Anirudh Karegowdra

11/31/17
English 10 GT

Interview with Dr. Sathyasaikumar Korpati

AK: Just saying that I'm going to record this so I can take the notes later If thats fine?

SK:Sure

AK: Ok thank you so much! I have some questions that I'm going to ask.

SK:Alright

AK:Alright so I prepared some questions that I will ask but before I do I want to just introduce
that I'm doing the research in my school and right now I'm researching tissue engineering.
I understand your field focuses on some tissues for your research. My first question is what is
your profession and what is it that you research?

SK: I work as a scientist and currently I'm working on psychiatric disorders like neurological
issues and my primary focus is on the list of enzymatic impairments. As a neuroscientist, I deal
with many tissues along with brain tissue.I do work on rats brains and hope to soon conduct
human testing. My department maily works with other major corporations to develop drugs for
neurological disorders so yes that is what I do.

AK: So when you're dealing with tissues What is it like when you're dealing with injuries or like.
Impairment in the cell? More specifially, what is your main issue in brain tissue that your
research?

SK: It depends on the focus of the product that is being developed when dealing with
impairments that I am concerned the most because we have to compensate for any damages. So
for example in Huntington’s Disease, the nerves leading down from the brain break down over
time which causes massive brain impairment. My department is research solutions to these types
of neurological diseases that we can fix using drugs that help the body fixed these issues
 Anirudh Karegowdra
11/31/17
English 10 GT

naturally with regeneration. For example, when an enzyme is out of balance, then we know an
impairment exists and it must then be addressed with medicine because the tissue cannot
function without resupplying it with functioning enzymes. A balance has to exist when dealing
with the body or else many of the tissues and organs will not function properly.

AK: So my next question is more dealing with as we move forward. So what do you expect as
we move forward with technology with medical treatments for addressing damage to injuries
using like new technologies?

SK: Well I think it depends on the context which new technology is used and for what purpose
because the human body is so complex in the way it functions so say 500 patients are in need of
a treatment. These 500 patients are in completely different environments if they are using new
technology or old methods so I guess the goal now is to engineer technology for medicine in a
way that it does not interfere with proper bodily function or it does not go to far beyond regular
preactices as well. I really think technology should have the ability to mimic natural funtion
which I believe is the best way for making good products. I do not really associate with much
technology in my department because I work mostly on the chemical side of the issues by
developing drugs but the new treatments with technology is interesting and should work.

AK: my next question is when you're thinking about damaged tissue is an impairment unlike the
rats that you said how do you think these methods of regenerative medicine can be improved in
the future?

SK: I think there's a large area for improvement but the problem is that the brain tissue is human
and I have discovered a major issue know as the blood brain barrier that is causing issues in the
development of drugs to help disorders.Using traditional methods is much more difficult when
dealing with the bodies natural functions such as the blood brain barrier so that is why I have
come to appreciate technology. Another department or program I think works with this new
technology known as nanoparticles which can replace some drugs that we use by acting as the
 Anirudh Karegowdra
11/31/17
English 10 GT

same agent the drugs wants to act as. For example, if there is a defficiency in an enzyme in brain
tiss, nanoparticles can act as the same agent to catalyze the process. That is how think medicine
for these issues will be improved.

AK:Do you believe that there are multiple affective methods of regenerating these damage to
student organs or do you believe that it has to be very specific or directed?

SK: You should be more specific because tissue and brain pathways with enzymes are very
specific for the type of molecules within them. Enzymes for example must be specific to a
certain part of the tissue or else the entire tissue is going through a metabolic pathway and that
will cause additional impairment. That is why we develop specific drugs in my department since
we only target specific areas of brain tissue.

AK: When researching tissues and internal organs such as the brain as you are researching right
now, it often involve implanting which leads to issues with the immune system. How do you
think doctors can address the immune system when creating solutions.

SK: Well yes it is very important to address because it can interfere with internal medicine when
it is released since it is seen as a foreign body compared to what is natural. For example, when
we inject proteins into brain tissue, the immune system recognizes it as foreign so some
suppressant must b e used to counteract this. As far as controling goes, it is very hard since it is a
needed system and not one part of it such as singualr antibodies can be supressed so I am not
familiar with any methods doctors can accomplish this task by. It would be helpful in the future
though if we could somehow get past the immune system to implant or use foreign enzymes.

AK: That is something I looked into as well. Well I beilieve I have asked all of my qustions so
thank you very much for your time doctor!
 Anirudh Karegowdra
11/31/17
English 10 GT

SK: No problem and good luck!

Reflection
While conducting this interview, I felt as though it went well although speaking to a
many of higher level education and knowledge scared me at first. I used distractors many times
and I hesitated to ask some of my questions but I was able to communicate what I wanted to
know in the end. A major issue was the field of my advisor which was regenerative medicine
which was not the results I wanted since I am researching tissue engineering. This made much of
the information he stated hard to understand since much of it was chemical termnology and
neuroscience terminology as well. Furthermore, most of the questions that I asked that dealt with
tissue engineering were harder answer for him which is why I had to generalize my questions
more so that everything made sense. Overall, the interview yielded a large mount of information
and crucial lab results that I needed to complee my long term project in the end. Although much
of this interview was hard to understand, I am sure much of this information can be implmented
into my topic in some way because it does deal with tissues. Moreover, he stated something
about nanoparticles several times during his interview so my next step in the process of
developing this project is to look into the various technological advances in tissue engineering.