Bahaar Chawla
Policy and Advocacy Subcommittee
University of Michigan

What is your research interest? What organism do you work with, and what do you want to do in the future? 

My research is in chromatin organization and gene regulation. I used C. elegans, the microscopic nematode, to understand how gene regulation is accomplished over a full chromosome. C. elegans have two sexes, but instead of females, they are hermaphrodites. Just like mammalian females, the hermaphroditic worm has two X chromosomes while the male has only one. This mismatch in chromosomes is fixed by a process known as dosage compensation, and all sexually dimorphic species with this kind of chromosomal imbalance perform this task to maintain viability. In worms, it’s accomplished through a unique protein complex, a condensin that evolutionarily diverged from the mitotic version, which is highly conserved and required for life. Currently, I have been focusing on establishing the C. elegans dosage compensation system as a paradigm for studying condensin function in gene regulation. Going forward, I’m interested in how dosage compensation is linked to development and aging. During early development, it’s been shown that inhibiting or delaying dosage compensation also affects the timing of differentiation. At the same time, there is evidence that dosage compensation weakens with age. It would be interesting to tease apart those observations to understand what mechanisms connect them.

As a PhD-trained scientist, you have many career options. What interests you the most? 

One of my main motivations in applying to graduate school was my love of research and teaching. I taught several classes as a graduate student. Engaging with students always reminded me of the wonderful curiosity that propelled me into research, the desire to understand. At the same time, I started learning that there are a lot of sociopolitical contexts that surround research and how they are exhibited in policies around science. We don’t do research in a vacuum. Research funding comes from outside interested parties that have a stake in the work we do, because our research has the potential to solve or improve societal problems that everyone faces. Moreover, research funding is complex, and running a research lab means understanding how to get funding, how to keep funding agencies happy by following regulations and policies correctly, and how to be consistently competitive and innovative. Understanding the organizational background of a research institution, which ensures that research done on campus is in compliance, led me to the Research Operations, Management, and Strategy Fellowship. This alternative postdoctoral fellowship trains PhD scientists in the actions that occur backstage to the bench at large institutions. Here I’m learning about all the things that make research possible and successful from an organizational perspective, which is important because while one branch of science policy is writing policy, the other branches of interpreting policy and implementing policy are equally important too. Mastering these areas will help me become more effective at communicating policy impact and advocating for change in new policies.

In addition to your research, how do you want to advance the scientific enterprise? 

I’ve been working in research labs for almost 15 years, and I’ve always been grateful to do meaningful work, even if small. However, I used to often have people outside of science tell me that “your work doesn’t actually help us or solve any real problems” among other judgmental statements about the work I did. I got into science communication because I realized that the scientific enterprise has allowed others to tell our story on what value we bring to society, and their version of our narrative is not accurate. I think it’s important for scientists to take control of the narrative, so I started by working with organizations that engage with students because I wanted to make sure that the future generations of scientists know that science has value and that everyone has the potential to be a scientist. Because I also understand that not everyone wants to be a spokesperson or feels confident in engaging publicly, I feel more engaged to contribute via science communication and advocacy to ensure that science is understood as a force of good for all people. 

As a leader within the Genetics Society of America, what do you hope to accomplish? 

One of my main goals is to bring trainees and faculty together as advocacy partners. One thing I learned from some of the trainee-led strikes around compensation is that many trainees didn’t know how research funding worked. Unfortunately, I found that research funding conversations are often filled with smoke and mirrors, and that creates undue stress on both parties, pitting them against each other. There is potential in educating trainees about the funding landscape, federal funding priorities, and how taxpayer dollars go into the research enterprise, which will empower them as they become faculty themselves. Bringing researchers at all levels together would create powerful advocacy coalitions that can advocate for better outcomes for all scientists, and I’d like to spark that by educating trainees and empowering them to be equal stakeholders in these conversations.

Previous leadership experience

I’ve held multiple leadership roles in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan. For three years, I led the DEI Committee, where I organized monthly workshops, created a mentorship series called MEALS, and advocated for the establishment of a paid undergraduate summer research program. For four years, I also served as the committee’s co-chair of volunteering and outreach for the Graduate Student Council, where I helped coordinate outreach activities and fundraisers for science education at low-income schools. Finally, for one year, I was the program manager for the mentorship program, Grad Gab, where I matched mentee-mentor pairs, monitored stipends for meetings, and served as ombudsperson in case of conflict.

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