Assistant Professor
Lab: 705 (Tower 2), Office: 604 (Tower 2)
Institute of Health Sciences, Presidency University (Newtown Campus)
Plot No. DG/02/02, Premises No. 14-0358, Action Area 1D (Newtown)
(Near Biswa Bangla Convention Centre); Kolkata- 700156 West Bengal- India
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oKkkM78AAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.presiuniv.ac.in/web/staff.php?staffid=436
I am a Microbiologist, working in different aspects of microbial interactions. During my early school days, I was fascinated with biology and opted for B. Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. in Microbiology from The University of Burdwan. Thereafter I did my Ph.D. from ICAR- National Rice Research Institute (Odisha, India) on Nitrogen fixing endophytic and epiphytic bacteria communities of different cultivated and wild rice genotypes. During my post-doctoral work at the University of California, Davis (California, USA), I have worked in the field of microbial interactions in different wild rice genotypes. Apart from that, I have worked for around two years as an Assistant Professor at RK University (Gujarat) where I have explored microorganism and their interaction with groundnut to combat salinity and metal stress. My research mainly focused on different aspects of plant-microbe interactions through metabolomics, phenotyping, and different molecular biological techniques.
During my doctoral work at ICAR- National Rice Research Institute, I have explored the diversity, colonization pattern of beneficial N2-fixing endophytic and epiphytic microbial communities of wild and cultivated rice genotypes. Among all characterized endophytes- epiphytes, a novel rice root endophytic Azotobacter sp. was found to increase rice yield under field conditions when it was compared with other preexisting rhizospheric Azotobacter. I have also developed a novel Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) based technique for tracking of endophytic bacteria in rice roots demonstrating the endophytic colonization.
Apart from that I have characterized tea pest (Buzura suppressaria, Hyposidra talaca, Hyposidra infixaria) specific Bacillus thuringiensis and identified a novel toxin (immune inhibitor A of Bt) by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The strain has been optimized for large-scale production in 250-litre fermenter and currently being used to control tea loopers in tea-cultivated areas of the Dooars region of West Bengal. I have also demonstrated the microbial biofilm base Phytostabilization process in groundnut ecologies at coastal regions of Gujarat. The system was unique in its kind, demonstrating plant-microbe protocooperation to withstand salinity and metal stress which can be implemented to improve crop production in saline metal-polluted agriculture fields of India.
Major contribution
Developed a method for preparing a fungus based formulation for enhancement of Tea leaf flavonoids (Indian Patent filed, Application No. 202431070487, dated 18th September, 2024)
Developed bacteria-algae consortia-based protocooperation system for heavy metal remediation from aquaculture (Chandrashekharaiah et al., 2022, Resources, Conservation & Recycling)
Characterized rice root endophytic Azotobacter sp. (MCC 3432) and optimized its rice growth-promoting capabilities under laboratory, net house, and field conditions (Banik et al., 2016,Planta; Banik et al., 2019, Microbiological Research)
Characterized a tea pest-specific Bacillus thuringiensis and identified a novel toxin (immune inhibitor A of Bt) by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The strain has been optimized for large-scale production in a 250L fermenter and is currently being used by Goodricke Group Ltd. (Banik et al., 2019, Industrial Crops & Products)
Developed a microbial bioremediation system for groundnut and identified the active principle by Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and FTIR (Banik et al., 2018, Science of the Total Environment)
Developed a novel Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)-based technique for tracking endophytic bacterial rice root colonization (Banik et al., 2016, Biology and Fertility of Soils)
1. Selected as a Young Investigator at “Young Investigators Meeting 2023” at IIT Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad University, organized by IndiaBioscience
2. Awarded AMI- Young Scientist in Agricultural Microbiology by the Association of Microbiologists of India for the year 2019 at 60th annual conference of AMI scheduled for November 16th, 2019 at Central University of Haryana, Mahendragarh, Haryana, India.
3. Awarded Best Young Researcher National by prestigious IRDP AWARDS, (October 2018), Chennai, India, for Teaching, Research, and Publications.
4. Awarded Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, State of Israel / Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development. (2018) (Not availed)
5. Awarded Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Department of Plant Sciences, Mail Stop 5, University of California, 1 Shields Ave, Davis, California 95616, USA (2017).
Qualifications :
B. Sc. in Microbiology (Hons.) (The University of Burdwan, India)
M.Sc. in Microbiology (The University of Burdwan, India)
Ph.D. in Microbiology (ICAR- National Rice Research Institute and The University of Burdwan, India)
Postdoctoral Research (Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, California, USA)
DBT, Govt. India (2024 - 2025)
Topic: Microbial EPS
BIRAC, India (2024-2027)
Fungus-bacteria interaction
UGC, Govt. India (2020 - 2023)
Topic: Rice microbiome
SERB, Govt. India (2020 - 2022)
Topic: Tea microbiome
FRPDF, Presidency University, Kolkata