Pulkit Bose (BA '07) mixing science and real life

This article was originally published in Pacific, June 2008.

Since graduating in June and getting married in July, transitions and changes have kept me busy. As you may know, Emily and I moved to Pennsylvania after our wedding for my job at Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, Pa. We are in suburban Philadelphia.

I joined a vaccine group and initially started by supporting the HIV vaccine trial that has now been stopped. This was a devastating thing for a lot of scientists at Merck and worldwide (especially our trial in South Africa). It broke our hearts, and continues to, as a lot of people give up hope for a vaccine in the future.

The truth is, HIV is a tough virus to fight and a vaccine is not a very practical possibility in the near future (at least 10 years). Moreover, I am learning that the world of HIV/AIDS medicine is (as expected) a complex one with various political, cultural and health policy issues influencing it.

Nonetheless, things move fast in the field of science. I am in the same group now supporting pre-clinical development of a cancer vaccine candidate for breast, colorectal, ovarian and non-small cell lung cancers that is in clinical trials, and another cancer vaccine candidate that is not in trial yet.

I am also supporting pre-clinical development of a therapeutic protein for anemia caused by kidney failure (diabetes) or treatment of cancer, etc.

I am enjoying my work and development in the "real world," so I want to thank each one of you for your invaluable contribution in my life—for teaching me wonderful things, for all the encouragement and love, for all the hard exams, for all the fun.

Emily is pursuing nursing and started college in January. We are still getting used to the East Coast culture and weather, but doing well.

You are more than welcome to our place if you ever want to visit or are visiting the East Coast. I'd also love to hear from you. God bless you.

Contact Pulkit and Emily at paul.sawroop@gmail.com.