Recently, I am particularly fascinated in personalized medicine and genomics. With the success of Human Genome Project, it’s getting increasingly feasible to tailor the diagnostics as well as therapeutics according to the unique genome of the individual. Of course, that would require assemblage of great amount of clinical data (Personal Genome Project), but before that we need to know how genetics influences the traits, in great detail. Thus, mapping genome to phenome holds the key. One of my long term aspirations is to be able to appreciate interpersonal molecular differences at the clinical level to render drugs more safe and effective.

I am fortunate to have participated in several exciting projects in well-acclaimed labs around the world, as listed below (in reverse chronology):

August 2014 - June 2015:  Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata.

Supervisor: Dr. Anindita Bhadra, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata.

M.Sc Thesis Title: Study of social dynamics and cognitive abilities of free-ranging Indian dogs.

Summary:  This project employs a meta-population approach to understand how dogs aggregate in space, amongst a larger cohort/pool in an urban-rural setting. Specifically, I am interested to understand the following aspects:

1. A.How are sub-communities organized in a larger population?
   

2. B.How are the emigrant dogs perceived the host community - aggression / affiliation?
   

3. C.What is the rate of change of community structure?
   

4. D.How does the community structure changes spatially from one time point to other?
   

5. E.What is the role of kinship in dispersion of dogs from one community to other?
   

5. F.How has 10-20,000 years of domestication led to the evolution of novel cognitive abilities in dogs and human-dog interaction?
   

May - July 2014, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratories Limited, Singapore.

Supervisor: Dr. Fumio Motegi, Principal Investigator and NRF Fellow, Temasek Life Science Laboratories, Mechanobiology Institute and National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore.

Title: Systematic functional screening for phosphatase(s) that coordinate cell polarity network in C. elegans.

Summary: One of the major events during development of (most) multicellular organisms that occurs shortly after fertilization is establishment of cellular asymmetry. In C. elegans, PAR proteins have been shown to pattern the anterior-posterior polarity in one celled zygote. This is achieved by mutual antagonistic phosphorylation of anterior and posterior PAR proteins by each other. However, theoretical considerations suggest that, there is a putative network of phosphatase(s) that coordinate PAR polarity network and is important for development of embryo. This project aims to identify phosphatase genes that coordinate PAR polarity network by genome wide RNAi screening in C. elegans zygotes. The mechanics governing the balance of PAR network will lead to system-level understanding of spatial patterning in animal cells.

May - July 2013: The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

Supervisor: Dr. Maya Schuldiner, Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator, Department of Molecular Genetics, The Weizmann Institute of Science.

Title: Uncovering the molecular mechanisms of SRP independent pathway of protein targeting into the Endoplasmic Reticulum.

Summary: During this project, I investigated about deciphering the client range of SRP-independent translocation of nascent short secretory protein to Endoplasmic Reticulum shortly after translation. It involved high-throughput screening of secretome-GFP library of Saccharomyeces cerevisae (baker's yeast) in the background of query gene deletions. Yeast, having a high degree of homology with human, is expected to provide important information about conserved secretory mechanisms in eukaryotes.

Partial results of the project were discussed during the talk:

“Understanding how proteins target to Endoplasmic Reticulum: The SRP independent pathway of protein targeting in eukaryotes” - Aviram N, Ast T, Dasgupta S, Schuldiner M - Frontiers in Modern Biology Symposium, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, 2013.

May - July 2012:  Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Pune:

Supervisor: Dr. Nagaraj Balsubramanian, Assistant Professor and Wellcome Trust-DBT Senior Fellow, Dept. of Biological Sciences, IISER-Pune.

Title: Understanding how small GTP-ases - Arf6 and Ral cross talk with each other upon adhesion to extracellular matrix in wild type Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts.

Summary: Ral and Arf-6 are two small GTPases that belong to the Ras superfamily whose roles have been implicated in vital intracellular processes, such as membrane trafficking and signal transduction. Both these GTPases have shown adhesion dependent activity profiles. In this project, I tried to understand how they interact among themselves by investigating the role of few candidate mediator genes in the cross-talk.

May- June 2011:  Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Pune:

Supervisor: Dr. Nagaraj Balsubramanian, Assistant Professor and Wellcome Trust-DBT Senior Fellow, Dept. of Biological Sciences, IISER-Pune.

Title: Differential basal activation of small GTPase Arf-6 in stable adherent mammalian cells;

Summary: Adhesion to the extracellular matrix is one the charactors in which the cancerous cells behave differently from normal cells and hence are being speculated as an area using which potential anti-cancer drugs can be developed. Adenosine Ribosylation factor 6 (Arf-6) is a small GTPase having significant role in membrane trafficking and signal transduction, whose activity is regulated by adhesion. In this project, I wanted to understand how adhesion dependent activation of Arf-6 changes when cells are adherent for different times points in wild type mouse embryonic fibroblasts.

In case you are interested in knowing more about these projects , click here for the detailed reports.

If you want to view my resume, click here.