I grew up in a small town, Kharagpur in the state of West Bengal, India. Early on, I discovered my love for biology and eventually decided to pursue a career in life sciences. In my scientific journey till date, I have come across many remarkable individuals who have motivated and inspired me. My doctoral dissertation on the alphaviral viroporin 6K from the Chikungunya virus with Prof. Manidipa Banerjee cemented my love for viral proteins and virus-host interactions. Besides, chikungunya virus, I also worked on hepatitis A virus and flock house virus encoded viroporins. Having studied viroporins, I decided to focus on virus assembly for my postdoc and shifted base to the US to join the newly established lab of Dr. Saif Hasan at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

As a postdoc in the Hasan lab, I am trying to understand how coronavirus spike protein undergoes trafficking within cell. I am especially interested in understanding how the spike protein hijacks the retrograde trafficking complex COPI that shuttles host proteins between Golgi and ER/ERGIC.

For my research, I utilize a range of biochemical, structural, biophysical, cell biology and in silico techniques like recombinant protein production, X-ray crystallography, biolayer interferometry, liposome disruption assays, immunofluorescence microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations.

Apart from science, I love to travel and try out local cuisines. I also enjoy photography and hiking.