Women in Science: Aparna Mukherjee on why we need unique approach to diagnose paediatric tuberculosis

Editor’s note: Starting National Science Day 2018, The Life of Science and Firstpost bring you a series profiling Indian women in Science. The challenges in Indian scientific life are many — more so for women taking up this path. This series honours those who beat the odds and serve as inspirations for the next generation of Indian science — a generation that is slowly and surely on its way to becoming gender equal. *** By Adita Joshi Aparna Mukherjee | 40 | Clinical Researcher | All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi Aparna Mukherjee is a clinical researcher working at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. She has been studying and working on tuberculosis as a doctor and researcher for over ten years. She specialises in the field of paediatric tuberculosis and is working on developing blood-based tests to monitor the outcome of treatment in young patients. In this podcast by The Life of Science, she talks to Adita Joshi about her current research and her transition from being a clinician to a researcher. She explains the differences between adult and paediatric TB, and why a unique approach is needed to diagnose as well as treat young TB patients. After completing her MBBS from Medical College, Kolkata, Aparna went on to pursue paediatric medicine for her postgraduate specialisation. It was during this time that she got a taste of research and enjoyed it. This encouraged her to look for research opportunities in Delhi instead of following the conventional path of residentship after her MD. She joined as a research officer in the department of paediatrics and soon signed up for a PhD in the same department. Aparna finds her clinician-scientist career path highly satisfying and hopes her work will inspire a few medical students to come and join the research bandwagon. Read the full interview with Aparna here . Produced in collaboration Josh Thomas *** Read more from the Women in Science series here . THELIFEOFSCIENCE.COM is a feminist science media project on a mission to make Indian women scientists more visible and investigate the gender gap in Indian academia