Part 1. Join Huaxi - From Meham, India to Chengdu, China

My name is Rajeev Kumar (Alias Rajeev K. Singla), an Indian citizen, and born in a very small town (Meham) from Haryana Province in India, in the year 1986. Now, I am working as an assistant researcher at the Institutes for Systems Genetics , West China Hospital, Sichuan University.

This product from coconut waste materials has inspired me so much, that since my Masters in Pharmacy (Pharmaceutical Chemistry), I have started working on this plant product, and this become theme of my doctoral studies. During my work in India, we have participated in various health camps, where we go to the rural areas and give counselling to the public and created awareness.

Working with Prof. Bairong Shen was somehow recorded in my destiny. I had first contacted him somewhere in 2014-15, when he was a professor at Soochow University at that time. Later on, I didn’t follow up further, as the fellowship amount was low and at that time, I became father of a baby boy, so holding up fatherhood responsibilities. But after completion of my PhD, Prof. Bairong Shen had kindly agreed to allow me to join his team in Institutes for Systems Genetics, West China Hospital.

Part 2. Adapting to work and life - a free and inclusive Huaxi team

First time, when I visited the Institutes for Systems Genetics, West China Hospital in 2019, that time only, I made up my mind that I have to join this research team of Prof. Bairong Shen.

Under the leadership of Prof. Bairong Shen’s, I’ve learned critical thinking. Since 2020, the depth of research and quality of the articles have been greatly improved. Prof. Bairong Shen’s knowledge in bioinformatics domain is exemplary and I have learned a lot of new bioinformatics techniques under his supervision.

Further, my colleagues here like Shen Ke, Tang Tong, Xingyun Liu, Md. Shahin Alam have provided their assistance in doing many bioinformatic-based studies like mutation analysis.

To my knowledge, I become the first postdoc in West China Hospital who entered China on R-Visa (Talent Visa). My entry in West China Hospital in January 2020 has become further challenging, as the COVID-19 pandemic started the same time. It was indeed a fearful and panic time, but I was 100% convinced that even if I got infected with SARS-CoV-2 here in Chengdu, I am working in the best hospital and nothing will go wrong. During that time, Prof. Bairong Shen and I planned to explore natural therapies to deal with COVID-19. We applied for and were approved a key scientific and technological project funded by the hospital. Prof. Bairong Shen served as the project leader, and I served as the main researcher.

In 2020, the initial phase was quite struggling as being a vegetarian person, the options outside in the market were limited and I have no option but to cook it by myself. But the challenge here is that I have never done cooking by myself before in my life. So, at that critical phase, my mother and my wife becomes my teacher and train me online as how to cook food. In the next one and half year, I have learned enough cooking skills.

But the challenge was not only of cooking and eating, but about day to day activities and completing so many formalities as a foreigner in Chengdu, and this is where, my colleagues from my institute had helped me a lot. My colleagues and friends, including He Xuefei, Ding Wen, Zheng Min, Xie Wen, Zhang Yingbo, Liu Xingyun, Tang Tong, Wang Jiao, Zhou Yi, and Li Xiaoyu, helped me rent a house, handle contracts, communicate with landlords and agents on a daily basis, and provide technical assistance. Without the companionship of these friends in Chengdu, my life may be filled with countless challenges.

Part 3. Make better research - more challenges and gains

My work experience at West China Hospital has greatly boosted my confidence, enabling me to face more challenges and achieve more results.

In the last 5 years, I have definitely improved a lot and make significant progress in terms of both quality of research work and publications.

Last year, I successfully applied for a project from the Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province, to find the alternative therapeutics from Coconut hard shell against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Grant No.2025YFHZ0213). This project was inspired by a recipe made by my grandmother, and now my colleagues at the research institute and friends from India are helping me with experimental and computational research related to the project.

Furthermore, I participated in guiding college students' innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and served as a review expert, obtained the certificate of foreign high-level talent in Sichuan Province. Now I am actively working with collaborators from more than 40 countries and even successful in publishing some landmark papers (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2022.154520).

I am now a Young Scientist member of European Society of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Disease (ESCMID), working group member of AOAC International, and member of International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST). By the support by West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and my family members, I am now among the Top 2% Scientists- Per Records of Stanford University and Elsevier-Based on Year 2022, 2023, 2024 publications.

During my time at West China Hospital, I have worked with various doctors from urology department, opthalmology department, critical care department and many others from our hospital and published many good quality collaborative papers. I have made every effort to assist Prof. Bairong Shen in facilitating and supporting masters, PhD and postdoc students.

Whether Chinese or foreigners, I believe that I will further improve my ability and make better research on the platform of West China Hospital in the future under the guidance of Prof. Shen Bairong and the help of colleagues!