Chetan Chilkunda | Student Spotlight

Chetan Chilkunda

PhD Candidate
Chemical Engineering
Monther Abu-Remaileh

“I chose to attend Stanford because, after my recruitment weekend visit, I could genuinely see myself growing as a PhD student within the community. It was inspiring to meet graduate students working on ambitious projects while also being incredibly welcoming and supportive. I was drawn to the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines and was surprised by how many faculty members broadened how I think about chemical engineering. This interdisciplinary environment has shaped my research direction and has allowed me to explore the molecular mechanisms driving neurodegeneration through collaborations across chemical engineering, computer science, and the biosciences.

My research spans two main areas. The first focuses on exploring the conformational landscape and molecular mechanisms of lysosomal proteins using simulation, statistical mechanics, mass spectrometry, and biochemistry. Day-to-day, this involves interpreting experimental readouts and simulation trajectory results to understand how these proteins function at the molecular level. This work is motivated by the lysosome’s role in cellular stress adaptation and questions about how molecules interact with and move through these systems, and is supported by my PI, Monther Abu-Remaileh, as well as my collaborators, Professors Jian Qin and Ron Dror.

My second area of research focuses on understanding the molecular drivers of Parkinson's disease and mapping the metabolic changes underlying age-associated neurodegeneration. In particular, I work on improving methods to measure and model the nonlinear relationships that modulate energy and fat metabolism in the brain. I became interested in this area as I gained experience with untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics, and I hope this work advances our understanding of Parkinson's disease and offers insight into therapeutics development.

An accomplishment I am proud of during my time at Stanford has been my growth in the field of mass spectrometry. Over the past nine months, I have gradually built experience with our lipidomics and metabolomics methods through a series of small troubleshooting challenges that, at the time, felt incremental and difficult to connect. Looking back, however, I can see how these moments have accumulated into a much deeper understanding of both the instrument and the analysis workflows. As a result, I am now contributing to projects I never envisioned pursuing before starting my PhD. I am grateful to Monther and the Abu-Remaileh lab for their invaluable mentorship in developing my expertise in untargeted mass spectrometry.

My goal for my PhD is to pursue excellence: excellence in asking the “right” questions and in developing the depth and breadth of understanding needed to make a meaningful contribution to my field. My collaborator, Professor Jian Qin, described a PhD as a journey toward becoming one of the leading experts in a small niche of science. This perspective has shaped how I view my own development as a scientist. Attending seminars from leading experts across computer science, neuroscience, chemical engineering, and chemistry has given me an appreciation for the child-like joy of scientific discovery. It is deeply inspiring to listen to experts synthesize years of curiosity and knowledge into a narrative of hypotheses unfolding, and it motivates me to pursue that same level of excellence in my own work.

Outside of research, I volunteer with the Special Needs Aquatic Program for Kids (SNAPKids) at the Palo Alto YMCA, where I help teach swimming to children with disabilities. Working with children who face unique neurological and physical challenges has been one of the most memorable aspects of my PhD experience. Interacting with the children and witnessing how disease affects both individuals and their families has strengthened my appreciation for the translational impact of the fundamental research we conduct in the lab. I am also a part-time swim coach at the Stanford Campus Recreation Association (SCRA) for both advanced Masters swimmers and youth groups. Through SCRA, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with Stanford’s faculty community in a more personal setting and gained perspective on academic life beyond research.

One of my favorite ChemE memories has been serving on the recruitment weekend organizing committee the past two years. What stayed with me most was speaking with the admitted students, learning about their paths into chemical engineering, and hearing what excites and scares them about graduate study. Outside of ChemE, one of my favorite graduate school memories was a day-long, 28-mile hike from Stanford to Half Moon Bay with recent PhD graduate Srikant Sagireddy. The spontaneity of deciding to attempt the hike just a few days before, the 11 hours spent talking and hiking through Portola Valley mountains, and finally dipping my feet into the cold Pacific Ocean are what I will remember most.

I began graduate school confident that I wanted to pursue entrepreneurship after completing my PhD. However, over the past two years, I have also started considering a career in academia as I’ve spent more time in the lab and seen more of what academic research is actually like. I hope to remain engaged in scientific discovery post-graduation, through academia, entrepreneurship, or a combination of both."