Senior Success: Sreya Sanyal Is Off to Become an NIH Researcher

Sreya Sanyal ’22 is right where she wants to be in the fight against cancer — at the cutting-edge of medical research. She’ll soon be using the breakthrough gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9, often described as “genetic scissors”, to study human disease as a post baccalaureate researcher with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after graduation.

For Sanyal, whose parents met and graduated from medical school in India, her journey toward a career as a physician-scientist specializing in cancer biology has deep roots, beginning at the age of 10. 

“My mom was an oncologist who was diagnosed with stage-three gastric cancer when I was 10 and passed away when I was 12,” said Sanyal. “From that age, I was driven to dedicate my life to becoming a cancer physician and eventually became interested in conducting research that can make a difference to patients and families who are going through such a difficult time.”

Sanyal, a biology/history double major, Albert Dorman Honors College student and Goldwater Scholar, decided to take a year-long detour from her plans of attending medical school after gradation to chase her research ambitions, thanks to a recent NIH Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA). 

The IRTA provides an opportunity for college graduates planning on entering medical school to spend up to two years performing full-time research at the NIH’s main campus in Bethesda, MD. 

NIH investigators individually select their own postbaccs and Sanyal’s undergrad credentials were enough to attract interest over the winter from several of them, including NIH Senior Investigator Thomas Bugge at the Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. The lab is investigating proteolytic enzymes on the surface of cells that may play a role in human cancer.

“Only about a quarter of applicants get selected each year, so I was said astounded when they reached out to me,” said Sanyal, a Mount Laurel, NJ native who will attend Robert Wood Johnson Medical School after a year with the NIH. “I spent a day speaking with everyone at the lab and they gave me a soft offer on the spot. I felt like it was such a great fit, both in terms of the team members and the research they are doing. … I'm really looking forward to working there and building on the successful experiences I’ve had at NJIT.”

At NJIT’s Biomaterial Drug Development, Discovery and Delivery Laboratory under Biomedical Engineering Professor Vivek Kumar, Sanyal has spent the last three years designing antiviral therapies and other drug treatments that can be efficiently delivered to patients using novel peptide hydrogels developed by Kumar.

She quickly rose from part-time lab tech to Metabolic Research Lead Associate, attracting $18,250 in direct funding for her projects — including numerous NSF I-Corps grants to work on everything from COVID-19-related research investigating new SARS-CoV-2 therapies, to medications for cholesterol and peripheral artery disease.

Now, Sanyal’s next step will be joining a new generation of researchers coming of age alongside the relatively new CRISPR gene-editing tool, which has been revolutionizing everything from crop engineering to study of genetic disease since it was first described by Nobel Prize-winning scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna in 2012. 

The approach is beginning to make its influence felt more significantly in the field of cancer research — the first U.S. clinical trial to test a CRISPR-based cancer immunotherapy was recently completed in 2020.

“I'm excited. I’m going to be designing experiments and studying different disease states in both cell culture and the mouse models that I create,” said Sanyal. “I’ll be knocking out expression of certain genes in mice and trying to better understand things like inflammatory processes and their effects on cancer development.

“It’s the sort of work I would like to do in my career. … Plus, it's just cool getting to use CRISPR-Cas9, knowing it was basically breaking onto the scene when I was in high school.”

With a future of possibilities ahead, Sanyal says it’s her other academic major in history, that has given her vital perspective to her work, and a firm ethical foundation to draw from as she embarks on a new path of discovery. 

“As a future physician-scientist, I feel I’ve gained invaluable skills from an interdisciplinary approach,” said Sanyal. “Our history department’s professors sit with biology department faculty on our pre-health program’s committee. … There’s a conversation between disciplines that you see in courses, like “Ecology and Evolution of Disease” and “Disease, Health, and Social Justice”. That’s guided my career research aspirations and improved my ability to see the bigger picture in my work.”

“For now, I'm grateful to have this opportunity to immerse myself for a year at the NIH, hopefully meet great mentors, and really expand my horizons to see where I can take my career.”