European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany

Under the supervision of Dr. Anne Ephrussi and Dr. Julia Mahamid
EMBL and Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions COFUND (EIPOD) Fellow (Dec 2017 - Dec 2020)

EMBL Post-doctoral fellow (Jan 2021 - Aug 2023)
Project title: "Assembly and function of RNA-protein condensates in the Drosophila female germline"

Research work focussed on the in vivo regulation of assembly and material properties of RNA-protein condensates in the context of embryonic development using oskar mRNA localization during Drosophila oogenesis as a model.

CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India

Under the supervision of Dr. Suvendra N. Bhattacharyya
 

Thesis Title: "Mechanism of miRNA activity regulation in mammalian cells"

Research work focused on the regulation of miRNA biogenesis and activity and subcellular compartmentalization of miRNA activity and miRNA-repressed target messenger RNAs in mammalian cells.  

1. Completed a 4 month project with Prof. I. B. Chatterjee, Dept. of Biotechnology, University of Calcutta, as a part of M.Sc. programme, on the "Effect of cigarette smoke on induction of lung cancer in lung epithelial cell line". 

2. Completed the project entitled “Investigating the role of an insertion motif in dictating the catalysis of Fatty Acyl-AMP Ligase protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis” under the supervision of Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale, Director, Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi as a part of 2 month IAS Summer Research Fellowship programme. 

3. Completed a 2 month project under the guidance of Prof. Tapas K. Kundu, Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit (MBGU), JNCASR, entitled “Transient changes in acetylation levels of histones in mice liver upon treatment with natural HAT inhibitor, Garcinol” as a part of the Project Oriented Biological Education (POBE) programme, 2006-2008, JNCASR, India.

Webinar presentations :

Presentation of research work entitled "Liquid or Solid: Do material properties of RNP granules matter in vivo?" at the RNA Collaborative Seminar Series 2022 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHmsWjDXUUM&t=894s)

Presentation of research work entitled"Liquid or Solid:Do material properties of RNP granules matter in vivo?" at the Condensate Colloquium Series (https://www.spp2191.com/recorded-talks).

Selected Conference presentations :

Short talk presentation entitled "Material properties of RNP granules are tuned for their in vivo function" at the EMBO EMBL Symposium: Complex Life of RNA,  EMBL Heidelberg, 2022.

Short talk presentation entitled "Material properties of RNP granules are tuned for their in vivo function" at the RNA Transport meeting 2022, Germany.

Short talk presentation entitled "Liquid or Solid: Do material properties of RNP granules matter in vivo ? at the EMBO EMBL Symposium: Cellular Mechanisms driven by phase separation, EMBL Heidelberg, 2022.

Short talk presentation entitled "Liquid-to-solid phase transition of oskar RNP granules is essential for their function in the Drosophila germline” at the EMBO India Lecture Course RNA Binding Proteins: From RNA binding to condensation and aggregation, 2022, virtual.

Flash talk (& poster) presentation entitled “Liquid-to-solid phase transition of oskar RNP granules is essential for their function in the Drosophila germline” at the Cell Symposia - Biological Assemblies: Phase Transitions and More, 2021, virtual.

Scientific talk entitled "Target dependent biogenesis of cognate miRNAs in human cells" at the 8th RNA Group Meeting, CCMB, India, 2016. Awarded Best Oral presentation.

Selected Poster presentations :

Poster entitled "Target-driven biogenesis of cognate miRNAs in human cells" in All India Cell Biology Conference (XL AICBC) 2016, Gwalior, India.

Poster entitled "Dicer dependent target-driven biogenesis of cognate miRNAs in human cells" in Cell Symposia: Functional RNAs, Guangzhou, China. Awarded International Travel Support  from DST-SERB (Science and Engineering Research Board) for participation.

 Poster presentation entitled "Target-driven biogenesis of cognate miRNAs in human cell : An approach towards gene manipulation" at Inauguration of CSIR-IICB TRUE campus, 2016. Awarded Best Poster presentation.

Poster presentation entitled “Subcellular compartmentalization of miRNA activity and its regulation by target mRNA in mammalian cells” at 81st Annual Meeting of Society of Biological Chemists (India) and Symposium on Chemistry and Biology: Two Weapons against Diseases, 2012, Kolkata, India.

Awarded the INSA Medal for YOUNG SCIENTIST, 2019  by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, India.

Awarded the EMBL Interdisciplinary PostDoc (EIPOD) fellowship from Dec 2017-Dec 2020. During this period served as a post-doctoral/Marie Curie fellow in the Developmental Biology (Anne Ephrussi) and Structural & Computational Biology (Julia Mahamid) units.

Awarded the NASI Platinum Jubilee YOUNG SCIENTIST Award, 2017 in the field of Bio-medical, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology by the National Academy of Sciences, India.

Secured 1st position in CSIR-IICB Ph.D. Course work.

Secured all India 1st position in DBT-NET, 2010.

Qualified CSIR-NET December 2009 with rank 24 and subsequently qualified the CSIR-SPMF (Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship) with rank 2.

Awarded Gold Medal for M.Sc. First Class 1st position in the University of Calcutta.

Awarded the “Summer Research Fellowship certificate” by Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) for completing the project entitled “Investigating the role of an insertion motif in dictating the catalysis of Fatty Acyl-AMP Ligase protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis” under the guidance of Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale, Director, Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi

Awarded a Certificate of Merit for securing First Class Second Position in University of Calcutta, Microbiology Honours.

Awarded the certificate for completing the  Project Oriented Biological Education (POBE), 2006-2008, programme organized by Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore.  

Completed the EMBO Laboratory Leadership course.

Participation in Grant Writing course by EMBL Complementary Scientific Skills programme.

Attended and completed the EMBL Interdisciplinary PostDoc (EIPOD) training curriculum participating in the following workshops:

        1. Career development and gender dimensions in science,

        2. Research ethics and outreach, public engagement and dissemination of knowledge,

        3. Intellectual property and entrepreneurship. 

Participation in the EMBO Press course on Scientific Integrity: How to publish reproducible results.

Instructor in the EMBO Practical Course : FISHing for RNAs - Classical to single molecule approaches, Virtual,  2021, 2023.

Teaching (lecture) and hands-on practical training in EMBL Ph.D. Course work (2018-2022).

Supervision and operational training of the Leica Confocal microscopes in Developmental Biology unit, EMBL, Heidelberg (2020-onwards).