Scientific passions – Dr Rupika Delgoda and team make life-changing discoveries

NOT everyone gets to fall in love, but Dr Rupika Delgoda had the good fortune thre etimes over, first with science, then with her Jamaican husband who brought her to the country, and then with her work at the Natural Product Institute where she spends most of her time moulding young scientists and testing home-grown products.

The Sri Lanka-born doctor came to the island after marrying her husband, a Jamaican Rhodes Scholar she met while doing her postdoctoral work at the University of Leicester in England. That was over eight years ago and since that time, she has enveloped herself in the culture as she supervises a small group at the Institute located on the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus.

Like a proud mother, she lists the achievements of her students with a twinkle in her eyes and excitement in her voice. The youngest, Jeann Murray, is a first-year graduate student who has a first class honours degree in biochemistry; then there is Dr Sheena Francis-East, a postdoctoral fellow; and Simone Badal-McCreath, who claimed the Young Scientist of the Year award in November.

The only male is David Picking, a Commonwealth scholar who doesn’t mind sharing space with his female colleagues. All are eager, like Dr Delgoda, to make discoveries that will help to change lives, and spend hours working to achieve this goal.

“We are passionate about what we do and we want to see an end result,” Dr Delgoda said. “If we don’t do it in Jamaica who will? Somebody else will come over here and take all our natural resources and do research on those.”

It was this passion that caused her to remain with the Institute even when the going got tough. In the beginning, her team was designated a small space in the Department of Life Sciences, but having worked in a lab all her life, Dr Delgoda was determined to get a larger space where they could carry out research and testing.

“I remember going up to Oxford (University) and measuring out the height of the lab spaces, looking at the type of counters to get and so literally just building it up to scratch,” said the researcher who admits that she felt more like an entrepreneur than a scientist while setting up the Institute which now has a lab and office space for staff.

That’s as far a career change as she would permit herself though, as for her, there is hardly anything that compares to the joy one gets from making a discovery and contributing to the existing knowledge of the treatment of life-threatening conditions such as tuberculosis and cancer.

“You are actually seeing something for the first time that nobody else is seeing in the rest of the world,” she beamed, as she explained her work to All Woman.

After pursuing her first degree in Chemistry at age 18, the scientist went on to do postgraduate work in Analytical Chemistry and her doctorate in Pharmacology at Oxford University. Still not satisfied, she went on to complete her postdoctoral in pharmacology and biochemistry.

“I have been a scientist all my life, I have done nothing else,” she said with pride.

And even after years of study and long hours in the lab, her speech is free from the scientific jargon one expects from someone in her field, although she is well capable of using them when the need arises. She has done collaborations with scientists from all around the world and locally, where she works with the Chemistry Department at UWI to conduct scientific research.

“One of my pet projects is to see whether there is potential for interactions between herbal medicines and prescription medicines,” she shared.

Even with all the accolades, a scientist can lose his/her usefulness without sufficient funding and Dr Delgoda is well aware of this. This to date remains her most significant challenge, as not many are willing to invest in something that stands the chance of not becoming a breakthrough after years of testing.

“If you want to do research that is world class and you want to be recognised internationally and you want to attend international conferences and present at a level that is recognised by your colleagues, then you have got to have good funding that will keep your work current and there is a cost,” explained Dr Delgoda who spends a lot of time writing grant proposals.

But while funding is a challenge, she is grateful that she doesn’t have to contend with the barrier that once existed for female scientists who were in the past thought to be encroaching on a man’s world when they donned their white lab coats and goggles. Thankfully, the myth has been broken.

“One of the things that I have come to realise in my life is that with work everything is equal until we have children,” she said. “I think that’s when the inequality kicks in; because somehow we have been created or evolved, whichever one you believe, that the burden of bearing children is on the woman, and so if you are a career woman or a career scientist you have somehow got to find the way of bringing children into the world and going through labour and then managing a career as well.”

Dr Delgoda has known many female scientists who at the pinnacle of their careers chose to give up their work for their children. As a mother of two young children, the perfect formula to creating a balanced family and work life has eluded her, but still she tries to meet her obligations to both.

“I do feel guilty sometimes at home and I do feel guilty sometimes at work and I don’t think I am unique in that sense, I think every mother goes through those things, but there are many many joys for both,” she admitted.

Her goals for the future are modest. She just wants to make a contribution to the existing knowledge about various biological reactions.

“My contribution matters, every scientist’s contribution matters, no matter how little it is and that’s what drives me,” she said. “No great scientist I think is motivated by getting a prize or an accolade for it.”