Mount Holyoke College • Vista • Fall 2012, Volume 17 No. 2

Then and Now: Natasha Naidoo ’12

Natasha Naidoo ’12 has a lot to say about tea, be it black, green, or white. But it’s not just the pleasure of a well-brewed cup or the aesthetics of tea culture that sparks her enthusiasm. Rather, her interest is the antioxidant profile of each type of tea; that is, which tea most effectively slows down or even stops damage triggered by oxidative stress and free radicals.

The topic for her senior thesis—titled “The Impacts of Tea on Aging”—developed unexpectedly during the summer before her senior year. She was at the University of California, San Francisco as an intern in the highly competitive program run by the biotechnology company Amgen. Throughout those ten weeks, Naidoo and the other interns attended weekly research seminars, which culminated in a national symposium at UCLA. Keynote speaker Joe Miletich, senior vice president of research and development at Amgen, told the group that to go far in science they needed to be the best, and that meant “loving their work and being truly passionate about it.”

“I thought a lot about his words,” said Naidoo. “The concept of aging has always fascinated me because it is universal. And a lecture on Darwinean evolution and aging during my first year at Mount Holyoke had taught me that it can be studied in a lab setting. I also love tea. I decided to bring them together for my senior thesis.”

With support from Amy Frary ’90, associate professor of biological sciences, Naidoo began experimenting with reactive oxygen and various types of tea. She found that while the antioxidant profiles of green and black tea are different, in vitro studies show that they are equally effective at scavenging free radicals. As for their relative protective efficacy in protecting a whole organism from oxidative damage, she says that has yet to be determined.

It may, in fact, be a question that she revisits at the University of California, Berkeley where Naidoo now is a doctoral student in molecular cell biology. As she laughingly admits, “One of the reasons I am drawn to research about aging is that I need a few lifetimes to explore everything that interests me.”

Looking forward, Naidoo can see herself working at a biotechnology company for five to ten years after earning a Ph.D. After that, she might use the skills she’s acquired to start her own company or attend law school to become a patent lawyer.

She credits Mount Holyoke with stoking her ambitions, providing intensive research experiences, and connecting her to female role models in all the scientific disciplines. “During my four years at the College, I became a scientist. One who happens to be a woman. It’s a small point but a big distinction.”