1967 | India
Field: Natural Sciences
BSc in Life Sciences and Biochemistry, MSc and PhD in Biology
My work:
Professor and Dean at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research • President of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience • President-elect of the International Brain Research Organization
Brief description of duties:
Research into the brain, with a particular focus on the genetic mechanisms that govern the development of the structures responsible for sensory perception, language and memory; writing research papers; supervising students and postdoctoral researchers; and engaging in science outreach activities.
Shubha Tole
At the end of the day, you’ll look back on your life and the only things you’ll regret are the times you didn’t stand up for yourself or for those around you when they were treated unfairly.”
Statement on maternity leave
It is true that our biology distinguishes between men and women, but why should this put one group at a disadvantage? The fact that women can take maternity leave during their working lives is not a disadvantage for women. Rather, it is a failure on the part of managers and the organisation that they do not know how to actively support and guide women during this time. It is actually quite simple. Allow individuals the flexibility to work out how they wish to balance their personal and professional commitments; offer support to enable this flexibility, such as an assistant to support a female postdoc who is expecting a child; ensure that institutional facilities such as private rooms for nursing and childcare facilities are available. I had several female postdocs who had a baby during their tenure, and it made a huge difference that I hired an assistant as soon as they told me they were expecting. I told them they would receive this support for at least two years; they could come and go as they needed, and the assistant could fill in the gaps.
This practice worked so well that I proposed it to a national committee, and it was adopted by at least one funding body – to allow a postdoc to hire an assistant using the grant they receive.
Did you have a clear idea of what your future would look like when you were a child?
The brain has always fascinated me, for as long as I can remember. At first, I thought the only way to pursue my interest in biology was to study medicine. But an exhibition organised by the Department of Life Sciences at St Xavier’s College opened my eyes to the fact that research is a better way to satisfy one’s curiosity. I completed my BSc in Life Sciences and Biochemistry and applied for postgraduate programmes in neuroscience in the US, as there were no such programmes in India at the time.
Pursuing higher education and aiming to become a scientist seemed like a natural career path to me, and it never occurred to me that I might not be able to realise my dream. I was surprised to discover that not all my female classmates felt the same way. Without realising it, many young girls keep narrowing their dreams further and further to fit them into a future they are ‘allowed’ to have once they are married, what would be acceptable to their in-laws or husband seems to factor into their equation long before they even know who their in-laws or husband will be. That is unnecessarily limiting.
How did I manage, as if by magic, to break free from this social conditioning? I owe it all to my wonderful parents! To my mother, who raised me to be free and equal to my brother. And to my father, who believed that I could do anything I set my mind to, and who shows me tireless support and appreciation for every little thing I do. I realise that I grew up with the same freedoms and privileges that are taken for granted by boys, and which my parents somehow instilled in me.
Which person(s) or experience(s) had the greatest influence on your decision about which career to pursue, and why?
Many young women are still put off by the idea that some professions are difficult for women. That has always puzzled me, because my mother, in her career as an occupational therapist, took on one challenge after another. She showed me by her example that one should not allow oneself to be limited by one’s job title. She designed prostheses for amputees and mastectomy patients, aids and devices for women who had lost an arm to cancer, enabling them to cook with one hand or plait their hair. There was no problem she couldn’t solve, no patient for whom she couldn’t tailor a prosthesis. From her I learnt that the possibilities are endless if you don’t limit yourself or your imagination. Her story can be read in the biography ENABLE, which I co-authored, and she was the most inspiring person in my life.
My father always said, “Shubha will achieve anything she sets her mind to.” I always thought that was just something loving fathers say; it was only later that I realised how deeply I had internalised it and that not all girls were so lucky. It is such a precious gift, and it came so easily to me because that is simply how my father felt.
Please tell us how your interest in your profession, academic field or trade was sparked.
When I was in Year 12 at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai, an amazing teacher, Sam Waugh, taught us the most complex topic in developmental biology using a simple analogy. He said to imagine Michelangelo sculpting David from a block of marble. It was then that I realised that development essentially means creating form and structure from basic raw materials. The development of the brain was a natural source of fascination – it is the organ that allows us to feel, think, understand and appreciate our place in the universe.
Work in the field of neuroscience is exciting and fascinating every single day! We are investigating this amazing computer inside our heads. Our brains and their circuits are the reason we can do everything we do. Compared to ordinary computers, our brain still faces a major challenge. Every single component has to be produced in the embryo, and then the wires have to grow to connect the right part to the right part – otherwise the brain won’t work.
I am researching how this amazing organ develops in the embryo. Imagine you are drawing up plans for a complex building. Where should the flats, the facilities and the stairwells be placed? Now imagine that this has to be done without any external instructions, using only the instructions in the DNA as a ‘blueprint’. We have discovered a ‘signal beacon’ in the embryo’s brain that sends signals to the surrounding stem cells. The strength of these signals decreases depending on how far the cells are from the beacon. In this way, each stem cell knows what type of neuron it is supposed to produce. If this process proceeds normally, we end up with a wonderfully functioning ‘hippocampus’ – the seat of learning and memory. Without it, we would never be able to store new memories. Our discovery of how the hippocampus develops in the brain is part of the ‘blueprint’ for where each structure must form.
What do you like most about your current job?
The wonderful, creative students and postdocs I work with! They ensure that every day is filled with new things – exciting discoveries, challenges to overcome, new ideas to discuss, frustrating or confusing results – and completely mad humour. These things fill our days and our lab WhatsApp chat! My lab turned 25 this year – we had a lovely celebration a few months ago. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of training a whole host of students and postdocs, including many talented women who have gone on to exciting careers in research.
My first PhD student, Bhaskar Saha (M), who now teaches on the faculty at St Xavier’s in Mumbai, discovered how the nerves that carry our sense of smell grow exactly where they’re meant to. Ashwin Shetty (M) and Suranjana Pal (F) discovered a mechanism that acts as a ‘gatekeeper’ when nerves responsible for sight, hearing and touch enter our cerebral cortex. Mahima Bose (F) identified a mechanism that controls a neuron’s ‘arbour’, i.e. the network of branches that receive connections from other neurons. Lakshmi Subramanian (F), Anindita Sarkar (F) and Mahima Bose (F) discovered entirely new mechanisms by which a stem cell decides whether to produce a neuron or a supporting cell. Hari Padmabhan (M) and Veena Kinare (F) identified an evolutionarily conserved ‘molecular machine’ that controls the same process in the hippocampus.
Dhananjay Huilgol (M) and Ryan Remedios (M) discovered new pathways of cell migration in the brain. Achira Roy (F), now a lecturer at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, discovered a link between the development of our eyes and our brain – the same gene controls both. Bhavana Muralidharan (F), now a lecturer at InStem Bangalore, and Varun Suresh (M) discovered that a master control gene opens the DNA of its ‘target’ genes, allowing the correct types of neurons to form in different parts of the brain. Arpan Parichha (M), a lecturer at ICGEB Delhi, together with Varun Suresh, found an important link between a cancer-causing signalling pathway and one that produces cerebrospinal fluid, the ‘serum’ that nourishes our brain. And the ‘lighthouse’ discovery comes from Vishakha Mangale (F), Nandini Gokulchandran (F), Satyaki Prasad (M) and Lakshmi Subramanian (F).
Many others have contributed to these discoveries – I would like to thank each and every one of them. It has been quite an exciting journey!
These qualities have helped me along the way:
An innate curiosity, independence, energy, passion, focus, discipline, the ability to make decisions and take risks, a willingness to fail and learn from it, and a sense of humour.
If you could give young women some advice, what would it be?
Think very carefully about what you want from life. It will be your life. You can listen to as many people as you like, but ultimately the decision is yours. Choose your life partner very carefully, one who respects you as an equal and does not implicitly place you in a situation where your role is to support their career and look after the family’s well-being. These mental attitudes are deeply ingrained in all of us because we are all ‘programmed’ by the socio-cultural circumstances in which we grew up. And these affect everything.
Find out more about Shubha and contact details
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