‘Wanted my work to matter’: IIIT Delhi professor left ‘low-impact’ industry for prize-winning cancer research

Although an ‘average’ student in school with a deep passion for music, Debarka Sengupta has gone on to win one of India’s highest scientific honours. A professor at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi, Sengupta has been awarded the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Vigyan Yuva–Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar 2025 in biological sciences for his contributions to cancer research.

Sengupta, now 42, arrived at his academic career late. He started as a software engineer at Infosys in 2006 and from 2007 to 2009, he was a systems engineer at IBM India. So far, so normal. Then, in 2009, he moved to the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI Kolkata) , pivoting away from standard IT jobs and toward a career in academics. He completed his PhD in 2013 and after a very brief stint as a data scientist, left to pursue postdoctoral research at the Genome Institute of Singapore. He completed it in 2016.

In a conversation with Careers360 , he reflects on his unconventional academic journey, starting from a government school in Birati in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas, the value of conceptual learning over memorisation, his transition from industry to academia, and how purpose-driven, interdisciplinary research has shaped his career.

How was your early life and schooling?

I grew up in Birati and studied at Birati High School. At that time, the school had some absolutely wonderful teachers. You probably wouldn’t find [teachers like them] today, even in top-notch schools. My father himself was a teacher and education was always taken seriously at home.

I’m not very closely-connected to the school now and know only a few teachers who are still there, but teachers from my time were exceptional. I consider myself extremely lucky to have studied there.

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Were you academically-inclined as a student?

Not really. I was never particularly interested in studies and I had no idea what research was. I didn’t struggle academically, but I didn’t enjoy the structured nature of education either. Mathematics always came easily to me, but overall, if you look at my scorecards, you wouldn’t call me a great student. I was doing okay and could grasp concepts but academics were never my main focus.

What interested you most during your childhood?

Music. I was deeply involved in North Indian classical vocal music from a very young age and trained rigorously for nearly 18 years, from childhood well into adulthood. I cleared all my examinations and even received the gold medal in north Indian classical vocal from Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh.

Music completely defined my world. I was going for rehearsals, practising, playing cricket, and generally living a very active, creative life. I was also interested in drawing and fine arts, though I never formally trained in them.

How was the academic environment at home when you were a schoolboy?

There was a lot of discipline. My father taught biology and mathematics and so, he was the first person I went to for any academic help. My brother is a doctor, so expectations were high. That said, discipline never stopped us from pursuing our interests, we always found time for music, sports, and other activities.

How did your college years go?

I studied computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics in school [in higher secondary]. My father did not like the idea of singing professionally and that was a tipping point. I decided to take studies seriously. I did not have a great rank in the Joint Entrance Exam. I somehow managed to get enrolled in a private engineering college, Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, under the Techno India Group, where I studied computer science .

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Academically, college was disappointing. The teaching was largely theoretical and uninspiring. I was genuinely trying to understand concepts rather than memorise them, but the lack of good teachers made it very difficult. As a result, my academic performance was poor, and I ranked near the bottom of my class.

Did this affect your placements?

Yes, significantly. There were around 35 companies during campus placements but I was eligible to sit for only three. Fortunately, I secured a job at Infosys, which marked a turning point.

When did your interest in learning truly develop?

Very late, actually. I learned how to send an email only in my third year of college. But when I was introduced to the internet, a whole new world opened up. I never had any idea of IITs, never thought of going abroad. I began reading Wikipedia, books by Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman, and exploring ideas rather than subjects.

I was always fascinated by people's creativity and thinking more than textbooks. That curiosity slowly pulled me back into serious learning. That was the beginning of my trying to do something on my own which is radically new and that is the reason I am where you see me today.

You studied computer science but your work now is associated with biology. How did that happen?

I want to clarify: I am not a biologist. I studied computer science throughout. My entry into biology happened through computational biology.

This interdisciplinary shift began during my time at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) . After working at Infosys and later IBM, I realised that software engineering felt too mechanical to me. I didn’t want to spend my life doing things that anyone else could do.

So I left industry and joined ISI as part of a government-funded Swarna Jayanti project under Professor Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, who later became the director of ISI.

How was ISI different from your earlier work experiences?

ISI was transformative. It was the first time I truly understood what it means to study a subject deeply. I met people like me, individuals who hadn’t done exceptionally well early on but found their calling later.

The institute values how you think, not just what you know. During the interview process, I was asked very difficult questions, but they cared more about my approach than perfect answers. That’s how they identified my potential.

What was your PhD research about?

I completed my PhD in four years, working on a computational biology problem specifically, how microRNAs target cancer-related genes. That was my formal introduction to biology and I loved it because the problems were high-stakes.

Unlike many low-impact problems in industry, cancer research has real consequences. Every piece of work can potentially affect human lives, and that gave my work meaning.

You’ve spoken about purpose-driven science. Could you elaborate?

In India, a lot of top talent ends up working on low-impact problems, even in prestigious companies. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I personally wanted my work to matter.

There’s a difference between doing science for publications or job security and doing science to push boundaries. My work focuses on cancer – developing computational methods to detect cancer and predict which drugs will work for which patients. Every project I take up must have purpose.

One of my key contributions was developing an AI-based model that predicts which drug would work best for a specific cancer patient based on their genetic data. This work gained global attention and was cited widely, including by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in United States

For this, you don’t need to be an expert in cancer biology. You need data, a strong problem formulation, and a solid algorithm.

Is this what earned you the major awards?

Yes. I received the INSPIRE Award based on my PhD and postdoctoral work. More recently, I was honoured with the Rashtrapati Award, which is the highest scientific recognition in the country. I’ve also received international recognition, including a fellowship from Germany.

Where are you currently based and what are you working on now?

I am currently a professor at IIIT Delhi , where I run my own lab. Over the last few years, I have also founded companies in India and the US to translate this research into real-world applications.

One notable company is GeneSilico.ai, a Texas-headquartered firm with Indian offices. The company focuses on computational methods to identify the right cancer drug for the right patient and is actively working on productising this research.

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Finally, what advice would you give to students inspired by your journey?

Don’t bind yourself to your subject. Great ideas often come from outside your discipline. Focus on meaningful problems, not easy paths. Never mug up concepts and understand them deeply. The hardest route may not be the most rewarding initially, but it shapes you in ways that matter in the long run.