Growing Organs in a Petri Dish and Starting Labs in IIT Madras | Dr Anubama Rajan

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

November 14, 2025

Duration

1h 1m

Channel

Best Place To Build

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

What does it take to go from falling in love with microbiology to becoming one of India’s leading voices in organoid/stem cell research, drug discovery, diabetes science, and COVID biology? In this powerful episode of the Best Place to Build Podcast, Dr. Anubama Rajan from IIT Madras shares the journey that shaped her career and the future she’s helping create. Dr. Anubama works at the intersection of biomedical engineering, medical sciences, and cutting-edge research, building mini organs in a dish to help the world understand diseases better. She has contributed to COVID-19 research, established medical sciences labs at IITM, and is part of protocol-building efforts for organoids in drug discovery, working closely on pioneering diabetes research. She’s also a LinkedIn influencer who candidly addresses the struggles young science enthusiasts may face by sharing her own journey. If you’re curious about the future of medicine, biotechnology, lab-grown organs, disease modelling, and women in STEM, you won’t want to miss this episode. ⏳ What You’ll Learn

• How Dr. Anubama fell in love with microbiology
• The rise of organoid biology, stem cell research, and “organs-on-a-dish”
• How COVID-19 research looked inside the labs
• How organoids are used in drug discovery & disease modelling
• The future of diabetes research in India
• Challenges and opportunities for women in science & academia
• Her role as a science communicator on LinkedIn
• The vision behind the new Medical Sciences & Technology ecosystem at IIT Madras

Subscribe, and click on the bell icon to never miss an update from the Best Place to Build! Chapters: 00:43 Welcome to the Best Place to Build 01:30 Introducing Dr. Anubama Rajan 04:20 What are organoids? 09:55 Protocols for drug discovery using organoids 12:55 Dr Anubama’s journey through microbiology 17:00 What was COVID research like? 19:50 How do you plan your career in microbiology research? 23:30 Why did IITM decide to start a medical science department? 29:15 What are the programs offered by the medical sciences department, IIT Madras? 31:00 What unique exposure & opportunities are available to the Department of Medical Sciences, IITM? 36:00 Future career prospects of medical science graduates at IITM 41:40 What does the Centre of Excellence for Diabetes Research at IITM do? 46:00 How does Dr. Anubama juggle social media management as a science communicator along with all her responsibilities? 51:00 Reflections on being a woman in STEM - is Indian academia truly fair? #OrganoidResearch #IITMadras #DrugDiscovery #BiotechIndia #BestPlacetoBuild

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Dr. Anubama Rajan

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Best Place To Build, featuring Dr. Anubama Rajan, Growing Organs in a Petri Dish and Starting Labs in IIT Madras | Dr Anubama Rajan explores organoids, drug discovery, and building IIT Madras’s new med-tech department Dr. Anubama Rajan describes organoids as 3D stem-cell-derived “mini organs” that replicate key human organ functions in a dish, enabling more human-relevant biology than cancer cell lines or many animal models.

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