Name: Nischala Nadig
Job Title and Current Employer: PhD candidate with the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program in Dr. Jason Peters’ lab at UW-Madison
Home Town: Bangalore, India
Current Location: Madison, WI, USA
Short Description of your time in the Bacteriology MS Program: I was a research-track student in Dr. Nancy Keller’s lab and studied genes and gene clusters in pathogenic fungi that were involved in the synthesis of antimicrobial agents. For my thesis, I worked on identifying the homolog of a copper-regulated gene from Aspergillus fumigatus in the plant pathogen, Alternaria brassicicola, which was also a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent.
MS Degree Received in: 2023
Describe your career path from graduate school to your current position: My time as a mater’s student opened a lot of intellectual opportunities for me in the field of Microbiology. The teaching and mentorship I received helped grow and foster my love for drug discovery and pathogenesis. I decided to apply for PhD programs in the same field to fuel my curiosity. This lead me to the research group of Dr. Jason Peters at UW-Madison to work on designing CRISPR tools to study antibiotic resistance.
Describe a “day in the life” of your current job.
My lab designs and uses CRISPR tools in medically and industrially relevant bacteria to study the functions of essential as well as non-essential genes in them. My aim is specifically related to finding unknown antibiotic-resistance genes. These genes are “cryptic” or “silent” in nature and normally have no or low expression and hence need to be overexpressed to study the antibiotic resistance phenotype. To do this, I do a lot of bacterial cloning, get them sequenced and test for their antibiotic susceptibility or resistance phenotypes.
What challenges did you face in your graduate degree, or in launching your career?
My challenges were more directed towards problems arising from being an international student. First, it was applying for and receiving all my documentation on time to get started in the program. Then there was the obvious culture shock and the different teaching/advising/assessment styles that I had to get accustomed to. There was a constant feeling of not being good enough to do what I was doing. But a supportive husband and an encouraging PI as well as lab environment helped me navigate through all the hurdles and made me a more confident person.
What is one of your proudest professional or personal accomplishments?
Over the last few years, I have learned to never stop craving to be a better version of what I am at that point. So, I believe that my proudest achievement is yet to arrive! But for now, it has to be my MS defense. Going from being a shy and unambitious person to receiving complements from so many people for my work well done, it finally felt like I belonged here!