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PhD advice from Rishika

Building skin in a dish: the PhD journey of Dr. Rishika Agarwal

Rishika Agarwal is a scientist specialized in human skin organoids, who obtained her PhD at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

This scientific field is far from mine and it sparked curiosity in me. Before meeting her, I read that organoid culture technology has advanced at an impressive pace in recent years, earning the title of “Method of the Year 2017” by Nature Methods for its transformative potential in studying human biology in both health and disease (Lancaster & Knoblich, 2014). These miniature, self-organizing 3D tissue models offer an unprecedented opportunity to bridge the gap between traditional 2D cell cultures and complex in vivo models, revolutionizing biomedical research (Agarwal et al., 2023). 

They sound like the perfect subject for a Sci-Fi story, right? 

This illustration was created by dr Pedro Velica, who kindly landed to me for this blog post.

She explained during our conversation that skin organoids mimic the complex architecture of human skin, incorporating multiple cell types like keratinocytes, melanocytes, fibroblasts, and immune cells. These models allow scientists to study conditions such as genetic skin disorders, skin cancer, infections, and inflammatory diseases, paving the way to a (not too far) future personalized medicine (Lee et al., 2020). 

Despite how interesting organoids may sound, this story is about Rishika and her PhD path. So here we go!

A personal mission: science with a purpose

Rishika’s passion for skin biology is rooted in her personal story. Her father suffers from psoriasis, and she wanted to contribute to research that could help people like him. Yet, her journey was far from straightforward. After earning a Biotechnology degree in India, she pursued a Master’s in Biotechnology at the Northwestern University in Illinois, United States. At this stage, a PhD was not in her plans—she simply wanted to do research.

Her career took off in an American biotech company, where she worked from 2014 to 2019. However, as she grew professionally, she hit a plateau—without a PhD, advancing into senior scientific roles was nearly impossible. This realization made her reconsider pursuing a PhD. She applied for programs in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. And eventually, she secured a position at the University of Basel, within the group of a professor she had never met before — a risky decision but her only option at that moment. 

A rocky start: the challenges of a PhD

Moving to Switzerland at 29 was far more difficult than her earlier transition from India to the USA at 22. Cultural differences, language barriers—Swiss-German was spoken everywhere—and an unfamiliar environment made her question whether she had made the right choice. 

Additionally, she was facing a difficult scientific challenge: at the time, the literature on epidermal skin organoids was not extensive, which meant that, on one side, her project was very innovative, but also she couldn’t rely on much prior knowledge. And so, her project started from scratch, and for an entire year, nothing worked. Every experiment failed. She began doubting herself, feeling lost even in everyday activities like grocery shopping in a foreign language.

Yet, her PhD supervisor remained supportive, never discouraged by the lack of results. A turning point came when she traveled to Utrecht (the Netherlands) to collaborate with experts in the field. Upon her return, she finally succeeded in developing her first organoid—a true Eureka moment! But just two weeks later, COVID-19 hit. A six-week lockdown forced her to pause lab work, which, unexpectedly, allowed her to reset. By the time she returned, she felt like a different person—more acclimated to Switzerland, more confident in the lab, and with a better support system of friends and colleagues.

Publishing, mentorship, and new directions

Once her experiments gained momentum, the next challenge was structuring her research into publications. Fortunately, she had a colleague in the lab who guided her in breaking down the process—starting with figures, followed by captions, materials, and finally summarizing the results.

However, she didn’t have the same luck navigating all interpersonal relationships in the lab. She faced challenges collaborating with her first-year daily supervisor and, although she enjoyed supervising her students, she encountered one particularly difficult to mentor. Yet, she remained resilient, overcoming also these obstacles to successfully complete her PhD and transition into a postdoctoral position.

Looking ahead: beyond academia

Now as a postdoc, Rishika is exploring new possibilities beyond traditional academia. She became involved with Nucleate, a student-led organization that helps PhD students and postdocs commercialize their research through workshops and networking opportunities. She initially joined to expand her connections but gradually took on more responsibilities, from social media management to event organization, til now managing director responsibilities. Kudos to her! 

Advice for aspiring PhD students

Reflecting on her journey, Rishika emphasizes the importance of self-awareness before committing to a PhD. She advises prospective students to ask themselves: Why do you want to pursue a PhD? Are you genuinely curious? Do you enjoy problem-solving and experimentation?

She also recommends gaining work experience first—whether as a research associate or in industry—to understand if a lab environment suits them without the intense pressure of a PhD. 

A story of growth and resilience

Rishika’s journey illustrates the resilience required to navigate a PhD. From failed experiments to cultural adaptation, from personal motivation to professional reinvention — her story serves as inspiration for aspiring researchers. The path of scientific discovery is rarely smooth, but as she has shown, perseverance, curiosity, and the right mentorship can make all the difference. 

Last but not least: what’s her favorite coffee?

For Rishika, coffee was never something she needed to stay awake—it was more of a comfort, although in stressful times, it would sometimes made her anxiety worse. In India, she enjoyed it simply as a teaspoon of instant coffee mixed with warm milk and sugar, or in the summer, served cold with ice. She also liked making Dalgona coffee, whipping coffee and sugar into a fluffy foam before adding hot or cold milk, making it rich and creamy like a cappuccino. 

If you like to dive in the articles cited, here are the details:

  • Lancaster, M. A., & Knoblich, J. A. (2014). Organogenesis in a dish: Modeling development and disease using organoid technologies. Science, 345(6194), 1247125.
  • Method of the Year 2017: Organoids. Nat Methods 15, 1 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.457
  • Agarwal, R., Dittmar, T., Beer, H. D., Kunz, M., Müller, S., Kappos, E. A., … & Navarini, A. A. (2023). Human epidermis organotypic cultures, a reproducible system recapitulating the epidermis in vitro. Experimental Dermatology, 32(7), 1143-1155. 
  • Lee, J., Rabbani, C. C., Gao, H., Steinhart, M. R., Woodruff, B. M., Pflum, Z. E., & Heller, S. (2020). Hair-bearing human skin generated entirely from pluripotent stem cells. Nature, 582(7812), 399-404.

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    PhD advice from Elena

    Did you ever drink an espresso (preferably) somewhere in Italy? If you close your eyes now, can you feel the nice energetic lift that drinking a good balanced espresso gives? Well… that’s Elena! Her words: if she was a coffee, she would be exactly an espresso! 

    I hope you already had the pleasure to meet her! In this case, you know of what kind of passion I’m talking about. But in case you don’t know her yet, I’m sure you will want to connect with her as soon as you are done reading this post! 

    I met Elena on LinkedIn and my impression after talking to her is that she is a powerful energetic young woman with a clear vision in mind, determined to make an impact with her work. She is a people person who works hard on self-discovering and self-development, dedicated to make a difference in academia. The reason why I asked her to share her PhD story is that I thought she would be inspiring and she truly was for me. 

    To keep using food analogies, Elena already had a bit of a taste of Sweden during her bachelor study in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2015. She was intrigued by how vaccines work and how can they be delivered in a more effective way. She enjoyed both the environment of the Karolinska institute and the research she was involved in. 

    When deciding to do a PhD or not, she got back in contact with her bachelor supervisor in Sweden, who, as often happens, knew somebody who was looking for a PhD student. The feeling Elena got by talking to her was extremely positive. She felt immediately a good interaction. She said “This supervisor has at heart her students’ development”. This gave her trust that, if she would have pursued a PhD with her, she would have the space to steer her research topic, if needed. 

    Next to that, she knew that the environment at the Karolinska institute would be fertile soil to pursue both a high quality research and her personal/professional growth, surrounded by many like-minded young PIs. 

    While in this decision-making limbo, she met a person who had a great impact on her and that she would identify as a mentor. She looked up to him for being a real person, willing to inspire and develop students to grow to their full potential. A person highly qualified, successful in her eyes while still very humble, who encouraged her to do a PhD as a stepping stone to pursue an entrepreneur path in Pharma Biotech. 

    So, this was the turning point that convinced her to go for a PhD. What I found very interesting is that she was absolutely clear from the start that she didn’t want to do a PhD to become an expert in her field but use the experience of a PhD as playground for growth and development. 

    With this mindset, she started a PhD on skin immunology, aimed at studying T-cells that can in the long run cause diseases like psoriasis and vitiligo. 

    For her research to be successful, it needs to be read, useful and valuable for the reader. So I asked her “Elena, how do you define success?”. And she said “Success is personal and consequently professional growth. Measuring growth is not easy but I noticed how much more confident I have become, how much my mindset has changed, how much more willing I am to get out of my comfort zone, how much I believe that I can make things happen when I put my mind onto something. I can now also say out loud and without shame that I don’t know something”. The old saying ‘The more I learn, the less I realize I know’ totally applies here. 

    Like Miguel, whose interview you can find here, Elena has learnt to unlink her personal value from what she knows. Working on her mindset has certainly helped her to debunk limiting believes that often lead towards the imposter syndrome. She speaks very passionately about this. She is learning to understand her mind-patterns and to do the work because “life doesn’t just happen”. Meditation is for her a powerful ally to get clear and make things happen.

    She is certain that going abroad has been the best decision! She enjoys living in Sweden. Although making friends there is not very easy, she has chosen her acquired family among her peers. This is a very recognizable pattern when you are a PhD student abroad, where the culture of the country you are in can be very different from that of your origin. So many people in the same stage of life, facing the same problems, become a little family, where often it’s research talks all around all the time. 

    Exactly these talks among her peers opened her eyes to a few common problems among PhDs:

    • What to do after a PhD? This topic is never too high of a priority while you are busy with it but it should be given serious thoughts much earlier that when majority of the people do. 
    • And what are other positions out there in case of wanting to transition outside academia? 
    • How to communicate academic achievements and skills into industry language? How do you fit them in a CV or a resume? 

    Finally, I loved the fact that she is an absolute advocate for doing a PhD and she is fueled with passion when she talks about these issues. Her future entrepreneurship adventure aims at tackling these problems and at making a positive impact in the life of as many people as possible. And for that, I wish her the best of luck!

    At the beginning of this post I wrote that talking to Elena has been inspiring for me. And I want to close this post by telling you why: I think it’s important to pursue inspiration in our daily life. It can come through a conversation, like in this case. I hope, in your case, it happens by reading about this conversation!

    Stable Diffusion-generated image with input string “joyful PhD student finding inspiration reading a blog post”

    And why being inspired is important? Because it sets you in the flow. Being in the flow, according to the emotional intelligence*, corresponds to the highest level of channeling emotions to achieve the best level of learning. This is because that’s when you are completely focused on what you are doing, you enjoy it and you are not worried about the outcome of it. In addition to this, I experienced that recognizing these moments of “being in the zone” is important because they contain little hints to what we truly enjoy doing, what we love and, at some point, comes easy to us. 

    And as a scientist, don’t you feel a little excited if you think of yourself like an experiment where you can write a note to self-awareness when you recognize to be in the flow?  It may seem like nothing, but actually these moments are important indications to help you answer that serious question Elena asked “What to do after a PhD?”.

    *Daniel Goleman, Emotional intelligence, book, 1995

    Linkedin Elena: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-hoffer-

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    PhD advice from Dr Fabio Porru on mental health in academia

    I belong to that category of people that had a difficult time during their PhD, not that I was depressed or unhappy, but I felt under constant strain. Every day. 

    Although, I am sure a big portion of graduate students recognize this situation, I think it was not right to feel that way. 

    The problem I see now is that what we experience during the PhD has consequences also afterwards. It is not going to go away just because we graduate. For this reason, taking care of your own mental health is important if you think about your whole working life in a sustainable way. 

    Mental health is far from my field of study but I met somebody who has focused most of his research on this topic, particularly mental health among university students. 

    Meet Fabio Porru, who is a medical doctor currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in Rotterdam. Talking to him has been extremely educational for me. I hope to pass on to you, who are reading, some of the most inspiring points of our conversation.

    First of all, I noticed a spark, common in researchers: that extraordinary passion about his research and a feeling of fulfillment to be able to make of his passion his work. The type of work he does is meaningful for himself and has an impact towards others. 

    From what he told me, he had a wonderful supervisor during his PhD, somebody who had an inspirational influence on him, which has planted a give-back purpose. He opened a Facebook group where people openly discuss their mental health problems: https://www.facebook.com/groups/219150905409114. You are welcome to join it, if you feel this topic is dear to you!

    Fabio has identified, among others, three important causes for mental health problems among students: 

    1. Perfectionism
    2. Workload
    3. Academic climate

    It is known that burnout is one of the most common mental health problems nowadays and a major occupational concern. It is clinically characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynic attitude towards the job, and reduced personal accomplishment. There is often an overlap with depression, but the two conditions are different. While in the last few years growing attention was given to mental health among university students, much less was done about PhD students.

    In a recent study, German researchers have shared the worrying results of a survey conducted on a sample of 16.000 PhDs from the Leibniz PhD Network, Max Planck PhDnet, Helmholtz Juniors and IPP Mainz PhD Network. This study shows that 15% of PhDs report suffering from moderate to severe depressive symptoms and roughly 40% of the PhDs report a high level of overall anxiety symptoms. The situation is Germany is not dissimilar from that observed in other academic institutions, especially in the USA. 

    So, if working should be overall good for your life, when the opposite happens, it’s an important warning sign that something needs to be done.  

    Of course, this does not mean that you should strive to live a life without any stress or anxiety. Being exposed to a certain level of stress, actually, is good. It also shows that you care about what you are doing. In the right amount, stress helps us to pursue our goals by increasing our performance (eustress), and actually helps us in the long run to learn how to cope with life challenges. However, above a certain threshold and/or for a prolonged time (distress), stress is harmful.  

    Many life challenges have the potential of being stressful, but they are not perceived by everybody in the same way because the individual perception is influenced by many other factors. Research in occupational health has showed us many factors which may help to explain these differences. Some of them are individual characteristics, others are organizational. The two types often interact with each other.

    For example, a deadline is likely to be perceived more stressful by a perfectionist person. For the same person, the very same deadline may be perceived even more stressful if the work climate is less supportive or toxic, or if the person is not satisfied about her/his own work and underestimates her/his own abilities, or if the organization does not provide the proper resources to manage the work.

    Workload is a major topic, while talking about stress. Decreasing the workload is not always possible, although recommendable. Luckily, it is not just about the objective workload. Like for the deadline, also the same workload can be perceived very differently. 

    Fabio mentioned the effort-reward imbalance as one of the most successful models used to study work-related stress. According to this model, the key of fighting stress lays in avoiding an imbalance between effort and reward. If decreasing the workload is not possible, increasing the reward may be a feasible solution. Reward is not only about the salary but also means being inspired by the work. Reward is the feeling that we are achieving something, that we are developing our expertise and building up the career we want. Moreover, in a society where we often require so much from ourselves, reward comes also from recognizing our hard work and giving ourselves a little treat! For Fabio, a little treat at the end of the day is a glass of wine and a good piece of cheese. For me, a dinner at one of my favorite restaurants with good company! What about you? Do you remember sometimes to give yourself a little treat? 

    Another important consideration (especially for the perfectionists among us): how to let good enough be good enough? An idea could be to define three levels of performance in a task: the max, the min and the mod. 

    For example, you are drafting the discussion of your paper. If you go for the max(iumum) level of performance, you want to write this paragraph taking all the possible articles that are dealing with your subject, which might take several days or months to go through if the subject you are working on is a well-studied one. If you go for the min(imum) approach you could just use the info you know and that’s it, which takes the least amount of time and effort. While, if you take the mod(erate) level of performance, you would involve adding one or two elements above the minimum.  

    The fact that you can choose among a few performance options can feel really liberating! Try it to find out what is your best suited level of performance, or what is the best suited level of performance for the situation you are in!

    Finally, Fabio gift-wrapped three very wise advices for all the PhD students out there:

    • Embrace the downs. Life is about ups and downs, not only about ups. Downs are needed too. They help us to understand what we want and what we do not want. Downs push us to self-reflect. We need to remind ourselves that it is ok to experience them, and we need to look at them as an opportunity instead of as a problem.
    • Take care of yourself and of your passion. It is the biggest investment you can do for your own productivity. Take care of your health, mental and physical so that you feel enriched instead of drained. Being healthy and passionate allows us to enjoy both our private and professional life. They are basic ingredients to do more, and to do better.
    • Enjoy the PhD journey by taking it for what it is: a wonderful and complicated period of your life which has incredible moments of growth for your personal and professional life. And take time during this journey to think about who you are and why you are doing a PhD. Be open to what comes out, without any judgment. 

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    PhD advice from Juniper

    Our brain’s objective is to allow us to survive by sticking to what we already know because that’s safe. That’s our comfort zone, the area where we survive. However, it’s only thanks to courage that we step away from the comfort zone and we go towards the area where magic happens. Only there, out there, we start LIVING! 

    The story of Juniper Kiss is, in my opinion, a story of courage, the story of a person who is not afraid of living, setting an example for many out there who want to do a PhD, notoriously miles away from the comfort zone!  

    She was one extremely enthusiastic undergraduate student when I met her in 2017 who wanted to start a PhD badly and finally landed a position in Exeter (UK) in 2019 where she worked on the Fusarium wilt disease of bananas in Latin America. Unfortunately, she found herself in a toxic lab environment. When she told me about the type of toxic environment, I felt deeply sympathetic with her, as it was unfortunately a case of sexual harassment. Nevertheless, her courage once more helped her to confront the situation and leave that lab. 

    I would like to take a moment here to remind the reader that, YES this is something that happens more regularly that you might think. And YES, we need to talk about it because NO, it was not you, although that is what you may think at first. NO, it was not you and you didn’t provoke it. Let’s get over the shaming and be open when this kind of situations happen. Science is beautiful but is made by people, so it contains all our brilliance but also all our bias. 

    Juniper is now a much happier PhD student at the University of Southampton working on improving food security of Papua New Guinea’s small-scale farmers. She has been recently awarded a grant, the Judith Heath Explored Award (£5,250), to travel to Papua New Guinea and work side by side with local farmers on collecting sweet potatoes, while learning from them and helping them. 

    In addition to this wonderful trip, she feels she has a lot of freedom to organize her PhD the way she sees most fit with the guidance of her supervisors. Because of the responsibility that comes with it, some might feel intimidated by this approach of the British universities but not Juniper. She explained me that the idea behind is to train good independent researchers already from the PhD. One main task of an independent researcher is to look for grants to continue and sustain his/her research. See where I’m going? The Judith Heath Explored Award is not the only grant she managed to get. In total, she received £30.000 worth of grants since the beginning of her undergraduate studies! 

    When I asked her to give some advice about PhD life, she came up with a few important “greenlights” that cover the whole track. 

    First of all, despite all the enthusiasm you may have, take a proper break before starting a PhD. It is important to recharge your batteries to the fullest before embarking in a new adventure.

    When you are starting, just remember to be patient. You may think to have it all figured out already, but situations may arise that surprise you. It’s just a learning curve.

    When you are deep into your PhD, remember to do what makes you happy. And if at some point you discover that you are not, there is nothing wrong in leaving. Inside tip: complaints are not regarded as symptoms of “I’m not PhD material” because literally every PhD student complains, nevertheless they still love it.  

    And last but not least, don’t start thinking about what you want to do after your PhD only at the end. It’s a choice that sometimes takes time to be clear. So, take the time to investigate what you are good at and where your passion lies so that you can attract day-by-day the job of your dream.  

    I want to wish Juniper the very best. She is just one stamp away on the passport to travel to Papua New Guinea. I’m sure she will be living this experience to the fullest and come back with new stories to encourage more people to pursue stepping out of their comfort zone. 

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    PhD advice from Katharina

    I recently had the opportunity to chat again with Katharina about her PhD path. She graduated last December and now she is happily working as Education Specialist in Wageningen. 

    Like, Miguel, she was one of my students during the MSc thesis. Among other things, at that time her proactiveness to find solutions to practical problems we encountered in the lab and in the greenhouse was impressive. Probably, that experience left in her the seed of a PhD along with the curiosity to see what it means to handle a full project, from the idea to its realization.

    Indeed, when we talked about the Why that convinced her to start a PhD, I wasn’t surprised when she said that she liked the idea of working on an actual problem and, therefore, contributing to a bigger purpose. 

    However, like many students experience, the PhD can be a perilous journey: half-way she started to feel anxiety. Fortunately, she sought of asking for help. It must have been heartwarming to hear from one of her supervisors this powerful and liberating advice: “Stay true to yourself”. Because it’s important to remember that it is not a shame to feel not good when you are under a lot of pressure and to say it out loud. To even consider taking a step back and prioritize your own wellbeing over everything else. It requires more courage than continuing on the set path.

    Those words allowed her to reconnect with the initial Why and persevere through the journey not for the  title that awaits at the end but for the passion and the challenge that a PhD poses. 

    It is a steep learning curve! 

    For Katharina, it also meant to realize how important it is to balance PhD life with other activities, preferably those that have nothing to do with the work she did, so that she could disconnect and restart the next day recharged. 

    This is also a beautiful way to get “contaminated” by something different rather than just the area you are interested in, where little by little, you become the expert. I see also an interesting extra value to it, which is to learn soft skills that might come in handy in your future career. Indeed, soft skills are transferrable to many circumstances because they are related to the how you do certain things opposed to the hard skills that relate to the what you are able to do. For example, Katharina realized that a good lesson from the relationship with her supervisors is to have learnt to communicate more efficiently and to have benefitted from this skill also later in the job she landed after the PhD. 

    Artifact I photographed in Paris at the Museum of Louvre in 2018

    Last but not least, Katharina’s advice on a healthy PhD experience is to talk to your peers. Sharing your own struggles with others makes you realize that we are all on the same boat and so we can understand, feel and support each other. Then you discover that a friend, disguised in a white coat, sometimes is just a cup of coffee away! 

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    PhD advice from Miguel

    Motivation is the process that starts, guides and sustains a PhD journey. At the beginning is the trigger that jump starts you. Afterwards, it becomes the drive that pushes you to continue till you reach your objective: getting the PhD.  

    Nevertheless, even with this clear objective in mind, your motivation will fluctuate because there will be periods when you are under a lot of stress and there is a lot required from you. Many times you will think “This is all too much!”. Those are the moments when you feel the finishing line getting far away. 

    How to get back your motivation in these situations? 

    I started talking about this with Miguel, a PhD student of Plant Breeding at Wageningen University (NL). Miguel and I know each other since his MSc thesis when I was his daily supervisor. I remember his curiosity regarding the topic we were studying together, often coming into my office to discuss about something he had read with such an enthusiasm!  

    For Miguel, motivation has two faces.

    On one hand, he realises to be working in the best university of the world when it comes to Plant Science, which makes him proud; and, during these past four years, he has developed competencies and technical skills that allow him to actually be doing great research! It is known that the more competences you learn the higher the satisfaction in performing the activities you are busy with. This increases your self-efficacy and, consequently, your self-esteem, boosting your motivation back up. 

    On the other hand, Miguel has realised in time that the job that he does, as a PhD student, although sometimes may seem encompassing all that he is, actually does not define who he is. This is a beautiful lesson of self-awareness which led him to look for a more balanced work-life style.

    Another core lesson, linked to the previous one, regards a good PhD student-supervisor relationship. He says: “You need to learn the art of negotiation, of saying no, of setting priorities and how to get what you need. To achieve these goals, you need to know yourself and where your boundaries are.” 

    In this process of hard work and self-discovery it is easy to feel lonely and misunderstood or to hit a wall in your research. At that point do not forget to reach out to your peers, talk to them, initiate collaborations. Ask questions. Be brave. There is a lot to gain from this experience. And from the whole PhD journey.