Research

We are interested in developing microfluidics devices for trapping C. elegans and bacteria. In addition, we are also developing deep-learning based software for analysing images and performing real-time tracking of organisms.

The ability of an organism to deal with stress is an important indication of its health and subsequent survival.  But, one of the changes that stresses cause inside a cell is to consume more ATP than normal leading to a disruption in energy homeostasis. Research in this lab aims to understand the interplay between the key-players in response to various stresses such as heat shock, pathogens, starvation, etc. This will be probed with a combination of microscopic imaging and molecular biology.

Even though experiments help in discovering new connections in the signaling pathway, the strength of those connections have to be studied through theoretical models. This involves looking at not only the signaling pathway but also its interactions with noise. Noise in cellular systems is a manifestation of small number of molecules interacting with one another, difference in timescales of various processes and cell to cell variability. All of these need to be carefully incorporated while proposing any new theoretical model. Statistical mechanics based approach in combination with computer simulations will be used to tackle this. 

A talk I gave that is related to our work in this area can be found here. https://video.syr.edu/media/t/1_572zzqdd 

Biology has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of the big data revolution. It has not only contributed to creating large datasets of entire genomes and transcripts through next-gen sequencing methods, but has also been actively involved in creating new methods of data analysis through the field of bioinformatics. We aim to use and curate public datasets to predict interactions between network components such as genes, proteins, promoters, etc.  

A talk I gave that is related to our work in this area can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN3mMoIGlcM