Bihar Chawla
Policy and Advocacy Subcommittee
University of Michigan
What is your research interest? What organisms do you work with, and what do you want to do in the future?
My research is in chromatin organization and gene regulation. I used C. elegansa microscopic nematode, to understand how gene regulation is accomplished on an entire chromosome. C. elegans There are two sexes, but instead of females, they are hermaphrodites. Like mammals, hermaphrodite insects have two X chromosomes while males have only one. This mismatch in chromosomes is fixed by a process known as dietary compensation, and all sexually diverse species with this type of chromosomal imbalance perform this function to maintain viability. In insects, this is accomplished by a unique protein complex, a condensin that has diverged evolutionarily from the mitotic version, which is highly conserved and essential for life. Currently, I am focusing on establishing. C. elegans The dose compensation system as a model for studying condensin function in gene regulation. Going forward, I am interested in how food compensation is linked to development and aging. During early development, it has been shown that blocking or delaying food compensation also affects the timing of differentiation. At the same time, there is evidence that food compensation weakens with age. It will be interesting to tease apart these observations to understand what mechanisms link them.
As a PhD-trained scientist, you have many career options. What interests you the most?
One of my main motivations in applying to graduate school was my love of research and teaching. I taught several classes as a graduate student. Engaging with students always reminds me of the amazing curiosity that drove me to research, the desire to understand. At the same time, I began to learn that there are many sociopolitical contexts that surround research and how these are reflected in the policies surrounding science. We don’t do research in space. Research funding comes from external interested parties who have a stake in our work, because our research has the potential to solve or improve societal problems that everyone faces. Additionally, research funding is complex, and running a research lab means understanding how to get funding, how to keep funding agencies happy by following regulations and policies correctly, and how to continually be competitive and innovative. Understanding the organizational background of a research institution, which ensures that research conducted on campus is in compliance, led me to a Research Operations, Management, and Strategy Fellowship. This alternative postdoctoral fellowship trains PhD scientists in operations that take place behind the bench at large institutions. Here I am learning about all the things that make research possible and successful from an organizational perspective, which is important because while one branch of science policy is writing policy, other branches of policy interpretation and policy implementation are equally important. Mastering these areas will help me be more effective in communicating policy implications and advocating for new policy changes.
Besides your research, how do you want to advance the scientific enterprise?
I’ve been working in research labs for about 15 years, and I’ve always been grateful to do meaningful work, no matter how small. However, I often told people outside of science that “your work doesn’t really help us or solve any real problems” among other judgmental statements about my work. I got into science communication because I realized that the scientific establishment has allowed others to tell our story about what we bring value to society, and their version of our story is not correct. I think it’s important for scientists to control the narrative, so I started working with organizations that engage with students because I wanted to make sure that future generations of scientists know that science has value and that everyone has the potential to be a scientist. Because I also understand that not everyone wants to be a spokesperson or feel confident engaging publicly, I feel more engaged in contributing through science communication and advocacy to ensure that science is understood as a force for good for all people.
As a leader of the Genetics Society of America, what do you hope to achieve?
One of my main goals is to bring the trainees and faculty together as advocacy partners. One thing I learned from the trainee-led strikes around remuneration is that many trainees did not know how research funding worked. Unfortunately, I find that research funding negotiations are often full of smoke and mirrors, and this creates unnecessary stress on both sides, pitting them against each other. Trainees have the potential to educate about the funding landscape, federal funding priorities, and how taxpayer dollars go into the research enterprise, which will empower them once they become faculty themselves. Bringing together researchers at all levels will create powerful advocacy coalitions that can advocate for better outcomes for all scientists, and I would like to foster this by educating trainees and empowering them to be equal participants in these conversations.
Previous leadership experience
I have held several leadership roles in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan. For three years, I led the DEI committee, where I organized monthly workshops, created a mentorship series called MEALS, and advocated for the establishment of a paid undergraduate summer research program. For four years, I also served as co-chair of the Volunteer and Outreach Committee for the Graduate Student Council, where I helped coordinate outreach activities and fundraisers for science education in low-income schools. Finally, for a year, I was the program manager for the mentorship program, GradGab, where I matched mentee-mentor pairs, oversaw stipends for appointments, and acted as an ombudsman in case of conflict.
