Hello iJOBS community, My name is Deepshikha Mishra. I recently joined iJOBS blog as a writer and I am very excited to be a part of it. I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. After completing my Ph.D. in India, I moved to US to pursue my postdoctoral research. Biology has always fascinated me since my school days. Driven by my interest, I obtained a bachelor’s degree in Biology followed by a master’s degree in Biotechnology -the foundation for a career in research was set when I was very young. During my master’s program, I learned a lot about the basics of research work. After that, pursuing a Ph.D. degree to gain an in-depth knowledge about biology came naturally to me. I got my Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Banaras Hindu University, India, where I studied molecular interactions playing a key role in development of acute leukemia; a type of blood cancer mainly affecting children below the age 10. Further, I also investigated novel molecular targets for effective drug development. I performed my thesis research in a wonderful environment with a great team of academicians and clinicians that helped me do my research effectively and played major roles as mentors. However, the greatest motivator for my research career were the chance encounters I had with patients in events organized by the hospital. So, when I got the opportunity for a postdoctoral position in the department of pharmacology, I quickly grabbed it. I am working with Dr. Debabrata Banerjee studying tumor stroma interaction in cancer microenvironment. Under his excellent mentorship, I aim to develop a better understanding of stromal factors playing role in cancer progression and to exploit it for clinical importance. Apart from research work, I am passionate about science communication and love to write about different aspects of science, STEM and scientific events in general. In the past, I have volunteered to write blog articles for PLOS: The student blog and news articles for IndiaBioscience, a not-for-profit science outreach initiative. I was very excited when I got the opportunity to write for Rutgers iJOBS blog. Rutgers iJOBS Blog, as the name suggests is a blog for biomedical scientists, providing interdisciplinary opportunities for Job at different levels. It is a collection of versatile posts, events and opportunities intended to prepare PhD students and postdoctoral fellows to enter the job market within their field of interest. I hope to write some good and informative blog posts in the future and learn some great things from the blog. Different activities and a broad range of career development events organized by the Rutgers iJOBS community are commendable and helpful for a student/ researcher at any stage of their career. 
I am looking forward to attending as many events as possible and learn from them. I hope my blog posts in the future will be of interest to you and will help you in some way. Thank you! This article was edited by Helena Mello and Aminat Saliu Musah.
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