I wouldn’t have reached this level without my husband’s backing - Sadia Sarwar

he for she

By ABS

We have grown to hear the maxim that husband and wife are equal partners with different but complementary responsibilities. And their understanding and companionship can win over crises and dilemmas enabling a family’s success and growth.

A real-life story, truly reflecting this camaraderie, is that of Sadia Sarwar, a Fulbright scholar doing her PhD, in Biomedical Sciences from the College of Medicine, University of Florida, who has achieved headway in finding medicine to eradicate the therapy-resistant tumours of the dreaded prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer remains one of the most dreaded diseases that remains a top killer, globally. The patients have to undergo painful hormone therapy and later, chemotherapy to contain the spreading tumour. Often, prostate cancer relapses and returns metastasised with the available therapeutic combinations offering little relief. Besides, the side effects of chemotherapy also take their toll.

Against this backdrop, in 2019 Dr Ishov’s Lab at the University of Florida, College of Medicine, identified Sadia and her research mates to explore novel therapeutic combinations to eliminate the therapy-resistant prostate tumour. Prof Alexander M Ishov was her project supervisor.

She is a doting mother to four-year-old Ameerah and wife to Ali Kaunain Pasha. They got married back in Lahore in 2017. It was initially challenging to settle down in Florida in 2018 with a two-month-old infant Ameerah.

With up to 10 hours of tough, challenging work at the University of Florida’s lab, Sadia was focused to make her mark. But she couldn’t afford to compromise either on work or family. The only aspect of her life that she could ignore was rest and sleep. The sleep denial due to the infant’s sleep cycle would keep her up several times at night and with the next day’s work lying ahead, it became taxing for the young mother.

Abandoning his career in finance and accounting, her husband Ali opted to stay home to babysit, allowing Sadia to focus on challenges at the workplace. Being brought up by a professional mother, Ali found it easy to make the choice. “Sadia was selected as a Fulbright scholar for prostate therapy research and it wasn’t ethical to deny her the achievement,” comments Ali.

While Sadia would head for the lab, after making their breakfast and lunch, Ali used to land in the kitchen and tried his luck with baking apple pies, brownies and muffins and then graduating to more desi delights like pulao, biryani and other curries - honing them to perfection. Not to ignore the early disasters of burning them to a crisp.

At nine months, Ameerah had begun her commando crawls, trying to put everything in her mouth and poking fingers in the sockets. “That was a scary time, but a lot of fun too,” recalls Ali. “I had to nervously follow her, keeping her away from stairs and everything else. But watching her grow, take her first steps, cooing and babbling was most rewarding,” he smiles.

It would be home again when Sadia would return in the evening but with another hectic day at the lab ahead, she had to schedule things. With no domestic help to bank on, she would plunge into house chores. “I found my relaxation with Ameerah and Ali. We would always find time to get out of the house, drive around, mingle with the international community at the university’s Graduate and Family Housing and catch some fun,” says Sadia. “Ali’s contribution has always been tremendous and none of this could have been possible without a better understanding,” adds Sadia, who is the eldest of five siblings.

Back in Lahore, Sadia earned a gold medal in her bachelor’s at the Chemistry Department of University of Punjab. She completed her Master’s with research in hyperthyroidism at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology. She also extensively studied squamous cell carcinoma during her M Phil at Forman Christian College, in 2016. But then luck intervened and she got the Fulbright Scholarship on her very first attempt and reached Florida.

“My father’s motivation kept me inspired. He is a great supporter of women’s education and now I feel lucky to have a husband like Ali who is so enlightened,” elucidates Sadia.

The Ishov Lab in the College of Medicine, University of Florida, had high expectations from Sadia where she had to quickly learn the protocols at the molecular cell biology lab. “I kept my focus and tried to balance work and home but that was not possible without my husband’s dedicated support. He isn’t fussy about food or the house being clean or spick and span and that kept most pressures at bay,” shares Sadia.

Within three years, Sadia and Prof Ishov have met with success in finding a proverbial panacea. Sadia employed a small molecule of ‘improvised experimental’ drug, Mps1i (BAY) with Taxanes, to destroy the tumour cells by retarding their ability of cellular multiplication and growth. This was done by stopping a ‘critical mitotic checkpoint protein Mps1 kinase’.

“The most heart-warming outcome was that the prostate tumour cells didn’t divide further with this treatment. The combination of the two drugs eliminated tumours significantly as compared to other FDA-approved therapies,” explains Sadia. While these tests were conducted in a laboratory environment, the therapeutic efficacy of the promising protocol now needs to be put to animal and clinical trials.

Sadia got her research published in the peer-reviewed Springer Nature, USA, one of the world’s most influential journals. She is almost through her second paper on a similar subject. Both papers would allow her to defend her PhD by April 2023.

Due to her outstanding understanding and hard work, she has been twice awarded extramural funding award by the College of Medicine at the University of Florida helping her with financial issues. She had been counselling other Pakistani Fulbright scholars to find their ambition. Sadia is also serving as a mayor and treasurer for Graduate and Family Housing since April 2022 in the Mayors’ Council, an organisation funded by the student government at University of Florida. She also won the senator elections at UF student government elections, as a representative for Graduate and Family Housing.

Ali feels proud of Sadia’s accomplishment. “She has done so well for herself and I wish her to achieve a breakthrough in cancer research,” expresses Ali. In a change of fortunes, Ali has a newfound interest: In the footsteps of his wife, he now wants to pursue a career in genetic editing techniques like Crispr. With gaze fixed at galaxies ahead, Sadia plans to pursue a career in translational cancer research to bring improvement to the quality of life of those suffering from the dreaded disease and increase their survival chance.