Madhura is a Ph.D. student in the program of Neuroscience at McGill University. In Marc Roig’s lab, she studies the neurophysiological, structural, and functional underpinnings of age-dependent changes in human motor memory. Her other project aims at studying the effect of exercise on the structure and function of the sleep-deprived human brain.
Before working in human research in the frigid city of Montreal, Madhura held a pipette and pet to her lab mice for her MS thesis in the hot, arid nook of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her project then was on the development of immunotherapy in small cell lung cancer. Later she worked at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical school in Boston for 2 years. Here she studied the contact points between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum which are responsible for secreting amyloid beta – that clump into plaques- from the neurons in Alzheimer’s disease.
Now in the human research lab, Madhura misses wearing a lab coat and dexterous hand movements unique to a molecular biologist. But her highly mechanistic training gives her a unique opportunity to ask mechanistic questions on memory functions and dysfunctions in the clinically relevant human population.
In Boston, Madhura worked as a production director and a writer for the Science Rehashed podcast for 1.5 years and co-hosted 2 episodes where they demystify research, talk about women in STEM, and talk stories of becoming a scientist.
Madhura believes that science deserves to be in a casual conversation at a breakfast between families and should pervade in cafes and bars in the form of an open dialogue between scientists. She wishes to decrease the digital barriers between science and society that stunts the scientific temperament of the public, dehumanize science, and mystify it even more so in countries like India. Recently, she wrote a few articles for The McGill Tribune, a university newspaper. She is open to collaborating on ideas for such an initiative.
Outside of the lab, she loves to take photos in the woods and cities, ramble through cafes and read books. Please suggest her a good book!
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