Trainee Spotlight: Sumitha Bharathan, PhD

Sumitha grew up in Kerala, one of the southernmost states in India and a place where lush landscapes, the Arabian Sea coast and protected wildlife reserves have earned it the moniker of “God’s own country.”

As a young student there, Sumitha dreamed of becoming a scientist. “STEM subjects were my favorite in school and really fueled my curiosity,” she shares. “In college, I was particularly fascinated with sensory perception—where specific physical cues trigger chemical reactions, resulting in a biological outcome.”

Sumitha went on to earn a PhD in stem cell-based reprogramming and disease modeling at the Centre for Stem Cell Research at Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. In 2018, she joined the lab of Aaron Nagiel, MD, PhD, at CHLA, where she studies the formation of a critical sensory tissue: the retina.

“My project focuses on exploring the development and maintenance of the first synapse of the visual system,” she explains. “By learning more about how these synapses form, we can better understand how disease causes these connections to malfunction.”

Outside the lab, you’ll often find Sumitha in a quintessential L.A. location: a movie theater. Her favorite films? Anything from “Mollywood”—the burgeoning Indian movie industry in her home state of Kerala.