By Dr Nandkumar M Kamat
I am introducing a role model specifically for those Goan girls dreaming of successful careers in big, socially useful sciences but having some confusion about the future. Her name is Dr Janneth Rodrigues.
Girls who wish to make a name in biosciences would be inspired by her research. I have seen the tragedy of many a brilliant female gold medallist having the flair for research, sacrificing her career for some routine high school teaching job or under societal and peer pressure just forgetting science and research in order to have a family and pay exclusive attention to their husbands and children. Their inner mind knows that they would have flourished in the right research environment.
Goa and Goans would take some time to understand the full impact and the profound scientific, medical, immunological and epidemiological implications of the sensational discovery made by Dr Janneth and her collaborators. She was a product of the higher education system in Goa - a top ranker and gold medallist at the graduate and post graduate level. That also proves the soundness of basic science education in Goa and the limits of environment conducive for cutting edge research. In this part of the world people are tormented by malaria and dengue fever - the source of the problem - and in the other part of the world is a woman scientist from Goa, Dr Janneth Rodrigues, 38, doing research to find a permanent solution by deciphering the mystery of mosquito borne diseases at the molecular level.
Molecular vector biologist Janneth hails from Candolim, Bardez, the village that gave us the father of Hypnotism, Abe De Faria and ophthalmologist Dr Gama Pinto. As a Post-Doctoral fellow, Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Unit, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD, she has done us Goans proud by contributing to a very important discovery. She may be among very few Goan women scientists of her age to get two prestigious research papers in high impact international journal ‘Science’ this year within a few months.
Basically she has found something important about the way mosquitoes fight off infection by the protozoa Plasmodium - which troubles humans. She has identified some important aspects of a very crude level of insect immunity. Obviously these leads would be stepping stones for mosquito control and disease prevention besides offering insights into development of anti-malaria vaccines.
The research of her team involved feeding mouse blood carrying Plasmodium to two groups of mosquitoes. The group which became infected was found to have a large number of granulocytes which helped it to fight off further Plasmodium infection as compared to the other group which did not experience the infection. Her team also found possible involvement of mosquito gut bacteria. The research came to the conclusion that there could be possibly a factor in exposed mosquito blood which kick-starts production of granulocytes.
It means that if this factor is identified then it can be used to prevent the mosquitoes from acquiring the dreaded Plasmodium protozoa. Just spray the mosquito habitat with purified factor - and the mosquitoes stop getting the protozoa in blood. And if we have fewer mosquitos or no mosquitoes with Plasmodium then it means fewer cases of malaria.
No doubt a journal like ‘Science’, where Nobel laureates and potential Nobel laureates publish their research accepted and published Dr Janneth’s papers. We knew her as a simple, cheerful, intelligent and easy going and jovial post graduate and research student at the Goa University, Microbiology and Marine biotechnology departments. But her talent for research really flourished outside Goa - for about three years, initially under Dr Raj Bhatnagar, Group Leader, Insect Resistance Group at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi where she worked as a post doc.
She sharpened her skills in vector biology. She developed expertise in using molecular biology tools to explore different biological systems including bacteria, fungi, Plasmodium, mosquitoes and studying host-parasite interactions When she got an opportunity to work at her present job in the USA, since 2006, she could use much advanced tools and techniques such as - Invitro transcription for double stranded (ds) RNA synthesis, Nano-injections of dsRNA in mosquitoes for gene silencing, Mosquito infections with P. berghei (mouse malaria) and P. falciparum (human malaria) and Mosquito hemolymph collection.
She standardised a novel protocol for accurately enumerating hemocytes (mosquito blood cells), established a novel protocol for hemolymph transfusion in mosquitoes besides mastering and efficiently using Immunostainings, fluorescent and confocal microscopy, RNA isolation and Real-time PCR. She describes herself as team player with an ability to effectively work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and she claims to adapt easily to changing assignments and work settings and effectively manage variety of projects simultaneously.
In the USA she joined the team led by Dr Carolina Barillas-Mury with the research mission to explore the interactions between the immune system of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae (the major vector responsible for transmission of human malaria in Africa) and Plasmodium parasites to establish how they affect malaria transmission. Her main projects were to study how Hemocyte differentiation mediates innate immune memory in An. gambiae mosquitoes and how Anopheles gambiae epithelial serine protease modulates Plasmodium development.
She is also a collaborator for studying transcriptional responses of mosquito hemocytes to Plasmodium infection, find out how A peroxidase/dual oxidase system modulates midgut epithelial immunity in An. Gambiae and discover how the STAT pathway mediates late phase immunity against Plasmodium in the mosquito An. gambiae.
One interesting project aims to study evasion of the mosquito immune system and compatibility between Plasmodium parasites and their vectors. With such advanced goals, Dr Janneth Rodrigues has her hands full for many more years to come. Interested readers, specially science students and teachers may see her papers - Rodrigues J, Brayner F, Alves L, Dixit R and Barillas-Mury C (2010). Hemocyte differentiation mediates innate immune memory in An. gambiae mosquitoes in Science 329(5997):1353-5 and Kumar S, Molina-Cruz A, Gupta L, Rodrigues J and Barillas-Mury C (2010) peroxidase/dual oxidase system modulates midgut epithelial immunity in An. Gambiae in Science 327(5973):1644-8.
There is also a message for us from her success - despite being a wealthy state, boasting of Asia’s oldest Medical and Pharmacy colleges, Goa has failed miserably to invest and create world class scientific research infrastructure and conducive mentoring climate to permit talented scientists like Dr Janneth to stay back and flourish. So an exodus of scientists like her may continue. Ultimately India’s loss may be sciences and mankind’s gain. That’s my consolation as someone who has been a friend of the Rodrigues family.
