Inspire Me 

Prof. Vasant Muralidharan, an alumnus of B.Sc. Microbiology 1998 batch is currently a Professor at Department of Cellular Biology and Centre for Trpical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, USA.

The Muralidharan lab studies the cellular biology of Plasmodium falciparum, the lethal human malaria parasite. Vasant’s lab utilizes molecular genetics, cell biology, and biochemistry to study the biological mechanisms driving the disease. You can find more about him and his research group at https://www.muralidharanlab.org/.

Dr. Aniruddha Desphande, an alumnus of B.Sc. Microbiology 1997 batch is currently a Associate Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, USA.

His research revolves around studying difficult-to-cure leukemias through the use of mouse models, genomic and epigenomic studies. You can find more about him and his research group at https://www.thedeshpandelab.com/.

Dr. Pratik Shah is a synthetic biologist researcher, innovator and Entrepreneur with very diverse cultural and work experiences from Europe, North America and Asia. His research interest includes DNA nanotechnology,  nucleic acid biochemistry, polymerase biochemistry, Xeno Nucleic acids (XNA), RNA biomarkers etc. 

Dr. Rashmi Kulkarni along with her professional duties handles Student Outreach programs about the microbiome, nutrition, and long-term health. She is also responsible for Building an online educational portal with self-learning online modules and web- based apps about Nutrition and the Gut microbiome. In her talk she elucidated the link between microbiome and various mental as well as physical disorders. The highlight of the talk was the importance of following traditional ways of living in order to nurture our microbiome. 

Dr. P. V. Bhaskar current research activities include Microbial dynamics and carbon flux in Indian ocean sector of Southern ocean bacterial phytoplankton interactions in Fjord systems. He is a Member of Indian Arctic expedition and Southern Ocean expedition team since 2011 and recipient  of JSPS Fellowship, by the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) and DAAD Fellowship by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). 

Dr. Rebecca Thombre is currently working as a Research Scientist at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Seattle, USA & a Visiting Researcher at The University of Kent, United Kingdom. She was the Principal Investigator for Astrobiology project funded by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) - SPPU Space Technology cell. She has received ‘GOLD MEDAL’ and a Best Teacher Award’ for Excellence in Teaching by Bhartiya Sangh, Pune, India in 2015 

Dr. Prjakta Oak is currently working as a Senior Scientist at Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Munich, Germany.  She is leading a team, with the goal of performing relevant cell-based assays to screen therapeutic protein constructs against cancer and pulmonary diseases. Having experience in oncology and pulmonary disease, she is a recipient of awards from American Association of Cancer research and American Thoracic society during her scientific tenure prior to starting her Pharmaceutical career.  

Dr. Subhojit Sen is a DBT Ramalingaswami Fellow at the University of Mumbai - Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (CEBS), where he heads the Laboratory of Epigenetics, which focuses on understanding stress induced triggers in cells that eventually drive epigenetic disorders. He was awarded the “2019 Anil Sadgopal CUBE award for Popularisation of Science and Cultivation of Scientific Temperament” 

Dr Finny Varghese, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Radboud University Medical Centre, Netherlands. He is an expert on molecular biology of Arboviruses, Cultivation of Mammalian and insect cell culture. He has worked extensively on Biosafety Level 3 and CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing . He also has experience on NGS library preparation and analysis through Galaxy platform.