For Dr. Saurabh Sharma, research is rooted in serendipity and mentoring.

Growing up a farmer in a small village in India, Sharma’s interest in science came from YouTube videos and wanting to “do something for the society,” he said.

After graduating high school, Sharma completed both a Bachelor and a Master of Pharmacy in India.

While working on his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Science, Sharma made a “serendipitous discovery.” Sharma started experimenting with different chemical ratios to develop nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems. He didn’t expect much, but when he compared it to the commercial polymer, he saw changed gene silencing for sickle cell anemia with as little as a one-microgram dose.

Sharma’s perspective on patient care has shifted because of a “gut feeling.” Now, Sharma is committed to his research “not for the publications, not for the name and fame, not for the money, not for the society,” but to “do something for the patients,” he said.

He joined Dr. Amanda Kirane’s lab here at Stanford in 2022, where he is currently a postdoctoral researcher. Sharma was excited about the opportunity with Kirane because of her ongoing clinical trials with melanoma patients, he said. Sharma’s current work in the lab centers on developing therapies in central nervous metastases for melanoma patients.

Moving forward, Sharma is applying for the NIH K99 award to become an instructor at Stanford. Sharma hopes to transition from a postdoctoral researcher to a faculty assistant professor, and later start his own lab. Eventually, Sharma also hopes to partner with industry so any new medical innovations he discovers can have a larger-scale impact on patients..

Reflecting on his career so far, Sharma has seen an almost full-circle moment in mentorship.

Sharma recounted dream-come-true moments in encountering Nobel laureates like Stanford Professors Carolyn Bertozzi and Ronald Levy on campus. Now, with more and more students messaging Sharma about his work, he said he hopes to do the same thing his heroes did for him: “inspire any new thoughts and inspire any new kind of new research possible.”