Aditi Prasad majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Wesleyan while competing on the women's squash team. Today, she is a third-year Biomedical Sciences PhD candidate in the Gelb Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, studying the cellular and molecular drivers of lymphatic malformations and diseases seen in RASopathies. On paper, that leap can sound like a straight line from college to graduate school. In real life, her story is built the same way squash matches are won, and experiments are made reliable: one decision, one adjustment, and one reset at a time.
At Wesleyan, the lesson arrived early and repeatedly: when everything matters, you have to learn what matters most right now. Prasad remembers that her weeks were often packed, and that time management became non-negotiable. She cared about maintaining "a positive relationship with both academics and athletics," even when doing both felt difficult. There were stretches when squash demanded more of her energy, and others when schoolwork had to take the lead. She describes the process like a "see-saw," and the skill was not keeping the balance perfectly, but recognizing what required her focus in a given moment and committing fully to it.
That sense of commitment also came with something quieter, but just as important: enjoyment. Prasad noticed she performed best when she genuinely liked what she was doing. Making room for purpose and fun, whether in the classroom or on the court, helped her stay consistent when the schedule got tight. It is a simple idea, but it is also a sustainable one. In a PhD, where progress can be slow and the days can blur together, the ability to stay connected to what you enjoy is not a bonus. It is a survival skill.
One of the most lasting academic influences on her scientific thinking came through Developmental Biology with Professor Stephen Devoto. Prasad still calls it one of her favorite Wesleyan courses because it taught her how to read research papers closely and ask better questions. The class centered on reading and presenting primary scientific literature, and it pushed her beyond understanding results toward evaluating how an experiment was designed, how conclusions were drawn, and what the work actually meant in a broader context.
That training matters in graduate school, where journal clubs and constant paper-reading are part of daily life. It also helped shape her scientific instincts around "signal versus noise," which is often the real challenge in complex biology. Prasad traces part of her research direction to that same classroom: it was in Devoto's course that she was first introduced to induced pluripotent stem cells, an early exposure that helped steer her toward developmental, regenerative, and stem cell biology.
If Wesleyan helped her learn how to think like a scientist, squash helped her learn how to live like one. Squash is a sport of small margins. You make progress through repetition, careful observation, and the willingness to keep showing up even when improvement is not obvious. Prasad carries that directly into the lab. Good science depends on reproducibility and optimization, and in method development, results are often hard-won. Experiments can take weeks to fine-tune, and the path to a working system can be frustrating. The mindset that transfers best from the court, she says, is the ability to reset after setbacks.
In squash, dwelling on a tough match does not help. You analyze what went wrong, adjust, and step back on court with focus. Research moves in the same rhythm. When challenges hit, Prasad tries to refine her approach rather than lose momentum. She trusts that persistence and thoughtful iteration lead to progress. It is not blind optimism. It is a discipline built through repetition.
Squash also taught her how confidence and coachability can coexist. Competing at a high level required self-belief in her preparation, but training was always about improvement. That meant being open to feedback and willing to adjust. Prasad learned to treat constructive criticism as a tool, not as a threat. It is the kind of balance that helps in any high-stakes environment: you compete with composure, and you stay flexible enough to get better.
After Wesleyan, Prasad moved into graduate training at Mount Sinai, completing an MS in Biomedical Sciences before stepping into a PhD program. She credits Wesleyan's STEM curriculum for giving her a strong foundation that made the transition smoother, and she points to early access to research labs as another key advantage. Getting into research early introduced her to the reality of scientific inquiry: uncertainty, experimental thinking, and the need to stay curious even when outcomes are unclear. That curiosity now lives in a research area that is both deeply human and still underexplored.
For readers unfamiliar with the field, Prasad explains lymphatic malformations in clear terms. Congenital lymphatic malformations occur when the lymphatic system forms abnormally, often as a result of disruptions in gene expression. The result can be defective lymphatic vessels or nodes and diseases such as lymphedema, where fluid buildup leads to chronic swelling and inflammation. Because the lymphatic system plays major roles in fluid balance, immune function, and fat absorption, disruption can have serious clinical consequences. Yet lymphatic diseases remain relatively understudied, which is part of why she is drawn to the work.
Her research also focuses on RASopathies, conditions that involve disruptions in key signaling pathways. When she thinks about disease mechanisms, she comes back to a core question: which pathway regulators become dysregulated, and how do those disruptions drive disease? Biology, as she puts it, is inherently complex and interconnected, with pathways constantly influencing one another. Her lab's goal is to tease apart the critical players and identify targets that are both biologically meaningful and therapeutically actionable, paving the way for more precise medical and drug interventions.
A major piece of her current work is building a system to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into lymphatic endothelial cells. She is doing this to create a robust in vitro model, a controlled system that can be used to better understand what drives lymphatic disease. What makes that difficult is not only the science, but the consistency required. A reliable model has to be reproducible and scalable, without becoming so complex that it cannot be derived the same way across experiments. Small variations can change outcomes, so optimization has to be intentional.
This is where her student-athlete habits show up in the day-to-day grind. Prasad leans on persistence, attention to small adjustments, and the ability to be strategic about where she invests time. She focuses on streamlining workflows, staying efficient, and avoiding burnout, not as productivity tricks, but as a way to keep the work moving steadily toward reliability.
Even outside the lab bench, she still operates like a teammate. At Mount Sinai, she serves on a Trainee Leadership Committee, helping organize trainee socials, workshops, and science seminars, and assisting with planning and organization for an institute retreat. It is a continuation of what she valued at Wesleyan: a packed schedule works best when it includes people, support, and shared momentum.
When Prasad talks to current Wesleyan student-athletes who are curious about biomedical research and a PhD path, she is direct about the reality: science is often slow. Her advice is to set realistic expectations and build short-term, achievable goals that create moments of progress during longer stretches when results may not come easily. She also emphasizes choosing a lab for the environment as much as the topic. You want to be excited about the science, but you also need mentors who are invested in your growth and a lab culture that is collaborative and healthy. The people around you shape both your experience and your success.
In the end, her message sounds a lot like the logic of squash and the logic of research: progress is rarely linear, but curiosity, patience, and consistency carry you forward.
It is the same principle that has taken her from packed Wesleyan weeks to the long arc of a PhD. Stay committed. Stay coachable. Make the small changes. Reset quickly. Then do it again tomorrow.
