Q&A
with
Rathindra
Bose,
Ph.D.
Ohio
University’s
new
V.P.
for
research
joins
OU-COM
faculty
By
Anita
Martin
Photos
by
John
Sattler
|
 Rathindra
Bose, Ph.D., cancer researcher and OU-COM’s new professor of
biomedical sciences, is a master of mixing it up. An experienced
chemist and college administrator, he can navigate complexities at
both molecular and managerial levels.
On July 1, Bose joined Ohio University as vice president for
research and creative activity, and as dean of the graduate
college—a new unit designed to enhance visibility and
competitiveness of graduate education.
Meanwhile, in partnership with OU-COM, he also conducts preclinical
trials on compounds with the potential to treat ovarian, testicular,
and head and neck cancers. He holds a joint tenured professorship in
OU-COM and in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of
Chemistry.
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O.U.M. |
Welcome to Ohio
University. What do you think of the place
so far? |
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R.B. |
Thank you. I’m
grateful to be a part of such an outstanding
institution. It’s the oldest university in
Ohio, and it has tremendous potential in
terms of research and both graduate and
undergraduate education. |
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What are your
goals as VP of research and creative
activity? |
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My goal is to enhance
university research through three means ...
- One: to increase
external funding in research—to get more
support from federal, state and private
or industrial sources;
- Two: to
continually improve existing and build
new research infrastructure. You can’t
do research without expensive toys, and
technology today is obsolete within
three years; and
Three: to
continue to attract outstanding faculty
and graduate students. Expensive toys
and good facilities are nothing without
exceptional brain power.
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How will your role
as VP for research and creative activity
complement your role as dean of the new
graduate college? |
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It’s all integrated.
All graduate students in any discipline do
research. They are in the forefront of
research, under the supervision of their
advisors—and that’s a very important point.
Faculty shape graduate students: their
overall perspectives, their projects, their
concepts about those projects, and they use
graduate students to drive their own
research to the next levels.
There are a lot of dimensions to graduate
education—in the lab, in creating new
programs and developing curricula. And new
fields that have never existed before are
developing constantly. We to keep eyes open
on these new fields. |
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Describe the
biochemical research you’ll do with OU-COM. |
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I’ve spent 25 years
working to develop a class of compounds that
overcome resistance to cancer drugs. There
are drugs on the market that work very well
for ovarian and testicular cancers … but
with some patients you see initial remission
and then the cancer comes back.
So what do you do? You can’t increase the
levels of the drugs because they’re toxic.
I’m working to find out why cancer in
certain patients develops resistance to
drugs while other patients do fine. If you
can figure that out, you can create better
drugs.
The (cancer curing) compounds that we found
do not differentiate; they kill cancer cells
at the same rate in both sensitive and
resistant models. We’re doing preclinical
trials with mouse models of both (resistant
and sensitive) cell lines. We’ve worked with
ovarian cancer, head and neck cancer, and
now with testicular cancer. |
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How did you get
into this line of research? |
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As a chemistry
student, I understood that most diseases are
caused and treated by chemical compounds,
either organic or inorganic. Chemists can
redesign, synthesize and reshape molecules
based on what properties we want. I’ve
always felt that I wanted to find out how
the properties of compounds can best benefit
society. So I decided to focus on cancer
biochemistry. |
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What are some
things the College of Osteopathic Medicine
is doing right? |
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The college of medicine really
seems to value collaboration and research.
The way the world is moving, with constant
advancements in biotechnology, proteomics—it’s moving too fast for a person
to keep track of everything and still have
the time to maintain a strong medical
practice. It’s impossible. That’s why
collaboration is essential.
COM is also expanding enrollment. This is
good, because many universities and medical
schools are having problems recruiting. But
here there are just too many qualified
students applying.
I’m very excited to work with Dr. Jack
Brose, as well. I can see that he is a very
capable leader. |
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What do you think
of the upcoming Academic and Research
Center? |
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The Academic and
Research Center is a very exciting
opportunity for biomedical engineering
research. Dean Brose and Dean Irwin have
been working very hard to create this
synergy for their colleges. |
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Your wife (Anima)
is a fuel cell engineer, and she’ll be
working at the Russ College of Engineering
and Technology. Do the two of you ever
collaborate on work? |
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We’ve published some
papers together. At one point I was studying
some cancer compounds I discovered and
wanted to toss some things out. I mentioned
this to my wife over dinner, and she said,
“Really? Can I
take a look?”
And my … we’ll say residue, became her
treasure. She found that the compounds were
catalysts that she can use in fuel cells. |
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Do you have
children? |
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My son, Sanjeeb, is
earning his Ph.D. in physics at Stanford.
Before that he attended Caltech.
My daughter, Seuli—which is the name of a
Bengali flower—is an M.D. She’s doing her
double residency in internal medicine and
pediatrics at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill.
This summer, my wife and I became
grandparents! My daughter had a little girl, Asha, which is Bengali for
“hope.”
My son-in-law, Christian, is in law school. |
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Busy family! They
must take after you …. Now, if you had free
time, what would you do with it? |
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I love soccer. I used
to play in two different teams, until about
five years ago. Then one day, I saw that the
ball was coming at the optimal height for a
bicycle kick, which is something I used to
do a lot in high school. To do a bicycle
kick, you have to turn your body between 180
and 360 degrees—usually you fall on your
back. Anyway, I did the bicycle kick, and I
hit the ball, but then I landed right on my
shoulder and injured it. My wife said,
“Okay, that’s
enough soccer.” |
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