Dr. Anwesha Sarkar

Education

• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Iowa State University, 2020

• Ph.D., Physics, Wayne State University, 2015

• MS, Physics, Wayne State University, 2013

• MPhil, Physics, Institute of Physics, India, 2011

• MS, Physics, IIT Madras, India, 2010

• BS, Physics, ST. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India, 2008

About PI

Dr. Anwesha Sarkar obtained her undergraduate degrees (B.Sc) in Physics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India and her Masters of Science (M.Sc.) form IIT Madras, India. She received Ph.D. in Physics from Wayne State University, Michigan (2011-2015). She was a postdoctoral research associate at Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University (2016-2020).  She joined Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State university as an adjunct assistant professor in Fall 2020. She is currently an assistant professor (starting Fall 2022). Her main research interests include high-resolution imaging, nanomechanical property characterization of hard as well as soft samples such as proteins, DNA, RNA, biomolecules, and live cells, the measurement of single molecule interaction forces and binding kinetics of ligand-receptor/ protein-protein systems on live cells using Atomic Force Microscopy. She is also interested in incorporating machine learning approaches to make AFM data analytics faster. Prediction of 3D structures of protein complexes using a hybrid method (combining AFM based 2.5D high-resolution imaging and geometry aware machine learning approaches) is one of the new directions, she is pursing. She co‐authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications (journal and conference publications), and presented more than 10 invited talks. Dr. Sarkar Served as a reviewer and reviewed multiple conference publications for prestigious conferences: Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC), and Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting (BMES). She also served as a reviewer of multiple journal publications for ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Dr. Sarkar chaired and co-chaired multiple conference sessions at Biophysical Society Annual meeting (BPS) and Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting (BMES). As an Adjunct Assistant Professor at ISU (starting Fall 2020), she received Iowa State College of Engineering Exploratory Research Project (ERP) grant both in 2021 and 2022. She also received SVPP Term Faculty Professional Development award both 2021 and 2022. As an Assistant Professor (starting Fall 2022), she received NSF grant (CMMI) of $650,000 on “Nanomanufacturing of Hybrid Nanocarriers and Understanding their Physicochemical Properties for Targeted Drug Delivery” project as a co-PI.

Conference Publications

1. 1. J. Rade, S. Sarkar, A. Krishnamurthy, A. Sarkar, Virtual AFM: Generating Synthetic 2D Multi-view Images from 3D Protein Structure, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual meeting, San Antonio, TX, 2022.

   2. A. Koep, A. Sarkar, S. Alam, T. Prozorov, I. Schneider, Actuatable Hollow DNA Origami Drug Delivery Constructs, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual meeting, San Antonio, TX, 2022.

   3. J. Rade, S. Sarkar, A. Sarkar, A. Krishnamurthy, 3D Reconstruction of Protein Complex Structures Using Synthesized Multi-View AFM Images, Machine Learning in Structural Biology (MLSB) Workshop at the 36th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), New Orleans, LA, 2022.

   4. A. Sarkar, N. Hassan, R. Bardhan, Multimodal characterization of live cancer cells using Atomic Force Microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, presented as a poster, Biophysical Society 66th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA 2022.

   5. A. Sarkar, S. Yang, B. Chen, High Resolution Single Molecule Imaging of WRC-Rac1 Protein Complex with Atomic Force Microscopy, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual meeting, Orlando, Fl 2021.

   6.  J. Rade, S. Sarkar, A. Krishnamurthy, J. Ren, A. Sarkar, AI Guided Measurement of Live Cells Using AFM, Modelling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC), Austin, TX 2021.

   7.  A. Sarkar, J. Waite, S. Sarkar, Deep learning for fast Atomic Force Microscopy data analytics, selected for platform presentation and presented as a talk, Biophysical Society 65th Annual Meeting (virtual) 2021.

   8. S. Mao~ , A. Sarkar ~, D. LeVine, X. Wang, L. Que, Studies of the drug treatment effects on platelets using integrative tension sensors embedded in a microfuidic chip, Microfluidics for Hematology, presented as talk, Chicago, IL 2020 (~ made equal contribution and share the first authorship)

   9. A. Sarkar, Y. Wang, X. Wang, Determining Integrin Molecular Tension for the Recruitment and the activation of Focal Adhesion Kinase, Biophysical Society (BPS), 63rd Annual meeting, presented as poster, Baltimore, MD 2019.

   10.  A. Sarkar, X. Wang, Integrin molecular tensions in live cells are altered by substrate rigidity, Biophysical Society (BPS), 62nd Annual meeting, presented as a talk and poster, San Francisco, CA 2018 [the work was also presented as a talk and poster in the ISU Research Day, Iowa State University, 2018]

   11. A. Sarkar, R. Fridman, A. Sohail and P. M. Hoffmann, Measurement of DDR-Collagen interaction Forces with Atomic force Microscopy, American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting, San Antonio, TX 2015

   12.  A. Sarkar, E. Mayyas and P. M. Hofmann, Effect of Surface Density of Active sites on Rupture Force Distributions of Single Molecule Interactions, Biophysical Society (BPS), 59th Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD 2015

   13.  A. Sarkar and P. M. Hoffmann, Effect of active site density on rupture force distributions in ligand-protein force measurements, American Physical Society (APS) Ohio-Region Section Meeting, April 2014, Youngstown, OH (presented as poster) [the work was also presented during the Physics Graduate Research Day, Wayne State University, April 2014]

   14.  A. Sarkar, E. Kramkowski, E. Mayyas and P. M. Hoffmann, Multiple attachments, heterogeneous binding and the high force tail in protein-protein binding force histograms, American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting, March 2013, Baltimore, MD (presented as poster) [the work was also presented during the Physics Graduate Research Day, Wayne State University, April 2013]

   15.  A. Sarkar, E. Kramkowski and P. M. Hoffmann, Live cell imaging and determination of protein-protein rupture force with AFM, American Physical Society (APS) Ohio-Region Section Meeting, October 2012, Detroit, MI (presented as poster) [the work was also presented in Michigan Microscopy and Microanalysis Society Fall 2012 Meeting]

Journal Publications

1. 1. Waite, J., Tana, S., Saha, H., Sarkar, S., Sarkar, A. (2022). Few-shot Deep Learning for AFM Force Curve Characterization of Single Molecule Interactions. Accepted in Patterns

   2. Rade, J., Zhang, J., Sarkar, S., Krishnamurthy, A., Ren, J., & Sarkar, A. (2022). Deep Learning for Live Cell Shape Detection and Automated AFM Navigation. Bioengineering, 9(10), 522.

   3.  Sarkar, A. (December 2021). Biosensing, characterization of biosensors, and improved drug delivery approaches using Atomic Force Microscopy: A review. Frontiers in Nanotechnology

   4.  Sarkar, A*., Mao, S.*, Wang, Y., Song, C., LeVine, D., Wang, X., and Que, L. (2021). Microfluidic chip grafted with integrin tension sensors for evaluating the effects of flowing shear force and ROCK inhibitor on platelets. Lab on a chip, (* made equal contribution and they share the first authorship)

   5. Sarkar, A., LeVine, D. N., Kuzmina, N., Zhao, Y., & Wang, X. (2020). Cell migration driven by self-generated integrin ligand gradient on ligand-labile surfaces. Current Biology, 30(20), 4022-4032. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.020

   6. Sarkar, A., LeVine, D., Zhao, Y., Mollaeian, K., Ren, J., & Wang, X. (2020). Tandem tension sensor reveals substrate rigidity-dependence of integrin molecular tensions in live cells. bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.24.918946

   7. Zhao, Y., Sarkar, A., & Wang, X. (2020). Peptide nucleic acid based tension sensor for cellular force imaging with strong DNase resistance. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 150, 111959. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2019.111959

   8. Wang, Y., Zhao, Y., Sarkar, A., & Wang, X. (2019). Optical sensor revealed abnormal nuclease spatial activity on cancer cell membrane. Journal of biophotonics, 12(5), e201800351. DOI: 10.1002/jbio.201800351

   9. Sarkar, A., Zhao, Y., Wang, Y., & Wang, X. (2018). Force-activatable coating enables high-resolution cellular force imaging directly on regular cell culture surfaces. Physical biology, 15(6), 065002. doi: 10.1088/1478-3975/aac69d

   10. Wang, Y., LeVine, D. N., Gannon, M., Zhao, Y., Sarkar, A., Hoch, B., & Wang, X. (2018). Force-activatable biosensor enables single platelet force mapping directly by fluorescence imaging. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 100, 192-200. DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2017.09.007

   11.  Zhao, Y., Wang, Y., Sarkar, A., & Wang, X. (2018). Keratocytes generate high integrin tension at the trailing edge to mediate rear De-adhesion during rapid cell migration. Iscience, 9, 502-512. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2018.11.016

   12. Sarkar, A.#, Sohail, A., Dong, J., Prunotto, M., Shinki, K., Fridman, R., & Hoffmann, P. M. (2019). Live cell measurements of interaction forces and binding kinetics between Discoidin Domain Receptor 1 (DDR1) and collagen I with atomic force microscopy. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-General Subjects, 1863(11), 129402. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2019.07.011

   13. Jones, S. K., Sarkar, A.#, Feldmann, D. P., Hoffmann, P., & Merkel, O. M. (2017). Revisiting the value of competition assays in folate receptor-mediated drug delivery. Biomaterials, 138, 35-45. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2017.05.034

Invited Talks

1. A. Sarkar, Single molecule interaction forces and reaction kinetics of ligand-receptor systems using AFM on live cells and  fast data analytics, Biomedical Engineering Society at Iowa State University, November 2022.

2. A. Sarkar, Force activatable biosensors and fast Atomic Force Microscopy data analytics using machine learning approaches, Department of Physics, Wayne State University, March 2022.

3. A. Sarkar, High resolution imaging, nanomechanical characterization, and measurement of interaction forces and binding kinetics of protein-protein interactions with AFM, Nanovaccine Institute, Iowa State University, December 2021 (2021 Fall Seminars).

4. A. Sarkar, S. Yang and B. Chen, High Resolution Single Molecule Imaging of WRC-Rac1 Protein Complex with Atomic Force Microscopy, 2021 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual meeting, October 2021, Orlando, FL.

5. A. Sarkar, Measurement of interaction forces and binding kinetics of protein-protein interactions with AFM, Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, March 2021 (2021 Spring Seminars)

6. A. Sarkar, J. Waite, S. Sarkar, Deep learning for fast Atomic Force Microscopy data analytics, selected for platform presentation and presented as a talk, Biophysical Society 65th Annual Meeting (virtual) 2021

7. A. Sarkar, Single molecule force measurements on live cells with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and force activatable biosensors at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, March 2020

8. A. Sarkar, X. Wang, Integrin molecular tensions in live cells are altered by substrate rigidity, Biophysical Society (BPS), 62nd Annual meeting, presented as a talk, San Francisco, CA, 2018

9. A. Sarkar, Interaction forces and reaction kinetics of ligand-cell receptor systems using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) at Department of Physics, Iowa State University, October 2015

Teaching at ISU

• Fall 2022: EE 450- “(Electrical Engineering 450: Biosensors”, 15 students, no TAs

• Spring 2022: “Physics 50: Preparation for Classical Physics”, 3 credits, No lab, 6 students, no TAs

• Spring 2021: PHYS 50- “Physics 50: Preparation for Classical Physics”, 3 credits, No lab, 9 students, no TAs

• Spring 2021: PHYS 111 lab section F- “PHYS 111: General Physics I - LABORATORIES”, 5 credits, lab, 28 students, no TAs

• Spring 2021: PHYS 111 lab section G- “PHYS 111: General Physics I - LABORATORIES”, 5 credits, lab, 28 students, no TAs

• Spring 2021: PHYS 111, PHYS 115L, PHYS 221L TA supervisor

Scholarly activities, Professional service and Outreach 

• Reviewed more than 20 abstracts and served as an abstract reviewer for Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting 2022, San Antonio, TX.

• Served as a chair of ‘Biomechanics & Mechanobiology’ session and served as co-chairs of multiple other sessions at Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting 2022, San Antonio, TX.

• Co-chaired ‘Mechanobiology’ subgroup presentations and platform talks at Biophysical Society 65th Annual Meeting (virtual) 2021.

• Co-chaired "Biomedical Systems and Soft Actuators" session at Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC) 2021

• Served as a reviewer and reviewed conference publication for Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC) 2021

• Served as a reviewer and reviewed multiple journal publications for ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

• Served as a member of Biophysical Society (BPS) and Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES).

• Served as a judge at GPSS conference 2021 at Iowa State University.

• Served as a judge at 6th Annual 3MT competition 2021 at Iowa State University

• Served as a moderator of ‘Mechanical Engineering’ session at ISU 16th Annual Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression 2022 at Iowa State University.

• Invited by vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society on ISU campus and presented an invited talk to inspire future women bioengineers

• Active member of LSAMP-INSPIRE program and WiSE and have been mentoring undergraduate underrepresented minority students.