Alumna Dr. Neelam Mukherjee recently published a short story in Pandemic Magazine entitled “Dear Mr. Corona.” The story is about experiencing the pandemic through a child’s perspective.

“This is my first non-science publication,” Dr. Mukherjee said. “I always loved literature and writing and almost studied English in college.”

Even though she keeps busy in the lab a lot, her parents and wife, Camela, inspire her to continue her childhood passion of creative writing.

Dr. Mukherjee graduated in 2015 from the Cellular and Structural Biology program (focus on Cancer Biology). She was in the lab of Dr. Rita Ghosh. The overall goal of her work was to delineate the biological role of a novel protein methyl transferase, SETD6 in modulation of survival and NF-kB signaling pathway in bladder cancer. She also identified the natural product Palmatine isolated from the Chinese cork tree Phellodendron amurense as a SETD6 inhibitor and a potential therapeutic agent in bladder cancer.

After graduation, she joined the lab of Dr. Robert Svatek as a postdoctoral fellow. She is still working in the field of bladder cancer research. Her research is focused on characterization of rare immune populations and the recruitment and activation mechanisms of these immune cells that contribute to effective anti-tumor responses.

Interested in connecting with Neelam? Find her on gsbsalumni.com.