Subhalaxmi (Subbu) was born in Mumbai, India, a city with a lot of hustle and bustle and lovely beaches. She fell in love with biology when she went on a cruise trip and saw bioluminescent organisms. She did her majors in Biotechnology and then Masters in Marine Biotechnology. Her love for research made her pursue a doctorate in microorganisms that cause diseases. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at University of Massachusetts Medical School. She finds new biochemical pathways that the pathogen uses to cause disease. She uses yeast as big factories to produce kilograms of proteins and study them in atomic detail. Scientists like her are trying to find newer ways to combat diseases caused by bad bacteria.

My Scientific Name is a children's picture storybook developed in collaboration with female and minority scientists across many science fields. Each book is personalized using the letters of their name as a way of introducing them to many different STEM careers.