Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay 
A. I feel good. I am relieved to see the hard work of around 20 years culminating in this award. This will inspire me to continue research on the unexplored problems of computational biology, especially in genetics and emerging branches such as microRNAs, tiny molecules inside cells.
Q. What is the significance and implication of your research on miRNA?
A. Primarily, I work on the computational aspects of microRNA, a new class of small RNAs. These are tiny workhorses responsible for gene expression and protein synthesis in our body.
MicroRNAs were discovered fairly recently. So far, researchers have been able to find 940 miRNAs in humans. They play an extremely important role in controlling many cellular activities. These RNAs don't produce proteins but bind to mRNAs or messenger RNAs, which translate instructions from genes to create proteins. The miRNAs suppress expression of genes and protein production. Faulty miRNAs and their targets may lead to various diseases, such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, schizophrenia, and renal function disorders.
Understanding what miRNA is and how it functions will help us unravel secrets of various diseases in greater details. Such knowledge of miRNA will offer us avenues to tackle different diseases. I am making a small contribution to the big scheme of research.
Q. What is the core area of your research? How did you apply it to various realms of genetics?
A. The core areas of my research have been pattern recognition, soft computing and data mining. For the last several years, I have used my expertise in classification, optimization and clustering to solve different problems arising in biology. To be precise, I work in the realms of computational biology and bioinformatics.
We are trying to predict how miRNA interferes with the protein production of cells. Proteins are involved in almost all activities of cells. Since miRNAs control the production of proteins, they obviously play an important role. We are trying to predict which protein production is stopped by a particular miRNA. From pattern recognition point of view, it is a classification problem which we are trying to solve with machine learning technique.
Q. What is the significance of Indian women scientists getting the S. S. Bhatnagar Award?
A. So far, 14 women scientists have received the Award. In 2010, three women got the award. So, this is special, a boost to young women scientists pursuing scientific research. There is no dearth of talent among Indian women. But, they lag behind due to social pressures that lessen their opportunities. To come to this level of achievement, one needs consistent commitment.
Q. You were trained in physics. What triggered your foray into genetics?
A. After graduating in physics from Presidency College, Kolkata, I wanted to move to another area of science. It is not that my interest in physics diminished. I enrolled in the B. Tech course in computer science at Calcutta University and started liking the subject because of its logical flow. You didn't need to memorise things, the steps followed one after the other. After a post-graduation in computer science from IIT, Kharagpur, I went to the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, where the seed of my future research was sown.
Q. Do you think computer-based models have become indispensable to genomics research and in emerging fields such as miRNA? What is the advantage?
A. I am a computer scientist and I apply computer-based models to genomics and miRNA research. The data in genomics and related research is so large that it is almost impossible for a biologist alone to make sense out of it. There are different tasks in which a biologist has to take help of computer-based models to decide which experiments to conduct and which experiments not to conduct. We have developed algorithms — computer-based techniques to solve biological problems. To be precise, biology needs the help of computer-based models to make progress.
Q. Is it really difficult for women scientists to balance home and lab? How did you manage it?
A. Though it is difficult to balance home and lab, I have been constantly supported by my parents and husband. Even when I was pregnant and had to stay back home, I was given the opportunity to do research work.
Q. What is your future research plan?
A. In the next five years, I wish to advance my work on miRNAs. I also look forward to undertaking collaborative research. I have been doing purely computer-based studies. I want to collaborate with biologists and chemists.
