Hi!

My name is Britya (which in Sanskrit means 'Noble'!). My academic training lies on the cusp of Engineering and Neuroscience (the best of both worlds!).

I conducted my M.Sc. research in the Gordon Lab at the University of British Columbia in the beautiful city of Vancouver. There, I studied the neural circuits modulating taste processing and feeding behavior in fruit flies and mosquitoes. Dissecting and live imaging fly brains and conducting behavioral assays excited and enthused me every day! The brain is a fascinating cosmos of multisensory circuits, which helps us in making important decisions like - what to eat and what not to eat! Why do we find certain food items appetitive and others aversive? And how do appetitive compounds turn into being aversive at high concentrations (say vinegar)? These were the broad questions I investigated during my MSc research. Learn more here. 

Being a gastronome, I am very interested in understanding how the mechanosensation in the gut helps in orchestrating the feeling of satiety and hunger. I am currently investigating the role of PIEZO2 in stomach stretch in the Marshall Lab at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Prior to this, I had worked as a Science Communicator at STEMCELL Technologies, which has equipped me with the much-needed skill of eloquently communicating science. Here are some of my science articles.

When I am not looking through the microscope or reading papers, I might be reading a novel, painting, dancing, or kayaking!