A fairytale journey from medicine to food research

You grew up in Bhutan; tell us about your path to Ireland.

My journey has been full of serendipity, with one thing leading to another. I come from the Kingdom of Bhutan nestled in the Himalayas, and I was qualified to study medicine there.

However, fate decided otherwise that I came to Ireland to study biomedical sciences, then I moved to Stockholm to do a PhD in Biochemistry before moving back to Ireland to work as a post-doc in analytical chemistry in University College Dublin. I still teach one module a year in UCD.

Then in 2009, I moved to Teagasc, where I got involved in food and health research. I feel very fortunate the way things worked out. For me it has been like a fairy tale to be on this journey from the Himalayan mountains to Western Europe, and I have been surrounded by and supported by good people. I am particularly indebted to my Coady family in Dublin for their love and kindness throughout the years.

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I still teach one module a year in UCD. Then in 2009, I moved to Teagasc, where I got involved in food and health research. I feel very fortunate the way things worked out. For me it has been like a fairy-tale to be on this journey from the Himalayan mountains to western Europe, and I have been surrounded by and supported by good people. I am particularly indebted to my Coady family in Dublin for their love and kindness throughout the years.

What kind of research did you do along that journey?

Many different projects. My PhD was on identification of genetic mutations in human haemoglobin disorders. More recently I have been focusing on the beneficial chemicals we can derive from plants that we could potentially use as natural preservatives or flavourings in food, and that could have protective roles for health.

What plants have been capturing your interest of late?

When I started in Teagasc, we were looking at common vegetables like carrots and onion and broccoli, but the move in my lab is now towards waste products, like the plant material that is discarded when herbs are processed, or else underused resources like marine algae.

For example, we have been finding that rosemary extracts are useful for delaying lipid oxidation in milk powders, so they perhaps could be natural products to use to preserve milk powders rather than currently used synthetic chemicals.

Working with colleagues at University College Cork, we have also found that a blackberry juice extract rich in polyphenols may be beneficial for people with high blood pressure. And we are working on a European project to look at compounds in algae that may be useful in inflammatory bowel diseases.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Seeing my students succeed. I remember back in the late 1990s I was so excited to have my first research paper published. Today I still get that joy when my students have papers published in international journals. I think I learned that focus on students from my own mentors, particularly Prof Pat Guiry in UCD. You imbibe that kind of culture from your mentors and pass it on.

What else do you think others have learned from you?

Maybe I encourage people to be happy with their surroundings. In Bhutan we have a measure of gross national happiness, and even in school we learn about the importance of respecting and enjoying the environment and culture, and seeing success in the light of happiness more than possessions or monetary wealth.

And how do you take a break from research?

I enjoy sports and I have become a coach at my son’s football club. At the weekends I love to cook Bhutanese meals, and I also write short poems and stories based on my experience — life has been very colourful moving from the Himalayan mountains to the archipelagos of Sweden and the plains of Dublin.