CV
Somenath Bakshi
Current position (September 2014 -):
Postdoctoral fellow, Johan Paulsson's Lab
Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
Previous position (August 2013 - August 2014):
Postdoctoral fellow, Jim Weisshaar's Lab
Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin Madison
Education:
Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2013
Advisor: Professor James C. Weisshaar
M.Sc in Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, 2008
Advisor: Professor Sandeep Verma
B.Sc in Chemistry, Calcutta University, 2006
Teaching Experience:
- Teaching Assistant, Chemistry 103, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fall 2008 and Spring 2009
- Teaching Assistant, Chemistry 116, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Spring 2010
Awards and Honors:
- 2013 K.V. Reddy Award in Physical Chemistry for "outstanding achievement as a graduate student" in the Department of Chemistry at University of Wisconsin-Madison
- "Best Master's Project Award" in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, 2008.
- Award for "Academic Excellence Among Masters Student of Chemistry," class of 2008
- Swami Tejasananda Award for "Most Meritorious Student" for obtaining highest marks in B. Sc among all divisions in class of 2006 in Ramkrishna Mission Vidyamandira.
- Manmath Nath Medal for "Highest Marks in Chemistry" in the class of 2006 in Ramkrishna Mission Vidyamandira.
- Selected as Visiting Student Reseach Fellow (VSRP) at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, 2007.
- Ranked 5 in All India Graduate Aptitude Test (GATE) 2008.
- Ranked 3rd based on overall aggregate in the B. Sc. examination in chemistry among 171 colleges under University of Calcutta, India, 2006.
- Secured All India rank of 3 in the Joint Admission test to enter the M.Sc. program at Indian Institute of Technology (JAM), 2006.
Invited talks and Oral presentations at Conferences:
- "How does transcription and translation modulate nucleoid morphology?", NIH Lambda Lunch Meetings, Bethesda, MD, 2014
- "Studying RNA Polymerase Partitioning in Escherichia coli Cells Using Single Molecule Imaging", Quantitative Bioimaging: Focus on Single Molecule Microscopy , Albuquerque, NM, 2013
- "Spatial biology of transcription and translation in live E. coli using super-resolution microscopy", NIH Lambda Lunch Meetings, Bethesda, MD, 2013
- "Superresolution Imaging of Ribosomes and RNA Polymerase in Live Escherichia coli Cells", Midwest Single Molecule Workshop, Ann Arbor, MI, 2012
- "Superresolution Imaging of Ribosomes in Live Escherichia coli Cells," Bacteria and Phages meeting, Madison, WI, 2011
Publications:
- First-author publications:
1. Bakshi S, Choi H, Mondal J, Weisshaar JC.
The spatial biology of transcription and translation in rapidly growing Escherichia coli.
Frontiers Microbiology; 6 . 636 (2015).
2. Bakshi S, Choi H, Mondal J, Weisshaar JC.
Time-dependent effects of transcription-and translation-halting drugs on the spatial distributions of the Escherichia coli chromosome and ribosomes.
Molecular Microbiology; 94 (4).871-887 (2014).
3. Bakshi S, Choi H, Rangarajan N, Barns KJ, Weisshaar JC.
Non-perturbative Imaging of Nuceloid Morphology in Live Bacterial Cells during Antimicrobial Peptide Attack.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology; 00989-14 (2014).
4. Bakshi S, Dalrymple R, Li W, Choi H, Weisshaar JC.
Partitioning of RNA Polymerase Activity in Live E. coli from Analysis of Single-molecule Di.usive Trajectories.
Biophysical Journal; 105 (12):2676-2686 (2013).
5. Bakshi S, Siryaporn A, Goulian M, Weisshaar JC.
Superresolution Imaging of Ribosomes and RNA Polymerase in Live Escherichia coli Cells
Molecular Microbiology; 85(1):21-38 (2012).
6. Bakshi S, Bratton BP., Weisshaar JC.
Sub-diffraction-limit Study of Kaede Diffusion and Spatial distribution in Live Escherichia coli
Biophysical Journal; 101(10):2535-2544 (2011).
- Other publications:
1. Okumus B, Landgraf D, Lai GC, Bakshi S, Arias-Castro JC, Yildiz S, Huh D, Fernandez-Lopez R, Peterson CN, Toprak E, Karoui ME, Paulsson J.
Mechanical slowing-down of cytoplasmic diffusion allows in vivo counting of proteins in individual cells.
Nature communications; 7:12130 (2016).
2. Rangarajan N, Bakshi S, Weisshaar JC.
Localized Permeabilization of E. coli Membranes by the Antimicrobial Peptide Cecropin A,
Biochemistry; 52 (38):6584-6594 (2013).
3. Eun Y-J, Kiekebusch D, Zhou M, Schlimpert S, Trivedi R, Bakshi S, Wahlig T, Zhong Z, Thanbichler M, Weibel D.
Divin: A Small Molecule Inhibitor of Bacterial Divisome Assemblys
J. Am. Chem. Soc.; 135, 9768-9776 (2013).
Science Outreach:
- Mentored Lyanne Gomez, an undergraduate student from University of Puerto Rico, Ro Piedras, for REU summer project
- Lead annual microscopy activities for the " Microscopy of Life" class sponsored by UW Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI)
- Organized microscopy activities for the for the CHOPS (Chemistry Opportunities) program for underrepresented minority students who are interested in a career in chemistry.
Lab Skills:
- Experimental design, data acquisition and data analysis for sub-diffraction-limit microscopy techniques (PALM, Single Particle Tracking).
- Experimental design, data acquisition and data analysis for microfluidics based high-throughput time-lapse imaging.
- Experimental design, data acquisition and data analysis for FRAP and photoactivated pulse-chase experiments.
- Programming user interface (MATLAB) for data analysis of single molecule tracking and superresolution imaging (PALM) experiments
- Monte Carlo simulations of reaction-diffusion systems to model the experimental data
- Construction and use of microfluidic devices for time-lapse imaging of bacteria
- Basic molecular biology techniques