design an experiment to precisely characterize a novel genetic variant, what's your go-to molecular biology approach for validating its function?

Alright, we're wrapping up. Is there anything you'd like to ask about the role or the team?

I think I am. I'm the alumni of VIT University. I know their. You know the curriculum and and I know they're how does that the teaching and then other philosophies work as well as they. How does that the research people carry out there? I'm, I'm pretty good about that job, yeah.