Swetha Murthy, assistant professor at the Vollum Institute at the Oregon Health & Science University, grew up in Southern India. When she was a child, her father was in the Indian Navy, so the family moved around frequently before settling in Bangalore during her high school years. Her parents, an engineer and a teacher, encouraged curiosity and learning. “I grew up in a household where reasoning and questioning processes and ‘how things work’ was encouraged. This really instilled inquisitiveness in me and nurtured my enthusiasm for science,” she shares.
She attended Bangalore University for her undergraduate studies and her master’s degree, and then moved to the United States to pursue her PhD at the State University of New York, Buffalo. “My interest in biophysics piqued when I was a graduate student in Gabriela Popescu’s lab, where I studied gating kinetics of NMDA receptors. I really enjoyed immersing myself in the molecular mechanisms of ion channel function.”
Following completion of her PhD, Murthy undertook a postdoctoral position at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. She was eager to expand her research experience and make an impact on the ion channel field, and landed in Ardem Patapoutian’s lab. “The lab had just discovered the first bona fide eukaryotic mechanosensitive ion channel PIEZOs, and to me that seemed like a budding topic, especially from the perspective of biophysics. There was so much unknown with these fascinating channels. His lab is also where I fell in love with somatosensation and, although my training was not in neuroscience, I learned to include a broader perspective to my training in molecular function and biophysics of ion channels,” she continues. “I joined Ardem’s lab just a couple years after PIEZOs were discovered and witnessed firsthand all the PIEZO-related discoveries that his lab subsequently made, which led to [Patapoutian’s] Nobel prize. This was truly inspirational and motivating.”
“I studied biophysical properties as well as in vivo function of the mechanosensitive ion channel PIEZOs. My work elucidated a lot of the initial biophysical properties and molecular determinants of the channel that are important for the pore and gating,” Murthy explains. “But probably my most interesting contribution to science was determining that PIEZO2 is the sensor for tactile allodynia, a phenomenon when touch evokes pain during conditions like sun burn, fibromyalgia, or after inflammation or injury. This was a surprising result because the common theory was that although touch was dependent on PIEZO2, inflammation- or injury-mediated mechanical pain was probably transduced by other mechanically activated ion channels. Also, these results allow us to target topical drugs to inhibit PIEZO2 as a means to manage pain caused from tactile allodynia.”
Murthy is now an assistant professor at the Vollum Institute, part of Oregon Health & Science University. Her lab studies the mechanosensitive ion channel family OSCA/TMEM63, how these channels are gated by force, and their underlying function in mammalian physiology. “OSCAs—which is the gene name for the ion channels present in plants—are a large family of 15 genes. The different isoforms have unparalleled diversity in mechanosensitivity and biophysical properties,” she reports. “This is in contrast to other MA ion channel families, which have only one or two members, with largely comparable biophysical and structural properties that have hindered the identification of distinct gating domains. Therefore, the lab is currently using OSCA channels as a tool to mine information about molecular mechanosensation. Our efforts will provide deeper insights into gating of these channels.”
The biggest challenge in her career thus far came after the early success she found during her postdoctoral training. “I longed for a physiological perspective, and hence, I took up the challenge of elucidating the role of PIEZO2 in pain sensation. In parallel, I started the herculean task of screening for novel MA ion channels. Both these projects required me to learn techniques and biology that I wasn’t familiar with, and extended from mouse genetics to behavior. This was very challenging and resulted in two to three years of negative or no data,” she reveals. “But with perseverance and confidence that if one is asking the right questions, then with patience and determination one can be successful, I was able to achieve my goals. Being out of my comfort zone made me a better and more well-rounded scientist. I also learned a very important skill, which is to recognize when to drop projects and move on. Finally, I could not have faced these challenges without backing and encouragement from my mentors, Ardem and Gabriela. And that kind of unconditional support from a mentor is what I want to provide for my trainees.”
Her future research plans are “to really start etching at understanding how mechanosensitive ion channels gate,” she says. “With few known mammalian mechanosensors and the challenging nature of understanding how force is intrinsically sensed by these proteins, the study of mechanically activated ion channels has been impeded. I hope that with our efforts we can start unravelling some of these important questions. From the perspective of community building, I look forward to interacting with the Society to contribute further with their efforts in building an inclusive and diverse culture.”
Murthy joined the Biophysical Society as a graduate student, where she greatly expanded her scientific network. “Throughout my career, I have met such inspirational mentors and scientists who are BPS members. Even though in the realm of ion channels I switched fields from grad school to postdoc, the connections and network that I built in the Society as a graduate student continue to support and encourage me,” she says. “I have been inspired by women in ion channel biophysics and physiology such as Popescu, Miriam Goodman, Vasanthi Jayaraman, Sudha Chakrapani, Indira Raman, and Sharona Gordon (to name a few). These women have been role models to the rising generation of scientists to not just maintain interest in ion channel biophysics, but also alert the community on inclusivity and spread awareness across different rungs of the scientific society. I feel privileged to be a part of this community and use its resources to encourage a new generation of biophysicists.”
Outside of her career, Murthy spends her time pursuing several hobbies. She shares, “I am an avid hiker and backpacker and love the outdoors. I also like to illustrate and paint, and often try to marry my love for science and creativity into art pieces.”