Sudha Chakrapani was raised in India, the daughter of a member of the Indian Air Force. Due to her father’s career, the family had to move every 3-4 years to a new state in India. “While this nomadic lifestyle appears to be unthinkable to my kids, I remember being excited about new schools, new challenges, and new friends all the time. This was probably the origin of my wanderlust that continues to this day” she shares. Chakrapani is the first college graduate in her family. “Although my parents did not have the opportunity to go to college, they were deeply passionate about education and were vested in our goals to do well in school,” she says.
Chakrapani speaks about her family’s philosophy, “I am fortunate to be born in a family where it was inculcated that anything is possible if you put your heart and soul into it.” Chakrapani says that the family motto was particularly significant because her parents were raising three girls who all shared a love for STEM and their career aspirations were oftentimes at odds with their cultural background. Chakrapani remembers that while financially challenging, she and her siblings were driven by the ambition to pursue their doctoral studies in the US. “Today, the three of us are in the US and are dedicated to our respective fields: Biophysics, Materials Science, and Chemical Engineering.”
Chakrapani’s passion is apparent as she highlights her early science memories, “I remember being in love with science as far back as my memory goes. Growing up, our favorite dinner time conversations would involve arguing about some abstract concept in science — and we still do.” In a family dominated by scientific conversations, Chakrapani and her sisters used to set up experiments with whatever they could find at home. Some examples include dissecting different types of battery cells, growing salt crystals, and monitoring sprouting rates of legumes under different conditions, among many other experiments. Chakrapani wanted to work in STEM but had not yet considered research as a career, recalling, “I thought I would grow up to be a science teacher which would allow me to stay close to my favorite subject”.
Even now Chakrapani reflects fondly on her first experiments, “My first real research experience was during my master’s degree where my project was to carry out organic synthesis of novel compounds and test their potential as a relaxant on the frog Sartorius muscle using electrical recordings; my connection with biophysics was instantaneous.” This was her first exposure to ion channels in general and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in particular. “The thrill of finding something new that no one knew before; nothing could come close to that, I was sold on a career in research,” she says. After these initial steps, her research for the following two decades has focused on ion channels, studying them at a single-molecule level both structurally and functionally using an array of biophysical approaches.
Chakrapani completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Madras in India in 1995. She has two master’s degrees; one in Biochemistry from the University of Pune in India and the other in Biomedical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Mumbai. She then went on to pursue her PhD in the laboratory of Anthony Auerbach at the University of Buffalo, in New York, completing her studies in 2004.
For her postdoctoral research, she worked in the laboratory of Eduardo Perozo at the University of Virginia. In 2005, she moved to the University of Chicago to continue her work on the structural and functional analyses of potassium and sodium channels with Eduardo Perozo as a Research Assistant Professor. While she was working in Perozo’s laboratory, Chakrapani met Julio F. Cordero-Morales, currently an Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Tennessee, with whom she has remained friends over the years. “Sudha and I worked together when she was a postdoc and I was a graduate student in Eduardo Perozo’s laboratory and remained close friends since. Sudha is a brilliant scientist, excellent colleague, extremely passionate about research, with a deep understanding of ion channel biophysics,” he shares. “Since my days as a graduate student, Sudha has been a supportive and a positive influence in my career; we continue discussing science as if we are still lab mates.”
Chakrapani highlights the opportunity to work with exceptional biophysicists, “I would consider myself very fortunate to have worked with very supportive advisors, both during my PhD and postdoctoral years.” Chakrapani mentions that she admires Tony Auerbach for his creativity and relentless approach to science; “he could simply eat, sleep, and breathe science” she shares. Likewise, “I admire Eduardo Perozo for his ability to constantly innovate, learn new approaches, and be fearless about picking up new challenges,” she says.
She started her laboratory in 2010 at Case Western Reserve University and is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, as well as the Director of the Cryo-EM Core Facility. Chakrapani considers herself as a biophysicist because she seeks to understand the physical principles of fundamental biological processes that govern life as we know it. Her current research is centered on elucidating the conformational dynamics underlying allosteric mechanisms in ligand (5-HT3A receptor)- and voltage-gated potassium and sodium channels, and to determine how these processes control the basic features of channel function. Members of her group focus on understanding, at the molecular level, the functioning of proteins that are mediators of electrical signals. They seek to understand what happens when there is a disease-causing mutation in these proteins and how it leads to the disease condition, while working toward developing new drugs that are effective in combating these diseases with minimal side-effects.
“I knew Sudha’s outstanding work in the ion channel field from her publications during her postdoctoral training, but I never met her prior to her recruitment to Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). Since our first meeting in 2010 as newly minted Assistant Professors at CWRU, we immediately became friends and collaborators.” Vera Moiseenkova-Bell, Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania, says.
“Moreover, she is a great collaborator. She trained my laboratory members and help us to “Sudha is also a very gifted scientist, she can dissect scientific problems and approach them from different angles. She masterfully blends conventional biochemical and biophysical techniques with new approaches in structural biology. In the past 10 years, Sudha’s laboratory provided the ion channel structural biology field with outstanding discoveries and phenomenal publications on gating mechanisms of ligand- and voltage-gated ion channels.”
To describe her research interest Chakrapani says, “I am interested in understanding how the brain communicates with different parts of the body. Through electrical communications, the brain controls the normal functions of the body such as movement, vision, hearing, learning, and memory. A disruption of these functions leads to life threatening diseases such as epilepsy and cardiac arrhythmias, for many of which there is currently no cure.”
Chakrapani highlights several women biophysicists she admires, “Through my time as a graduate student and as an independent scientist, I have had the honor of interacting with several outstanding women scientists who have guided me immensely through their remarkable mentorship particularly, Dr. Vasanthi Jayaraman, Dr. Gabriela Popescu, and Dr. Cindy Czajkowski.” Chakrapani serves as a member of the Biophysical Society Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women (CPOW), in which she is a strong advocate for supporting women in biophysics. Her advice for young women interested in a science career is that “there is nothing stopping you from going after your dream… the sky is the limit! Network, identify and reach out to your potential sponsors, build your support system both at the personal and professional levels, and give back by being an inspiration and advocate for the next generation of women scientist,” she says.
The most rewarding aspect of her work is to contribute toward the formative years of bright, young scientists. “I thoroughly enjoy wearing many different hats as a researcher, teacher, grant and paper reviewer. There is no monotony in this profession,” she explains. Outside of the lab, Chakrapani enjoys spending time with her kids. Chakrapani and her husband have two children: a daughter who is 11 and a son who is 8 years old. “Our kids love the outdoors and they are lot of fun to travel with,” she says, “even on long drives. I enjoy cooking and having people over.”