Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick marked a historic milestone in October with the graduation of their first ever PhD student, Kenneth D’Souza, who pursued his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Petra Kienesberger (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology).

D’Souza originally came to Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick (DMNB) in 2014 to work as a research technician in Dr. Kienesberger’s laboratory upon completing his Master’s degree in Biochemistry at McMaster University. After a year of working alongside Dr. Kienesberger, D’Souza decided to apply for a PhD with her laboratory in 2015. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I consider myself fortunate that Kenneth chose my lab at DMNB, which was in its infancy at the time, to pursue his doctoral studies,” says Dr. Kienesberger of D’Souza, “Being the first PhD student in the DMNB life science research facility, he excelled in his ability to secure awards and scholarships and produce high quality data to further our understanding of the role of lipid signaling in obesity and diabetes.”

When asked about his supervisor, D’Souza is quick to return her praise. “I think she knows my strengths really well, so if I have an idea, she’s very open to listening to new ideas and new experiments,” he says of Dr. Kienesberger, “Since I’ve been in the lab quite a long time now and am more of a senior person, she really lets me have the freedom to take projects where I want to go with them.”

Thus, over the course of his PhD, D’Souza was able to turn some of his projects into articles, which were subsequently published in respected academic journals like Endocrinology, Journal of Lipid Research, and Canadian Journal of Diabetes. In addition to constituting a major accomplishment, these papers also helped D’Souza with his dissertation writing. “I only had about two months to write,” he shares, but was able to “actually cut and paste a lot of [his published papers] into the dissertation,” which made things a bit easier.

Still, D’Souza encountered his fair share of challenges. Between experiments that proved unsuccessful and methods he had to abandon because they did not work, D’Souza had to cut his losses in the interest of time. “Obviously, it hurts to just abandon something or stop doing something that you spent months doing,” he admits, “but it’s always the right decision in the end.” All that hard work and perseverance, however, eventually led to the completion of his dissertation, “Autotaxin is Nutritionally Regulated and Alters Mitochondrial Function in Obesity-Induced Insulin Resistance,” which D’Souza successfully defended before graduation.

On Tuesday, October 8, D’Souza received his diploma at the Dalhousie University Fall 2019 Convocation and officially became a doctor. He is currently staying on as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Kienesberger’s laboratory in Saint John, New Brunswick and would like to eventually transition into the biotechnology industry as a grant or paper writer.

When asked about his overall PhD experience at Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, Dr. D’Souza highlights the advantages of starting in a new research laboratory. “I got to see the process of building a lab right from the start,” he says, citing the ability to “really put [his] hands into multiple projects” and try out “multiple pieces of equipment” as definite pros.

“I wholeheartedly congratulation Kenneth on his achievements as our ‘pioneering’ DMNB PhD graduate,” says Dr. Kienesberger, “and look forward to seeing him thrive in his future professional career!”