Interview with Dr. Kanchan Jaswal

In this special installment of Lab Coats and Life Lessons, we meet Dr. Kanchan Jaswal, UIC’s Postdoctoral Scholar of the Year. Kanchan received her PhD from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Mohali, India where she was studying the metabolism of E. coli. While some strains of E. coli cause infection, others are harmless and even beneficial to their host. Kanchan was working to understand how E. coli responds to stressful situations. Check out her review on how long chain fatty acids may be beneficial for bacteria as well as her manuscript demonstrating how E. coli maintains homeostasis during the break down of long chain fatty acids.

Kanchan’s curiosity with bacteria led her to take a postdoctoral position in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology with Dr. Judith Behnsen. Her main focus now is Salmonella and its interaction with the fungi, Candida albicans, that is part of the gut microbiome. 

“When most people think of the microbiota, they think of bacteria. Even I didn’t think that fungi was a part of the microbiota, but there are many components present.”

Usually Salmonella causes gastrointestinal infection in healthy people, but the infection could spread to other organs and turn fatal in immunocompromised individuals. Kanchan most recently discovered that Candida albicans worsened Salmonella infection and caused it to spread to other organs. 

“We saw that it increased salmonella virulence A LOT! Since it [Candida albicans] is present in over 60% of humans, these results are very important.”

Intriguingly, Kanchan found that Candida albicans requires the amino acid, Arginine, to cause this widespread infection of Salmonella.

“Salmonella affects people differently and some people are more susceptible. If someone is vulnerable to Salmonella and using arginine supplements, this will increase their chances of it infecting multiple organs.”

Kanchan is aiming to publish these results in the upcoming months. If you can’t wait that long for all the exciting details, you can read the preprint. Kanchan uses a variety of techniques to answer her questions. While her cell culture work helps her determine if salmonella is harming the protective epithelial cell layer, the lab’s mouse models offer insight to salmonella’s infectious potential. Not only has her most recent project produced exciting results, but it has also given Kanchan the opportunity to collaborate with her lab mates.

“We are a very good team. These experiments are a lot of work and we try our best to help each other.”

The supportive nature of the lab is evident as Kanchan describes the moment she learned she had won the Postdoctoral Scholar of the Year award.

“I actually found out when people started congratulating me. I hadn’t seen the email yet because I was working and people from my lab kept saying ‘congratulations’ when they saw me. I was very happy! A lot of credit goes to Judith [Principal Investigator] who nominated me.”

Nominees for this award undergo a rigorous judging process and are scored in the following categories:

  1. Advancement to the field

  2. Recognition as shown by presentations at conferences, funded grants, publications, and outreach

  3. Impact on society and the field

 

If you aspire to be a future recipient of the Postdoctoral Scholar of the Year award, nominations are accepted here. Kanchan shares some tips for becoming an ideal candidate:

  1. Be consistent in your work and efficient with your time while you are in the lab. This will ensure you are getting the most work done during the regular working hours and minimize the time you have to come in during weekends and holidays.

  2. Identify the times of the day when you excel at certain tasks. If you know you can only focus on a task for a few hours, have a list of other tasks to do when you run out of steam for that one.

  3. You’re going to get distracted at some point. When this happens, switch to an easier task, but do not let that be a barrier to your progress.