Manasi Majumdar, Virology/Enteric Disease Research “Be curious, ask questions and listen wisely”
Published 8 March 2023
© Crown copyright 2023
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-womens-day-2023-embraceequity/manasi-majumdar-virologyenteric-disease-research-be-curious-ask-questions-and-listen-wisely
Written by Manasi Majumdar, Principal Investigator - Global Diseases at MHRA
I’ve always found science to be exciting. When I got an opportunity to study microbiology, the most interesting part was looking into the microscope - I saw that a whole new world of life existed right there in front of me!
Microbiology was a new, upcoming field when I was graduating. I always knew I wanted to work in healthcare so I decided to do a postgraduate degree in medical microbiology, followed by a PhD in virology. As I was establishing my research career in India, I also got married and ended up moving to the UK. It was a new country and a new life but I had hope in my heart that I could still pursue my research career in virology.
I came across a job advert in the field of Poliovirus research at MHRA. The first thought that struck me was “Is Polio still around?”. I joined the Poliovirus research team, who are the most amazing people to work with.
At the moment, I am a Principal Investigator in the field of Enteric diseases and working with both bacterial and viral pathogens. My role involves performing experiments in the lab which will determine the quality of polio and cholera vaccines - this helps to maintain a safe supply of high-quality vaccines around the world. I also devise new molecular methods for the detection of Poliovirus from clinical and wastewater samples, and running the high containment labs for Poliovirus.
Last year was particularly busy as I was working with samples from countries where novel Oral Polio Vaccine (nOPV) was given under Emergency use listing for which I had to molecularly characterise the virus. At the same time, we found a Type 2 Polio virus from a London sewage sample almost 40 years after its declared eradication in the UK. We worked as a team to tackle these two evolving projects and managed to deliver.
My proudest achievement is the part I play to ensure a safe supply of vaccines are maintained throughout the globe. We are constantly working on improving the technologies involved in doing so.
Working in a STEM environment offers lots of opportunity to try new things and to innovate. Curiosity is always encouraged. So if you’re thinking of joining us: be curious, ask questions, and listen wisely - you never know when your curiosity could lead to a new finding.