TISB Alumni Portrait – Jayati Aggarwal

TISB Alumni, Jayati Aggarwal, graduated from TISB in 2006. Since then she has studied and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, Maryland US, and her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Biochemistry from Oxford, UK. Being passionate about Biotechnology, for the last eight years Jayati has been living in Mumbai and working with Fluid AI, where she today is the Executive Director. We reached out to Jayati to find out more about how she completed her journey from TISB to where she is today. 

I always think of my life at TISB as an ideal transitioning phase between my secondary education in CBSE and my collegiate studies at Johns Hopkins University – Jayati Aggarwal, TISB Alumni 

Joining TISB in the middle years, Jayati feels that when graduating the IBDP in 2006, the school had given her many different opportunities, helped her recognise her interests and talents, and prepared her to compete at the international level. “My focus subjects were Biology, Chemistry and Maths, as I wanted to study Biochemistry and had an inherent love for Maths”, says Jayati, who also took up French as she wanted to learn another language.  

This led her to studied Molecular & Cellular Biology at Johns Hopkins, and later a DPhil in Biochemistry from Oxford. “My focus was mainly on core academic research, and I managed to do projects in Epigenetics and Neuroscience in collaboration with Harvard University and Imperial College London”, says Jayati, who also did an industrial internship at Biocon where she gained understanding of how industrial labs differ from academic ones. “Both the universities are brilliant in their own way”, she says. “JHU has fantastic professors and world-class research facilities. Academic pressure is high but is also very enriching. Oxford also has excellent faculty, a vibrant student community and a rich cultural history. You almost feel like you are living in a story tale!” 

Her passions led Jayati to further explore Biotechnology, as she saw the potential use technology to solve healthcare problems. This led her to join Fluid AI in its start-up years. “I had a strong academic background in Biochemistry, but to learn technology and entrepreneurship, I joined Fluid AI”, explains Jayati. Along with her team, Jayati saw the potential for AI and Deep Learning, and to use their expertise in machine learning algorithms to overcome critical challenges in the healthcare space. “Over the years, I have donned many hats and taken up many roles as and when the company required”, says Jayati, whose responsibilities have included marketing, human resources, operations, and over-seeing intellectual property. Growth over the years has taken the company from a small start-up to the cover of Forbes magazine. “Most recently, I am working towards expanding our work in the healthcare sector and figuring out how AI can be best utilized to solve critical healthcare problems.” 

Jayati is planning to continue enabling customers and the world to benefit from the potential of AI. “I believe that AI will power the 4th industrial revolution and solve many critical challenges that humankind is facing today”, says Jayati, who sees the healthcare sector as fragmented and disorganised, which means that there will be a while before any major paradigm shift. “I envision a future where AI will provide composite, panoramic views of an individual’s medical and health data and aid stakeholders in making decisions and recommending treatment”, concludes Jayati.