Thesis Advisor(s): Prof. Fabien Sorin, Laboratory of Photonic Materials and Fiber Devices (FIMAP). 

Thesis Title: Advanced Multi-Material Fibers for Actuation and Sensing in Medicine.

• Soft materials and architectures that conform to and create an intimate matching with soft and on-planar body surfaces offer intriguing opportunities in biology and medicine. This research is to investigate soft and flexible multi-material fiber devices oriented towards hybrid bio-robotics and wearable electronics for actuation, and biosensing. Here, artificial components (hydrogels, polymers, nanoparticles, etc.) and biological cells can be integrated to produce different types of controlled actuation, paving the way for complex hybrid systems. In addition, we plan to develop flexible biosensors for non-invasive, cost-effective, and personalized monitoring of bio-analytes in biological fluids. Such devices could play a key role in reducing the costs associated with clinical and biomedical diagnostic procedures. We plan to focus on soft actuators, and sensors based on electrochemical, magnetorheological, and colorimetric detection, as they are particularly suited for low-cost, portable, and user-friendly medical diagnostics and bioassays.

• Master of Technology in Nanotechnology, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India (2015). (Opt-out to work at NUS)

• Master of Technology in Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, India (2012-2014).

Thesis Advisor(s): Prof. Babji Srinivasan, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT Madras); Prof. Suman Chakraborty (IIT Kharagpur).

Thesis Title: Frequency-Driven Alteration in Cellular Morphology during Ultrasound Pulsing in a Microfluidic Confinement.

• To instigate the therapeutic potential of low-intensity ultrasound further, it is essential to characterize the biophysical interaction of living cells with alteration of ultrasound frequency. Although, this study is frequently been the subject of speculation in the therapeutic ultrasound regimes there has been a distinct shortage of attempts to characterize in situ physical-biological interaction in this process. The dearth of effort in this domain inherently calls for our investigation on frequency-dependent shape transition in micro-confined biological cells. Here, we used a microfluidic platform for single-cell analysis with bio-physical interaction to ultrasound frequency alteration, in line with the fact that microfluidic channels to a large extent mimic the confinement effect induced by micro confinement of physiological pathways. In this dissertation, with the help of a series of single-cell direct observations, we show that low-intensity ultrasound frequency alteration would reversibly perturb cell membrane structure and count for inherent cell oscillation. However, during the post-exposure ultrasound period, the cytomechnical perturbation of the cell membrane is relatively more compared to the ultrasound exposure period leading to an inherent residual strain that follows a transition zone near the resonating frequency of the composite system. Together, these findings indicate that alteration of low-intensity ultrasound frequency, if applied to a microfluidic platform on the order of minutes, would produce a reversible effect on physical structures of living cells based on the system resonant frequency during and post-exposure ultrasound pulsing.