Suchitra Ella interacts with students at The Hindu-VIT Chennai Biotech Conclave 2026 held at Taj Connemara in Chennai on Friday | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Responding to Treya K.’s question on the growing divide between wet-lab bioprocessing and AI-driven discovery, she said both areas would remain important, with hands-on science continuing to be the starting point. She added that graduates should spend three to five years understanding how different functions within an organisation work together.
On when researchers should abandon an idea, responding to R. Nidhi, she said decisions should be guided by experimental and safety data, as well as regulatory requirements, rather than theoretical expectations. “We need to let go when we see the data,” she said, adding that projects should be stopped if safety results were not convincing.
On a question from Muhammad Umar on pitfalls to avoid for biotech researchers, Dr. Ella said it could help analyse large datasets and reduce timelines in areas such as clinical research and manufacturing, but “cannot 100% be an operational driver” in life sciences or replace scientists involved in wet-lab work.
