Neurobiologist

We are pleased to introduce to you our “rOLe model” Shambhavi Apte:
PhD student and neurobiologist at the Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences (IBU) at Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg.

First published on instagram (@equality_uol) on March 22, 2022.

Interview with Shambhavi Apte, a phD student and neurobiologist. She says: "...that's me, two years ago, at my workplace". She, a Person of Color, wears a plum-colored sweater and has dark, slightly longer than shoulder-length hair. She is smiling at the camera and is sitting in an office.
She’s a Neurobiologist and PhD student at the Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences (IBU), University of Oldenburg. She describes her own research: "My field of research is magnetoreception and I work on the purification of cryptochrome 4 which could potentially help us to understand what effect the earth’s magnetic field has on that protein. Why is this important? It’s that we work with night migratory songbirds which travel thousands of kilometres every year or twice a year. And we want to find out how this functions!"
Question to Shambhavi Apte: „What made you want to go to science?“ Her Answer: "My mum wanted to be a scientist herself, but she could not pursue that because she did not have enough money. She got married early and in the university, she worked in administration. She wasn't very happy with that. But she did two masters and as children, me and my sister saw her study through both. So, science was always in our lives, ever present because of her. When I was really young and the genetic technology was super new, she came home and she told me about it like “hey, there’s a concept called designer babies where you can really select and pick specific features” or stuff like “genes are like this pearl necklace where you can chose which pearl goes in” and that fascinated me a lot. I said: That’s something that I really want to learn and study. So my mum was the most important influence for me to go to science and to pursue a career in science.“
Shambhavi Apte can be seen working at the clean bench in the Biochemistry Lab. Her University education: India: 2010 – 2013: University of Pune, Pune Bachelor of Science in Microbiology India: 2013 - 2015: VIT University, Vellore, Master of Science in Biomedical Genetics, Specialization: Cancer Genetic Counselling Germany: 2016: Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Master of Science in Molecular Life Science, Specialization: Systems Neurobiology
Question: „What is the achievement you are most proud of? " Answer: „I don’t really feel proud about anything that I’ve done and I always feel like I could be doing so much better. But I’d say that it’s my resilience. I had a major failed project before I started with this protein project: I wanted to study the behavior of the birds and I did not get a single result that was good enough for two years straight. And then I started from scratch again and at that point I was really contemplating, you know, it’s not for me, let it go. But then, I decided: You know what – no. We are not quitting. If we are in this, we have to finish this, and get the PhD and then it’s done. So I think I would be kind of proud of myself about that."
Question: „Did you meet any barriers during your career as a scientific researcher?" Answer: „A lot of them! One was the pressure of not getting any results, another was wanting to quit, but since then I thought if I’m one of the rare people who have the opportunity to go out and do research – and quit, then I’m wasting it. And then I saw that I really have to overcome this. Also, especially international students have to go through everything being new – the culture, the people, the language - and I say this after staying in Germany and knowing German really well. I’m relatively fluent in the language. But those are the hurdles that you have to overcome and still have this razor focus like – ok, all of this is happening in the background, but I have to do this and that can be a bit challenging every once in a while."
Shambhavi Apte can be seen splitting HEK 293 cells. She says that she does that, “so that I have more cells for my cell culture experiments. I do this every week twice. We need everything to be super clean and disinfected so that nothing goes into the cells which is unwanted that may infect the cells.“ She is sitting on a bench in a lab and wears blue gloves, jeans and a white t-shirt. Her dark her is tied into a bun knot and she looks very concentrated at the substance in her hands she is working with.
Her advice to those who want to get into science: "Take enough good breaks so you can really go away and then you have an amazing clarity about everything. Just shut your brain off and go away, far away from your working environment. Don’t give up! It really works out in the end and it’s wonderful to do experiments, to find out new things every day and most of the time it feels like being a detective. You do an experiment and then something goes wrong. And then there’s one moment where it clicks: “Oh, this was wrong - and ok, I can change that and then I get a beautiful result." But that can only happen when your mind is really calm and when you are rested. I have made the mistake of not taking enough breaks, but then I went away for four weeks. I was in India with my parents and my family and did not think about the work at all and now that I have come back, it’s like all things suddenly work for some reason.“
Question: „What is your agenda for the coming months?" Answer: „... to finish my PhD project. I have two at the moment and I hope that I get to really work on them and finish them and get my PhD in the end and after that, the immediate agenda after that once it is done is taking a big, giant break for I don’t know two to three months and then spend some time with my family and friends." Shambhavi Apte is sitting again on a bench in a lab. The picture this time is taken from another angle. At the right corner it says „ Thank you Shambhavi Apte!“.

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