BioBuilder Career Conversation: Deeptha Gokul Transcript

There’s been a lot of studies about it, but with these AAVs, which are the adeno-associated viruses that we use for the gene therapy, we don’t know much about it. So it’s still something new that we’re trying to do and super interesting to look into. We’re trying to do and super interesting to look into. So my everyday work is to look into how these gene therapy AAV particles would affect the immune system in patients when we deliver them and how we can mitigate this immune response in patients. So I start off with the small, with the cells first, like cells from patients, normal cells, and we treat them with these AAVs to see if there’s any immune responses that they give out, and then we further look into how we can reduce this response in these cells. First and then our next step would be to move to animal models, starting with like mice, which are like small animal models, and then we move on to monkeys.

So, yeah, that’s what we do every day. So it’s fascinating to me, and a little bit surprising, to hear the idea that the mRNA viruses are so old hat, that we know so much about them and that the AAVs are all new and we have to discover things that are brand new about them. Can you say just a smidge about AAV and what makes it a good vector for gene therapies, and then maybe we’ll back up and talk a little bit about your training that got you to be able to do what you do?

Yeah, so, as you know, aavs are adeno-associated viruses, so these are inactivated viruses, so they’re not going to integrate into your genomes, so they’re not going to be persisting throughout your lifetime. They’ll just go in, deliver the gene that we want it to deliver and then they’re going to just disintegrate. That are already present in patients that attack these AAVs. So this is because they’ve already encountered some of these AAVs in their lifetime or, like through evolution from their parents. So that’s something we can’t predict. 40 to 50% of patients sort of have these antibodies, which is why they can’t re-deliver these AAVs. So it’s like a one and done situation for now. I think some of the AAVs that we currently have that are like FDA approved are to treat hemophilia, so it’s the hemophilia factor nine gene that can be delivered directly to the patients.

Amazing, and so is the hemophilia. The target for your AAVs. Is that, the work that you’re largely doing, or other targets?

No, we don’t have a disease target yet because we’re still developing the process about packaging these genes and then delivering them. So we don’t have a disease target yet.

I think that’s a really important and interesting point is that a big drug company like Biogen is still working on platform technologies that can be somewhat agnostic to what they are delivered towards, just as long as you can have a methodology for doing this kind of work. The students who are part of this program are learning a lot of fundamental methodologies, and I think it’s very important that you know this, be sort of called out, that as you learn the basics, it can be applied to a wide range, wide range of things. So I think that’s very cool. Did you always know you wanted to be a biotechnologist?

always know you wanted to be a biotechnologist Not really. I think I started off by wanting to be a doctor and then I kind of saw what was going on in the background. You know like we don’t see all these science and like research directly at the bedside, patient to bedside. So yeah, it’s the background work that I was super interested in.

I didn’t know all this was going on, yeah and so um, how, how, what, what was your educational pathway to get to do what you do?

yeah, I started off with a bachelor’s in biotechnology in India. So in India it starts off. Even biotechnology has a lot of engineering going on in the first year. So that was interesting. I was. I realized I did not want to do engineering, so I moved to the research part of it and I really liked it. The I think I started off with some of these PCR reactions. That was super fascinating to me at that time and, yeah, that was the thing that got me interested in research and science.

I love that. It’s a laboratory technique that led you to your pathway, because part of this program is to mix these online sessions where we do some, you know, foundational information, a little bit of hands-on with time in the laboratory. All these students are spending five hours in the labs on Saturdays learning a lot of these techniques and technologies, and that includes PCR, so we will get to that. So very cool. So you started in India and then how did you continue your career?

So I decided to pursue my thesis here in Boston at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. So that was a Harvard affiliated lab, so it was very intense, but I still looked into some genes that contribute to breast cancer and this was also a novel project because we looked into these transversable elements that have not been widely studied yet. So it was a lot of different techniques and things that we had to do in the lab to characterize this particular gene, and once I did that, I decided academia is not something that I wanted to do, so I moved to the industry.

That makes a ton of sense. It’s you know it is not a pathway for everybody. Industry is such an interesting and research rich area to do, to do your work. It sounds like many of your projects are linked with the idea that you’re moving pieces of DNA from one place to another, whether it’s through a virus, transposition or other things like that. So, again, a lot of the ideas and a lot of the ways of thinking, ways of doing, are transferable because you’ve learned and are thinking in a particular way and working in a particular way. So how are things at Biogen? How do you like working there? Do you work with a lot of people? Do you have days that are very predictable or very unexpected? Or tell us a little bit about working in industry.

Yeah, I think working in industry is definitely fast-paced, like you see, your results impacting a lot of things that you know make a lot of sense. I feel like in academia it takes a long time to even start the process of making friends first, so it was super nice to like get into the industry and, like you know, dive into like the work that’s going on, like as soon as possible. So, yeah, I think it’s been fun. Yeah, I work with a lot of people, so that’s fun too. It’s a lot of collaborative work. So, yeah, it’s, it’s very fun.

Yeah, I was surprised by that, by how much collaboration there is in science and how much you interact with others, rely on others. It really is a team sport. It is not something that you do as an individual, by yourself, without input and exchanges with others. So that was something I thought was surprising when I started actually doing science. Are there things that knowing what you know now you might change, or you might tell yourself or you wish you knew when you were just a little bit earlier in your career?

I think I would tell myself to do more math, because I did not realize that we had to do so much math, even in the lab. So, yeah, that’s still like it’s an everyday struggle for me. I still try to keep up with the math in the lab, but yeah, that’s something that I would tell myself.

And I will say to all the students we did not pay her to say that we are doing lab math today. All the students, we did not pay her to say that we are doing lab math today. We are making stock solutions, we are talking about diluting solutions and we did not set this up that you have to say that. But it is a hundred percent true. Math and science, I mean you need the math to be able to do reliable science. It’s how we communicate what we have, what we’re using, how to reproduce our work. It is so fundamental and you know, keeping up with it and keeping your skills brushed up is really, really important and that’s why we’re teaching it so much in this program. Thank you for that great answer, yeah.

I love that. You know everyone’s learning all this in high school. If I had the chance, I would have like definitely took that up and did my best in all of these things, but I didn’t.

So everyone have fun doing this bit shy sometimes. But if they would like to unmute and perhaps ask a question, we can do that. Alternatively, if the students would like to drop a question into the chat, I can read it forward. I don’t know if Hiroko you had a question, or Vivek, who is another instructor on the line also has a question.

I’m sure that we have time for one or two Any students. Adipta, thanks so much for coming today. Can you tell the students a little bit about if they have an interest in biotechnology and if they really like manipulating stuff in the lab? Is a PhD track absolutely essential or can you do other things without that PhD track?

Yeah, that’s a question I’ve been asking everyone around here too, because I don’t have a PhD yet. I only have a master’s. So I’ve been looking into a lot of PhD programs and one thing I was asking is can I grow in the company without a PhD, like can I go up levels as a scientist? And the answer is yes, definitely yes. You don’t need a PhD to like move up in your career in the industry. Maybe in the academia you would need it to become like a professor, but I do like teaching and I feel like I can find other avenues to teach, even in the industry. So I don’t think you need a PhD to go ahead in your career as a scientist.

That’s great thanks. I think a lot of them will be encouraged to hear that.

Absolutely. Thank you for asking that really great question, vivek. I really appreciate it. We do have some questions in the chat. One of them is technical, which says do you use CRISPR?

I don’t currently no, not in Biogen. In the academia lab we used CRISPR to downregulate certain genes, but it’s definitely a fun thing to do. Yeah, it’s growing now.

Yeah, yeah, Awesome. And then another question. We have another sort of use question Do you use agar and make solutions is one of the questions.

We use? I don’t think I use agar now. No mostly agar is for microbiology. I don’t do microbiology right now, so not now.

It’s an important distinction. In this program, we’re largely learning microbiology, but when you’re using mammalian cells, like you guys are, it is a different set of technologies, related foundations, but different kinds of tools. Yeah, boy questions, good questions are coming in a lot. These are more about your selections of fields and things like that. So one of the questions is what inspired you to get interested in this industry?

So I was actually looking for some immunology stuff because in my master’s thesis I didn’t have the chance to look into the immunology in breast cancer because there was no funding. So I wanted to learn more immunotechniques and like get into that, because I feel like cancer and immunology go hand in hand and yeah, and gene therapy is also something new, so that’s something that interested me.

Yeah, that’s a very important insight. For sure People who are interested in health that the relationship between health and immunology is a very strong one. And then one last question, and then we’re going to switch to the lessons today and let you go. You’re welcome to stay if you’d like, but you can get back to your real job. One of the questions is what is the difference between your field, which is biotech, and maybe biomedical engineering, or is it the same thing?

It could be the same thing. I think some of the biosensors that you use they use biotech as well as biomedical engineering. Biomedical engineering it depends on what track you choose. Some people like to work on these biomedical instruments and some people like to work on these biosensors. So it depends on what you want to do, even in biomedical. But I know some of my colleagues do have a degree in biomedical engineering, but they chose to do research more than the instruments and some of the biosensors or stuff.

I guess in the end it is all connected and there are many ways to get to the research questions and the career point that you’re most interested in. I think this has been wonderful. Thank you for bringing so much insight and so much experience to this conversation. If the students have other questions, perhaps they can come through me or the other instructors and we will forward them along. But this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.

Yeah, thank you so much. It was so fun. I’m still a younger and amateur scientist, so it was nice to share some of my interests and some of my things. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate your being here.