Photo: Hallie Leo
In his first week as a student in the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2029, Mukund Desibhatla, MPH, drove from UMass Chan Medical School orientation for new students in Worcester to Boston to donate blood stem cells through the National Marrow Donation Program.
“The fact that my donation lined up with the start of med school reminds me about humanism in medicine and the importance of service, sacrifice and showing up for others,” said Desibhatla, a double major in Spanish and physiology and neurobiology at the University of Connecticut who earned his Master of Public Health degree from Yale University.
Dallas-born Desibhatla moved to San Antonio when his mother, Anasuya Gunturi, MD, PhD, a hematology and oncology physician, started medical school. When she matched at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for residency, she and her family moved to Newton.
“It’s a full-circle moment to start medical school exactly 20 years after my mom started medical school,” said Desibhatla, noting that he didn’t feel any pressure to follow in his mother’s footsteps. “Understanding the rigor of medical school now, I can’t imagine how my mom did it while raising two kids.”
“Growing up, I’d see my mom come home with flowers and handwritten cards from her patients and I realized the impact of her care and how patients considered her family,” continued Desibhatla. “She motivated me to touch people’s lives in a similar way.”
Desibhatla joined the National Marrow Donation Program registry during his junior year of college. He remembers swabbing his cheek and joining the registry, not knowing that it would be six years before he’d get the call. Desibhatla was vacationing in Colombia when he learned that he shared the same human leukocyte antigen markers as a cancer patient in another country.
“I learned that only 0.03 percent of nationwide registrants are asked to donate stem cells,” said Desibhatla. “From receiving daily filgrastim injections during orientation to traveling to Boston for the donation day, it was a physically demanding process, but it’s the greatest privilege to give the gift of life to someone else.”
Desibhatla is a filmmaker who attracted the attention of the World Health Organization in 2024 after he and two Yale classmates created “African Wave,” a documentary about the war in Ukraine. He’s also passionate about music and his South Asian culture, frequently performing at events such as Diwali.
The National Marrow Donation Program is hosting a registration event at UMass Chan on Oct. 16 from noon to 2 p.m. in the Albert Sherman Center.
The Student Spotlight series features UMass Chan Medical School students in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and T.H. Chan School of Medicine. For more information about UMass Chan Medical School and how to apply, visit the Prospective Students page.
