Scholarships that are helping to change the world
Part eight: making the dream of IVF parenthood a reality for families in India
Next up in our series celebrating Oxford alumni and former scholarship holders who are helping to build a better world, we meet a medical doctor who is changing lives by improving access to reproductive and fertility care in his home country of India.
Dr Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar: ‘I simply cannot explain what Oxford means to me’
A Felix Scholar alumnus, Biswanath is bringing IVF to families free of charge for the first time in eastern India via a landmark public-private partnered programme — the first of its kind in the country.
The programme delivered its first IVF baby on 4 October 2024 at the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) — a government medical college and hospital in the state of West Bengal where Biswanath is currently attached as an assistant professor. Biswanath is also a recipient of the National Youth Icon in IVF award and was invited on the United Nations Population Fund’s National Research for Impact panel.
At Oxford, Biswanath was awarded a Distinction for his master’s degree in Clinical Embryology and came in first at the top of his class in 2013. He has profoundly fond memories of his time there and recognises the importance of the scholarship he received. ‘It completely added a different dimension to my life,’ he says.
Oxford is a leveller. You suddenly realise you’re not the smartest person in the room anymore, whether it’s at formal hall or in the lab. There’s a phase of self-doubt, where you feel that you’re not as good as you thought you were. But slowly you realise it’s just that you’re together with a lot of brilliant people. It also teaches you that, to really excel, it’s not just important how hard you work or how smart you are, but also whether you are surrounded by intelligent, creative and driven people, challenging and elevating you at every step. Those networks are invaluable for the rest of your life.
My experience at Oxford was life-changing in terms of the academic and research training it offered and the intellectual rigour. Over and above rote learning and preparing for exams, the MSc (directed by Dr Kevin Coward) includes a cutting-edge dissertation thesis based on lab research. This inculcates the invaluable skills of thinking critically, asking questions, identifying a problem and then digging deep to solve it. Other important aspects of the training such as analysing results, writing them up and presenting them effectively have also been lifelong assets.
I’m a medical doctor by training. My path after medical school was quite deviant from the norm: as soon as I finished, I followed my dad’s footsteps to gain hands-on research training and clinical experience before commencing postgraduate training in a particular discipline [which is a more traditional route]. I wanted to explore and find what excited me, so I started as a research assistant in a reputed IVF institute in 2010. That pretty much set the course for the rest of my life.
What stands out is not so much the clinical cases, which are challenging from a technological or a scientific point of view, but the emotions involved. You see a couple who are crying in front of you. You see a family that’s distraught, a marriage that’s on the line, and when you’re able to offer a chance of success, that’s a very special feeling. That’s when the real importance of improving access to such cost-prohibitive yet life-changing treatment hits you.
— Dr Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar
At that time there were very few MScs in Clinical Embryology globally, because it’s such a niche subject. I considered PhD programmes in the US and sat in on classes at Harvard and at Columbia. At the same time, I discovered the programme at Oxford and absolutely fell in love with the place. I had offers from several universities in the UK, USA and Australia but the most important consideration was funding. Fortunately, I was offered the Felix Scholarship as well as a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend uni in the UK. The Felix Scholarship offered a more generous allowance and came with the distinction of being an Oxford University scholar, so that was that… I was really over the moon!
Without the Felix Scholarship I wouldn’t have been able to attend a university like Oxford. Everything was very simple about the application. They gave me a settling-in allowance when I first arrived and covered the flight to and from Oxford at the beginning and then the end of the course. We also had a welcome dinner for all the scholars that year, where I met some of my really nice friends. It was fantastic.
Everybody on the MSc course had to complete a specific research project and long paper tailored to their interests and their background. My long paper was at the interface of clinical and lab technology, supervised by Dr Suzannah Williams, on ovarian tissue freezing for fertility preservation. This was still an experimental treatment way back in 2012 and not very widely practised in India, even today. It is of immense benefit to patients who’ve been diagnosed with cancer or who are getting older but haven’t found their partners yet, preserving their eggs so that they can have a baby when they are ready for it.
For my dissertation thesis, supervised by Professor Ian Sargent, I analysed the patterns of expression of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in human follicular fluids of patients undergoing IVF. This provided the opportunity for hands-on training in advanced lab techniques such as flow cytometry and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA). During the crunch final few days of finishing the thesis I practically lived at the John Radcliffe Hospital and slept on the floor of the students’ room for a few nights!
The Oxford MSc was also uniquely customised for medical doctors. So, perhaps what was most exciting for me were the clinical postings with hands-on patient experience at the Oxford Fertility Unit with Mr Tim Child, Mr Enda McVeigh and other clinicians.
I completed my clinical training in obstetrics and gynaecology back in India after the MSc and then headed to Cambridge on an NHS Clinical Fellowship at Addenbrookes Hospital in 2019. It was a very enriching experience, although nothing can ever supersede Oxford! Following Cambridge, I went to Antwerp for gynecologic endoscopic training at ZNA Hospitals under Professor Bruno van Herendael and Professor Bart De Vree.
After returning to India, I joined IPGMER SSKM Hospital as a gynaecologist in 2021. The following year I was entrusted with developing and establishing a one-of-a-kind, free IVF unit in collaboration with my old IVF institute where I had received my earliest training in the subject under my dad Dr Sudarsan Ghosh Dastidar, one of the pioneers in the field.
The standout moment for this programme was the delivery of the first IVF child on 4 October 2024. That has been followed by at least a few dozen more at my hospital and at other hospitals and peripheral centres.
— Dr Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar
I am looking for collaborations and funding to extend this benefit to more people. It would be thrilling if Oxford, my Alma mater, could be involved in some way!
Over the last decade and a half I have presented original research papers at meetings of the leading European and American IVF Societies, but a couple of recent papers published in Nature journals and The Lancet Southeast Asia were particularly satisfying. Both call for expanding access to care in India based on leveraging digital technology and innovative health policy. They came about due to collaborations with friends from Oxford during the pandemic. This just shows the importance of collaborating with the right people and Oxford has been instrumental in that.
In view of my work, the United Nations Population Fund invited me to contribute to their commemorative book, which documents the impact of the agency in India over the last 50 years and sets the agenda for the next 50.
As far as access to reproductive and fertility care is concerned, anybody who works in this field touches lives and changes lives. But I think our free IVF programme may well be a game changer in the Indian context. It’s never happened before — it’s going to have a huge impact on people who can’t afford this expensive treatment.
— Dr Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar
Besides the intellectual rigour, as far as my memories of Oxford are concerned, there are two things that stand out. The first would be the magical architecture, traditions and legacy. I have such fond memories of exploring Oxford’s museums (the Museum of Natural History being a favourite); spending time at the summer boat races; exploring the University Parks and meadows; concerts at the Sheldonian; and picking a different library for each academic deadline — the lower reading room at the Radcliffe Camera for the long paper and St Edmund Hall library (where I got locked in the tower room for an entire night!) for final exams. But possibly what stands above everything are the friends I made for life, and those evenings out exploring the magnificent city that is Oxford.
Discover the rest of the interview series:
- Part 1: Rebuilding Brazil’s environmental profile
- Part 2: Mitigating climate-related hazards in Nepal
- Part 3: A symphony of research, education and conservation
- Part 4: Empowering vulnerable communities in India and Bangladesh
- Part 5: Strengthening democracy across Africa
- Part 6: Working to help the voiceless and the vulnerable
- Part 7: Leveraging data as a force for positive social change
