Profile

Photo:

Vaanathi Sundaresan

Curriculum Vitae

  • Work History:

    Worked as project associate for a year in Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC), IITM, India and continued as research assistant for 2 more years.

  • Current Job:

    DPhil student in the University of Oxford

  • About Me

    Biomedical Imaging DPhil student of Oxford, interested in books and art

  • Read more

    I am from India, and I am currently living in Oxford. I spend my leisure time on painting, embroidering and travelling around. I love travelling to scenic places and sketching the sceneries. Coming from south India which is known for humid and sultry climate, I love the mild summer here and I am yet to see a real snow! I am the member of College Art Society and Oxford India Centre for Sustainable development. I love spicy food and tropical juices. I love playing badminton and carrom, occasionally chess.

  • My Work

    I analyse the medical images of various organs of the body to identify and characterize diseases or pathologies

  • Read more

    I am pursuing my DPhil in Biomedical Imaging. Biomedical imaging is an affordable and non-invasive (does not involve surgery) diagnostic technique which could really help in early diagnosis of various diseases. During my Masters, I was working in retinal images of human eye. I was analysing various signs related to diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. In my DPhil I have been working on two projects. In the first project, I have been looking at brain MRI images to identify lesions (blood deprived/ degenerated regions) which are related to dementia, in the brain white matter.  In the second project, I am analysing the fetal hearts in the antenatal ultrasound screening images. The idea is to describe the state and health if fetal heart and look out for congenital heart diseases before the baby is born.

  • My Typical Day: Starts with cycling all the way to my office in the Headington hill (about 4 miles from my home), attending seminars, working in the lab and analysing images. Occasional meeting with my supervisor, attending courses and arranging conferences.

  • What I'd do with the money

    I would spend the money for promoting healthcare awareness programmes for public.

  • Read more

    How many of us are undergoing routine clinical check-ups – Routine uterus ultrasound scans? Echocardiography monitoring? Diabetic check-up? Breast tumour screening? MRI scanning? From my experience as biomedical imaging engineer, I encounter many cases where early diagnosis would have led to timely treatment. Let it be tumour, degenerative diseases and metabolic illness, many imaging techniques have been developed to assist clinicians in identifying diseases at early stage. However, there is little awareness among people about undergoing routine screening and scans. If win the prize money, I would organize a public engagement activity for both children (I think it is vital to create awareness among next generation) and adults.

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Creative, passionate about work, determined

      What's the best thing you've done in your career?

      The retinal diseases screening software developed by our research group has been successfully trialled in 8 leading eye hospitals across various parts of India, benefitting 10000+ people.

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      I have always been a late eater – so was in trouble for being late to post-lunch classes! Jokes apart, had a peaceful school life

      If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

      Doctor/Architect/fashion designer, probably an artist!

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      Ghazals (a kind of Indian Music)

      What's your favourite food?

      Spicy fish curry and rice

      What is the most fun thing you've done?

      Went trekking with my friends to a rocky waterfall region in India, was qualified for a national level painting competition – had great fun in wall painting (in the end was fully covered in paint myself!)

      Tell us a joke.

      My inner musings…. 1. When mom wakes me up telling that sun is up, I wonder what I am suppose to do… PHOTOSYNTHESIS??!! 2. Can computers sense fear? the more you run out of time, the slower they run (revenge time Honey!) 3. What would Sir Isaac Newton do, if he was asked to reproduce his experiments – go and wait under an apple tree? …. and so the list goes on!!

Questions answered by Vaanathi

View all Vaanathi's answered questions