Summer Studentship 2025-2026: Hasnula Babaranda

1. Can you tell us how you got involved with medical research?

I was interested in research from my university studies, and I would talk with some professors in HSFY (health science first year) to both get a better understanding and also see what kind of research really interests me. Before Medicine started, I read a book called “This is going to hurt” by Adam Kay. From that book, I wanted to explore different pathways that doctors can take in their career, so I decided that doing research is something for me and, in the long run, saving more people's lives.

During my 2nd year of medicine, I talked with some of my lecturers about whether they were taking any Summer Students into research, and most weren't, but they told me to keep reaching out, and that's when I met my Supervisor, Professor Katare, who was giving a lecture on cardiovascular topics.

2. Your research topic is: Measuring the expression of Heart enriched microRNAs in Diabetic individuals. Could you provide a brief overview of the key aspects your study will explore?

My research is looking at how different expressions of miRNA in diabetic and non-diabetic patients’ saliva can help us with detecting Diabetic CVD before clinical symptoms appear.

My experiments were specifically looking at European patients who are either diabetic or non-diabetic and then comparing their miRNA concentration levels (specifically miRNA-1 and miRNA-133a). I was given this cohort from my supervisor because, in the whole research, these were some of the data that they didn't get around to doing experiments on.

3. Can you tell us about your motivation and inspiration for your research?

My motivation for this research comes from recognising how much cardiovascular disease contributes to complications in diabetes. During my medical studies in ELM2, it became clear that many patients develop heart disease, and rates are increasing each year. Trying to detect this earlier can be life-saving. That gap motivated me to get involved in research that focuses on earlier and more accessible detection, particularly in cardiovascular health.

4. Can you elaborate on how your research project will positively impact the lives of individuals in Aotearoa living with diabetes?

Diabetes is increasing in New Zealand, and one of the main killers of diabetes is diabetic heart disease. So early detection of heart disease could contribute to fewer deaths from heart disease, but most of the techniques are either very expensive (cardiogram) or are invasive, such as taking blood samples. But with the research that I'm doing, it allows for an early step towards saliva samples that may support detecting heart disease at an early stage and also be non-invasive.

5. What does it mean to you being selected as one of the five recipients of the Summer Studentships this year?

It means a great deal to know that this project was considered worthwhile to support. As a student, having external funding helps validate the importance of the research question and the mentorship behind it.

6. The Summer Studentships are made possible thanks to donations to the Diabetes Research Foundation. Please tell us how important these Summer Studentships are to others looking to conduct research?

These scholarships are very crucial for any other future recipients, and this is because the money from these scholarships goes towards food, rent and other daily necessities. So, with this money, the students can focus more on their research, protecting valuable research time.

Therefore, the generous donations made from the Diabetes Research Foundation help a lot for any summer research students to undertake their research and also encourage other students to apply and get research experience.