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Profile – Soumilee Chaudhuri, Indiana University

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04/06/2024

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Soumilee Chaudhuri

Name:

Soumilee Chaudhuri

Job Title:

PhD Candidate

Place of work / study:

Indiana University School of Medicine

Area of Research:

Cardiovascular Risk in Alzheimer’s Disease; Asian & Asian American populations; Bioinformatics; single-cell RNA sequencing; neuroimaging

How is your research funded:

National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative: Health Equity Scholars Program

Tell us a little about yourself:

Soumilee Chaudhuri is a 3rd year doctoral candidate in Medical Neuroscience and Bioinformatics at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) and Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (IADRC). Soumilee was raised in Kolkata, India and graduated with double degrees in Neuroscience & Biochemistry from Montana State University, Bozeman as an International Merit Scholar.

In 2021, she continued pursuing biomedical science & research as a Medical Neuroscience PhD student in Indiana University School of Medicine as a Paul & Carole Stark Neurosciences Fellowship for her continued work in Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementia.

She works at the intersection of multi-omics and neuroimaging to characterize Alzheimer Disease (AD) therapeutics; she was competitively awarded the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Health Equity Scholar Program (ADNI HESP) fellowship to support her research on understanding lifestyle risk factors in AD that affect multiethnic populations.

Her interests and experiences range from neurodegenerative diseases, neuroinformatics, to science communication, public health policy and diversifying academia & research spaces. She is the recent co-founder of IMPACT IN (Initiative for Mobilizing Public health Advocacy, Care, and Translational research for Alzheimer’s Disease in Indiana).

Tell us a fun fact about yourself:

Outside of academia, Soumilee enjoys hiking & outdoor adventures and focuses towards building a safe outdoor environment for BIPOC mid/plus sized women. She has gotten into multiple hiking, climbing, and skiing related injuries and is yet to give up her love for outdoors.

Why did you choose to work in dementia research?

I started researching aging as an undergraduate in the context of osteoarthritis and metabolomics in the lab of the fantastic scientist Dr. Ron June in the beautiful state school of Montana State University, in Bozeman. In grad school, I accidentally found out that omics could be applied to solve questions in the field of dementia and did a rotation in the lab of Dr. Andrew Saykin and Dr. Kwangsik Nho at the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in Indianapolis. That was it, I fell in love with clinical research and the entire concept of an ADRC. In short, dementia research taught me to see people first and that’s why I chose to continue in the field. I am a very average scientist, but I know I am big people’s person and that’s my goal (to put people first) as I figure out more science and research in the dementia field.

What single piece of advice would you give to an early career researcher?

Remember that you will find help in unexpected times and unexpected places. So, when you can, hold the door open for everyone behind you and keep holding it open until all are through. This is how we increase inclusivity in research spaces and medical careers. Remember to be kind to researchers who think of you as competition. And remember to tell your story every day, it might help someone else just like you so that they know what they are worth. And you are probably worth way more than your h-index and Nature publications, you are a whole person with dreams and hope that transcend beyond the lab.