Vasanthi Jayaraman, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, initially developed a love of science during high school through exposure to lab-based experiences. Hands on lab was so much more fun than memorizing and regurgitating facts for classroom-based instruction. The realization that science was her calling occurred to her when she was a budding scientist in graduate school at Princeton. More specifically, her calling became apparent to her during her candidacy exam, when she enjoyed having to come up with her own ideas, and especially defending them to faculty. The thrill of being able to develop and elaborate on her own ideas and demonstrating that she held up to the scrutiny of the faculty colleagues marked her turning point.
Jayaraman grew up in the cities of Bengaluru and Chennai in South India. During her childhood, practically every woman she knew was a housewife. If they worked, it was at a bank that allowed for a 9 to 5 job. And even those who did work quit after they had children. Her mother married right after high school. “She told me she regretted not having the opportunity to go to college and did everything she could to encourage me to do so and become independent,” she says. Given the absence of real role models of women pursuing careers, Jayaraman really didn’t have any specific career in mind. During high school her interest towards science classes deepened. “I loved chemistry and excelled in it, eventually gravitating towards it in college. After my bachelor’s degree, as was expected coming from a traditional family, they started to search for a suitable spouse for me. But fortunately for me there was some issue in my horoscope that it was difficult to find a match.” And so she continued studies to complete a masters in chemistry under her mentor, the late P.T. Manoharan, who advised her to apply for graduate school in the US.
Jayaraman applied to Princeton University — oblivious to the difficulty of getting into such a highly-competitive program — because she had family members in close proximity who could help her adjust to the new environment. When she was indeed accepted, she was not only the first girl in her generation in her family to think about going outside of India to study, but also to act on her passion and start her career trajectory as a scientist.
Jayaraman had read about Max Perutz’s work and was fascinated by hemoglobin and allostery. She decided that she wanted to understand allostery in hemoglobin and joined Thomas Spiro’s lab. After completing her PhD at Princeton she wanted to further pursue the study of allostery. “But I thought I needed to move to bigger systems and joined George Hess‘s lab at Cornell University for my postdoctoral work to study allostery in nicotine receptors.” This move finally brought her to what still is the basis of her studies to this day, detailed molecular mechanisms of membrane transport proteins.
Jayaraman’s trajectory was impacted by her masters, graduate, and postdoctoral mentors who played key roles in her success “not just when I was with them but beyond at every stage of my career,” she shares. “I have been very fortunate to have my scientific career filled with other mentors who have been critical to my success. Ishita Mukherjee and Kenton Rodgers were postdoctoral fellows when I was a graduate student and taught me everything about lasers and spectroscopy.”
“I didn’t think I could be successful in academia as I never got into science with that intention. My husband Ramanan Krishnamoorti and Gary Ackers played critical roles in instilling this confidence in me. When I got my first faculty position at Marquette University I had only done two-years of postdoctoral work. I was still not ready for primetime and my grants reflected this. James Kinkaid showed me how to transform my science from being a boring scientific narrative to something that got people excited enough to fund. Mark Mayer advised me to stay with spectroscopy as it would bring a new perspective to the channel field and Robert Oswald mentored me on how to weave my chemistry background into the field. Eric Gouaux invited me to his laboratory and taught me tricks in protein purification. So you can see there have been so many players who ultimately got me to where I am.”
Jayaraman is very dedicated to mentoring, coaching and advising the next generation of women scientists. She has been a member of the Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women (CPOW) for the Biophysical Society. “My advice to young women would be to find mentors who can help and guide you and to form a network within your scientific community. Also if you chose to have a partner it is important that it be a 50:50 relationship, particularly when it comes to family. For instance, when I had my first child my husband took a sabbatical so I could continue to work. I think it is very critical for women to find this kind of support; it makes it so much easier.”
To Jayaraman, the most rewarding aspect of her work is teaching and training the next generation of scientists. To watch them evolve from being an undergraduate or graduate student into scientists, writers and leaders in pharmaceutical companies and defining the field.
Outside of the lab Jayaraman loves to spend time with her two children and travel with her family. “We try to go to a new country every year and explore its culture and food, ranging from Michelin star restaurants to street food!”