Her childhood ambition was to follow in her father's footsteps and become a doctor. When she grew up, her goal shifted to medical research.
At 26, Rinta Susan Mathew from Ennakkad, near Chengannur, is one step closer to fulfilling her cherished dream, now that she has bagged a ₹1.75-crore scholarship from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. She is among a small number of students from across the globe selected for the President’s Doctoral Scholar (PDS) Award from the university.
The high point is that she will be doing her PhD in Gastroenterology on the protective effects of a dietary combination developed by her father, Mathew K. Sam, an Ayurveda doctor, for acute pancreatitis. The research, titled ‘The protective effects of sprotone during acute pancreatitis’, will be supervised by Jason Bruce. “I am happy to be selected as one of the 10 PDS scholars,” says Ms. Mathew.
According to her, the product formulated by her father has been found to “overcome the nutritional deficiencies seen in diabetic patients.”
“I was able to prove its anti-diabetic property during my master's at Loyola College, Chennai, under the guidance of S. Vincent. Further, an animal study and an observational human study were carried out,” says Ms. Mathew.
She says her way to Manchester was opened when she sent an email to Dr. Bruce, expressing her interest in pursuing PhD under his guidance. “He seemed interested as my work was on a par with that of the studies at his lab. Numerous processes followed, including several rounds of interviews, before I was selected," says Ms. Mathew.
‘Patented’ product
One of the main reasons, she says, the project got selected is that the product developed by her father is “patented” and has all the scientific data, including cell lines, animal, and human studies. “Dr. Bruce's lab is perhaps the only one in the world studying the link between acute pancreatitis and diabetes, the reason why I have chosen the university,” she says.
In a letter sent to her, Tasleem Hanif, PGR recruitment and admissions manager of university, has invited Ms. Mathew to attend exclusive events with the varsity’s president and vice chancellor in September.
