‘Wheely good’ summer for Catz student with new Facebook icon and first paper as first author

Postgraduate student Souradip Mookerjee (2013, Medical Sciences) has two reasons to celebrate this summer after launching a way for the St Catharine’s College community to connect on Facebook using a ‘Wheely Good’ reaction coincided with the publication of his first paper as first author.

Souradip is part of the University’s MB/PhD Programme, which is designed for medical students who are interested in academic or research careers by enabling them to integrate a three-year period of research with their clinical education. He is currently completing the last year of this research period, ahead of returning to specialist clinical medicine in the coming academic year.

Facebook icon

Souradip has produced a browser extension that is available to anyone accessing Facebook with Chrome or Firefox web browsers. It replaces the ‘Care’ reaction icon with the College’s much-loved wheel motif.

“As the recently elected MCR Co-President, I knew that our community would be spread out across the world until October, relying on social media like Facebook more than ever before. I was inspired by our College pride and Facebook launching a new reaction option called ‘Care’ during the pandemic,” explained Souradip.

“I’ve been programming for about fifteen years, which meant it only took me 10 minutes to create the browser extension as a bit of fun to boost morale. I’m thrilled that there have already been so many downloads – evidence of the strength of College pride at Catz!”

Anyone accessing Facebook after downloading the browser extension will be able to react (and see reactions) as ‘Wheely Good’ with a wheel icon, alongside the usual options like ‘Like’ (a thumbs up icon) and ‘Love’ (a red heard icon). If someone hasn’t got the browser extension, the standard ‘Care’ reaction (hugging a heart) will be visible.

Pictured: Illustration of how the ‘Wheely Good’ option is presented alongside other reactions, in place of the standard ‘Care’ option.

Advancing the development of platelets in a laboratory setting

The peer-review publication of Souradip’s new research article, entitled ‘In vitro-derived platelets: the challenges we will have to face to assess quality and safety’, marks an important milestone in any researcher’s career: the first paper as first author.

This achievement is the culmination of his time in the laboratory of Dr Cedric Ghevaert at the Department of Haematology at the University’s School of Clinical Medicine, where he was exploring issues around how cells known as platelets could be developed in a laboratory setting.

Souradip commented, “I jumped at the chance to join the Department of Haematology because blood encompasses so many aspects of modern medicine by virtue of affecting every organ system and determining the decisions that healthcare professionals make every day. I’d volunteered in laboratories even before applying to Cambridge for undergraduate studies and always knew I wanted to get involved in the cutting edge of medicine and be involved in the discovery of new diagnostics and treatments.”

Platelets are small but essential cells enable the body to form clots and stop bleeding whenever damage happens to blood vessels. Platelet transfusions are often given to people experiencing active, severe bleeding (as occurs during surgery) or to prevent bleeding in advance (for example, for patients being treated with chemotherapy). There’s also recent evidence that platelet dysfunction could influence mortality during COVID-19 infection.

As therapeutic options and surgical procedures become more advanced, demand for platelet transfusions has increased. To supplement what blood donors can give and ensure we always have enough to go around, Souradip’s team and other scientists worldwide are exploring how laboratories can play a role in creating and supplying platelets.

“While laboratory-derived products undergo clinical trials to test whether they are safe and effective for patients, it is vital that the research community comes up with a way to standardise how we assess these products before this phase – regardless of where in the world platelets have been produced. Having worked on some of these projects for a few years now, it is great to finally be able to share my findings and contribute to this potentially life-saving area of research,” added Souradip.

Reference

S. Mookerjee, et al. In vitro-derived platelets: the challenges we will have to face to assess quality and safety. Platelets. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2020.1769051

Find out more about postgraduate studies at St Catharine’s.