Harshini Mukundan, PhD, juggles a dizzying number of responsibilities while somehow making it all look effortless.
As an administrator in the Chemistry Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, she serves as Deputy Group Leader for Physical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy and Team Leader in Chemistry for Biomedical Applications. The 2003 graduate from UNM's Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program is also a teacher, as well as a devoted parent and spouse, who, in her spare time, participates in traditional Indian dance.
But in her role as a research scientist, Mukundan is laser-focused on finding solutions to some of the most urgent health concerns facing humanity. At LANL she has developed diagnostic assays for tuberculosis and helped create technology to detect breast cancer and influenza. Her current highly ambitious research agenda centers on finding a universal method for identifying infectious disease.
Munkundans lab has unraveled some of the common methods by which disease-causing organisms interact with a human host in hopes of creating a mechanism to mimic what the body already does naturally.
All pathogens support or secrete biomarkers that are recognized by our innate immune system, she says, adding that many of these molecules are highly conserved. The body recognizes conserved signatures. It looks at the commonality and uses that to mount a response.
These molecules are not easily detected in the bloodstream, but they are carried throughout the body by hitchhiking on HDL and LDL cholesterol proteins (My buzzword for them is the biological taxi service, she says).
Mukundan and her collaborators are working on sensor technology that can liberate these biomarkers from their cholesterol hosts and measure them, providing a rapid readout of what type of infection theyre signaling.
While the labs work has national defense applications, it also has obvious relevance in clinical health care and is already being assessed for its use in diagnosing disease in the field. It has been tested in South Korea, Uganda and Kenya, Mukundan says, and could provide a quick way to distinguish a bacterial from a viral infection.
Mukundans path to a leadership role at the nations premier national laboratory started in a small town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where her father was in banking and her mother was a teacher.
She earned her undergraduate degree in microbiology from the University of Delhi in 1995. It seemed cool, she says. I liked biology and I always wanted to do medicine or biology. She went on to complete a masters in microbiology at Barkatullah University in Bhopal, with her thesis research conducted at Indias National Institute of Immunology.
Her lab work there centered on drug-resistant cancer cell lines. There were pretty awesome researchers working at NII, Mukundan says. I got to meet a lot of really cool people. Essentially, it was just the exposure, and then I decided I wanted to do a PhD.
She and her husband, LANL staff scientist Rangachary Mukundan, came to the U.S. for their doctoral work. He earned his PhD in materials science at the University of Pennsylvania and joined LANL as a postdoctoral fellow in 1997.
Harshini initially was accepted at Penn for her PhD, but transferred to The University of New Mexico when her husband got his job at Los Alamos. As a late arrival in UNMs Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, she started by rotating through several labs, where she met Nancy Kanagy, PhD, now chair of the Department of Cell Biology & Physiology.
I really liked Nancy, Mukundan says. I liked her work ethic and approach to balance. She has this way of making you feel very welcome.
At the time, Kanagy was working on alpha adrenergic receptors and their role in cardiovascular disease, which Mukundan found interesting. Mukundan started by exploring a hypothesis involving the movement of calcium ions in cells that soon turned out to be incorrect.
I definitely proved that the hypothesis was wrong, she says. We got a paper out of it, but that research was at a dead end. We had to make a project change.
With Kanagy and fellow Cell Biology professor Thomas Resta, Mukundan devised a new project. It was looking at gender differences in hypertension and the role of estrogen in erythropoietin regulation, she says.
In putting together the research proposal that would lead to her dissertation on how estrogen regulates of erythropoietin gene expression during hypoxia. Nan and Tom were heavily involved and helped a lot, obviously, and we got it, she says, adding that the setback taught her a valuable lesson.
It looks like a big bummer when your original project doesnt work, but in retrospect, I learned how to write, she says. It made me altogether much more confident. Sometimes you have what appears to be a big tragedy but it actually works out for the better.
Mukundan says she experienced some reactions when she first came to the U.S. that were a little bit racist, she sometimes felt she was treated differently because she was a woman. But at UNM she felt supported.
In Nan and Toms team I found acceptance, Mukundan says. Kanagy, who was starting a family, became a friend and mentor. I think it kind of subconsciously does teach you that women can be great scientists, good mothers and perpetually tired.
Mukundan and her husband lived in Santa Fe while she was doing her lab research, requiring a daily commute to the UNM campus in Albuquerque. She stayed at my house, Kanagy recalls. Sometimes it was really late to drive back to Santa Fe.
Mukundan showed an aptitude for research, Kanagy says. Harshini was unafraid of challenges, she recalls. Early on, she was not daunted by having a hard problem to solve and taking this on. She used very creative approaches.
Mukundan was unflappable in the face of the failure of her first research project, Kanagy says. Courageous might be the right word or at least unintimidated by difficulty, she says. When we she had to switch gears she was very resilient. She developed a whole bunch of new methods to answer this question.
Kanagy also appreciates her friends ability to keep the many commitments in her life in balance.
Shes very human and cared very deeply about her family and cared about my family, she says. Even then, she was doing traditional Indian dance while commuting an hour each way. When I think of Harshini, she has a great smile and she just invites people in shes just a pleasure to have around.
When Mukundan defended her dissertation in 2002, soon after having her first child, Kanagy urged her to pursue postdoctoral research at another university, but Mukundan instead took a job at QTL Biosystems, Santa Fe a biotech startup, where she worked for two years on biosensor technology.
In 2006 Mukundan won a postdoctoral position at LANL in the lab of Dr. Basil Swanson, where she wrote a National Institutes of Health grant for research on developing a diagnostic tool for tuberculosis. We got that proposal and I still work on TB today, she says. Thats how we got started.
After graduating to become a full member of the LANL faculty, Mukundan has become a mentor in her own right. Earlier this year, she was recognized as one of 125 IF/THEN Ambassadors by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her support of young women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at LANL.
IF/THEN is a national initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies that seeks to further women in STEM fields by recognizing innovators and inspiring the next generation of researchers.
Although scientific careers can be incredibly demanding, Mukundan says she learned from her UNM colleagues you can have a good career and have a family and have work-life balance. That makes people want to go into science.
More here:
Life in the Balance - HSC Newsbeat
- Stem Cell Treatment Mexico - The Holistic Sanctuary - October 21st, 2022
- Stem Cell Clinic in Mexico That Successfully Treated Gordie Howe ... - August 14th, 2022
- The Worldwide Biobanking Industry is Expected to Reach $3.6 Billion by 2027 - Yahoo Finance - August 14th, 2022
- Stem Cell Clinic in Mexico That Successfully Treated Gordie Howe Launches Massive Program For American and Canadian Stroke Patients - PR Newswire - July 19th, 2022
- A Comprehensive Study Exploring Viral Gene Therapy Market | Key Players ... - June 22nd, 2022
- Global Placental Stem Cell Collection and Storage Market is Key Driver for the Industry with forecast to 2029 | Cordlife, Cryo-Cell, Stemcyte, Viacord... - April 6th, 2022
- 50 Top Women in STEM - TheBestSchools.org - March 25th, 2022
- Stem-cell therapy - Wikipedia - December 24th, 2021
- Stem Cell Therapy Market Research Report by Cell Source, by Type, by Therapeutic Application, by End-User, by Region - Global Forecast to 2026 -... - October 16th, 2021
- A New Line of Defense in Blood Cancer: Natural Killer Cell Therapy - Curetoday.com - October 16th, 2021
- Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells (BMSCS) Market : Size & Trends Shows a Rapid Growth by 2028 UNLV The Rebel Yell - UNLV The Rebel Yell - August 31st, 2021
- Cell and Gene Therapy Market Advancemnets and rising Trends The Manomet Current - The Manomet Current - June 6th, 2021
- Husband and Wife Unite in Battling Myeloma - UAMS News - February 9th, 2021
- Stem Cells Market Detailed Analysis by On-going Trends, Prominent Size, Share, Sales and Forecast to 2025 - PRnews Leader - November 19th, 2020
- Cell Therapy Market Statistics 2020, Technology Analysis Overview, Industry Insights and COVID-19 Pandemic Presenting Future Opportunities 2026 -... - November 19th, 2020
- Virus cases are on the rise in state prisons - taosnews - November 19th, 2020
- Primary Cells Market Research Report by Origin, by Cell Type, by End-user - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 - GlobeNewswire - November 19th, 2020
- Global Cell and Gene Therapy Market 2020 Key Drivers and Challenges, Opportunities and Forecast Insights by 2025 - KYT24 - November 19th, 2020
- Mesenchymal Stem Cells Market Augmented Expansion to Be Registered by 2020-2025 - Eurowire - October 28th, 2020
- Cell Isolation/Cell Separation Market Research Report by Product, by Cell Type, by Cell Source, by Technique, by Application, by End User - Global... - October 28th, 2020
- Exosome Therapeutic Market 2020-2026 Demand Analysis and Projected Huge Growth by Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH,... - October 28th, 2020
- Global Exosome Therapeutic Market Analysis 2020 With COVID 19 Impact Analysis| Leading Players, Business Prospects, In-depth Analysis Research Report... - October 28th, 2020
- Exosome Therapeutic Market : Business Plan Strategy, New Solutions, Key Segments, Potential Targets And Recommendations || Major Gaints Jazz... - October 2nd, 2020
- Primary Cells, Stem Cells, Culture Media and Reagents Market: Comprehensive study explores Huge Growth in Future - The PRNews Portal - October 2nd, 2020
- FDA Approves Study to Investigate the Use of Cell Therapy to Treat COVID-19 Related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) - BioSpace - September 16th, 2020
- Research interns get creative around science and social change in the summer of COVID-19 - Princeton University - September 16th, 2020
- 20 Coronavirus symptoms | What is smell training and why it generates so much interest during the pandemic - Explica - September 16th, 2020
- Exosome Therapeutic Market 2020-2026 with Covid-19 Impact Analysis || Major Gaints Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim International... - August 29th, 2020
- Exosome Therapeutic Market (COVID 19 Impact Analysis) Data Highlighting Major Vendors, Promising Regions, Anticipated Growth Forecast To 2027 -... - August 29th, 2020
- R3 International Offering New Stem Cell Therapy Program for Kidney Disease in Mexico - Yahoo Finance - June 15th, 2020
- 2025 Projection: Autologous Stem Cell and Non Stem Based therapies Market 2020 by Product, Application, Manufacturer, Sales and Segmentation 2026 -... - June 15th, 2020
- 2025 Projection: Thalassemia Treatment Market Analysis by SWOT, Investment, Future Growth and Major Key Players 2020 to 2026 - Cole of Duty - June 15th, 2020
- Viral Clearance Market Projection By Global Analysis, Industry Growth, Current Trends And Forecast Till 2025 - Cole of Duty - June 4th, 2020
- Cryopreservation Equipment Market Business Growth Statistics and Key Players Insights[PDF] |Addressing the Potential Impact of CoronaVirus (COVID-19)... - June 4th, 2020
- Covid 19 Outbreak Cell Harvesting System Market 2020 Product Type, Applications/end user, Key Players and Geographical Regions 2026 - Jewish Life... - June 4th, 2020
- Stem Cell Therapy In New Mexico | Stem Cell Medical ... - April 21st, 2020
- Stem Cell Umbilical Cord Blood Market 2020 Share Insights and Dynamics | Cells for Life, Cryolife, Cryo-Cell Cole Reports - Cole of Duty - April 21st, 2020
- Transfection Market : Demand and Future Scope Analysis. Leading Players are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Promega Corporation, QIAGEN, Maxcyte, Inc.,... - April 18th, 2020
- Cell Sorting Market 2020 to Witness Exponential Growth. Top Growing Companies are Breathalyzers, Akers Biosciences Inc., Alcohol Countermeasure... - March 31st, 2020
- Visiongain Report Looks at Opportunities Within the $23bn Cell Therapy Technologies Market - Yahoo Finance - March 25th, 2020
- Stem Cell And Regenerative Therapy Market Research Insights Global Industry Outlook Shared in Detailed Report, Forecast size 2024 - Daily Science - March 25th, 2020
- At risk: Braving the coronavirus with a compromised immune system - Universe.byu.edu - March 25th, 2020
- The Answer to the Coronavirus Is More Abortion? - Townhall - March 25th, 2020
- Stem Cell And Regenerative Therapy Market size receive overwhelming hike in Revenues by 2024 - Daily Science - March 4th, 2020
- Techshots New Projects Will be on the Next SpaceX Mission Launch - 3DPrint.com - March 4th, 2020
- BioLineRx Announces Notice of Allowance from USPTO for Patent Covering Motixafortide (BL-8040) in Combination With Anti-PD-1 for the Treatment of Any... - March 4th, 2020
- Cell Analysis Market is Expected to See Growth Rate of 6.96% - Nyse Nasdaq Live - February 25th, 2020
- Who are the Stem Cell Cartilage Regeneration Market Global Key Players? What are the Challenges and Threats Faced by Players? - Sound On Sound Fest - February 25th, 2020
- How does the embryo make all its parts at just the right moments? - Knowable Magazine - January 31st, 2020
- Exosome Therapeutic Market 2020-Global Industry Size, Future Trends, Demand, Business Share, Manufacture Players, Application and Opportunities... - January 29th, 2020
- Discover STEM Day at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History - KRQE News 13 - January 23rd, 2020
- Global Cord Blood Stem Cell Market Size 2020 | Key Players, Growth Insights, Demand Analysis and 2029 Forecast Research - News Monitoring - January 23rd, 2020
- Stem Cell And Regenerative Therapy Market 2019 New Innovations, Research and Growth Factor till 2024 - Pro News Time - January 7th, 2020
- Chancy Arnold has spent most of his life on the border. He's now the Border Patrol's most veteran agent - The San Diego Union-Tribune - January 7th, 2020
- Underpads Market Report (2019-2025) | The demand for the Market will drastically increase in the Future - BulletintheNews - January 7th, 2020
- Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) Treatment Market Demand , Economy effect, Research Discoveries with Industrial Chain By 2027 - Market... - December 29th, 2019
- Global Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) Market 2019 Industry Key Players, Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2025... - December 29th, 2019
- Global Animal Stem Cell Therapy Market 2019 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2025 - Industry PressRelease - December 11th, 2019
- Stem Cell And Regenerative Therapy Market lucrative opportunities by 2024 - Crypto News Byte - December 9th, 2019
- The World Is Getting Better. Its Just That No One Tells You About It. - National Review - December 9th, 2019
- 3D Cell Cultures Market Detailed Analysis of Business Opportunities, Growth & Forecast to 2024 - Daily Market Insight - December 9th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy Industry: Business Opportunities, Current Trends, Challenges in 2026 - Downey Magazine - November 15th, 2019
- Know Future Opportunities of the Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Market latest Technology, New Innovation, Growing factors with Top Key Players-... - November 15th, 2019
- New report: Animal Stem Cell Therapy Market: Know Key Driving Factors, Industry Applications With Latest Trends & Forecast - TheFinanceTime - November 15th, 2019
- Stem Cell And Regenerative Therapy Market to Witness Stellar Growth Rate in the Next 10 Years - Downey Magazine - November 12th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy Market : Opportunities and Challenges - MENAFN.COM - November 4th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy Market Trends, Secondary Research With Geron Corporation, Vericel Corporation, Pluristem Therapeutics, Cytori Therapeutics, Fate... - October 30th, 2019
- Fusarium disease: Researchers race to save bananas from extinction - FoodNavigator.com - October 30th, 2019
- New Mexico Stem Cells | Stem Cell TV - September 12th, 2019
- Stem Cell Las Cruces New Mexico 88005 - September 12th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy New Mexico - cordbloodsearchtools.com - September 12th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy: A New Model For Health Rejuvenation ... - April 11th, 2019
- Stem Cell Albuquerque New Mexico 87197 - March 27th, 2019
- Stem Cell Crownpoint New Mexico 87313 - November 21st, 2018
- Frequently Asked Questions - New Mexico Stem Cell Clinic - October 29th, 2018
- Stem Cell Ruidoso New Mexico 88345 - September 26th, 2018
- Stem Cell Therapy and Stem Cell Injection Provider Finder ... - August 19th, 2018
- Stem Cell Albuquerque New Mexico 87181 - August 10th, 2018
- Del Prado Stem Cell Center - Tijuana - July 9th, 2018
- Stem Cell Therapy in Mexico - Official Treatment Center - July 4th, 2018