T.N. scientist breaks barriers with her research in space therapeutics

Swathi Sudhakar, a young scientist from India, excels in space therapeutics research, honored by Korean University.

From being the first person to go to college in her family to receiving an honorary title as a visiting fellow at a South Korean university, Swathi Sudhakar has come a long way.

The young scientist was nominated by the Department of Science and Technology to represent India at the BRICS meeting to speak about her research in space therapeutics in November last year.

Ms. Swathi began her schooling at Bodinayakanur in Theni district, and when her father, a salesman, was transferred periodically, the family moved to Tirunelveli and Dindigul, where she continued her education. The change of schools did not disturb her equilibrium. When she graduated in biotechnology from the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, in 2015, she became the first graduate in her family.

She pursued an M.Tech in Biotechnology at Anna University and was a gold medalist. She did an internship with a chemical engineering professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, that paved the way for a future career at the institute.

She completed her PhD in Biology and Biophysics from the University of Tübingen in Germany in three years. After a year of post-doctoral research, she joined IIT-Madras as an assistant professor in 2022.

She is currently involved in the research to understand and develop new ways of detecting and treating diseases by developing innovative diagnostics and therapeutic tools.

She set up her own laboratory in the Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering, and filed over 15 patents with her co-researchers. One of them has been granted, and two are in the hearing stage.