Lab Members

Our lab interests are:

Ø  Nano-Biophysics of Chromatin: How DNA gets packaged inside human cell nucleus?

Ø  Cell Biomechanics: What does a cell’s mechanical response tell us about diseases?

Ø  Diagnostic Devices: Developing high-throughput medical diagnostic devices for single cell analysis.

I am working on the polymeric properties of the DNA molecule using nanopore device, which has further applications like probing the nanopore internal geometry and enhancing bio-molecule detection by slowing them down.

I am probing the DNA-Protein interaction using glass nanopore to understand the spatial location and binding strength of the DNA-Protein complex

Application of electro-fluidics to understand cell mechanics

I am studying DNA-nucleosome interaction using nanopore and optical tweezer. I am currently working on DNA Translocation, DNA Combing and DNA Tethering.

I am developing a high-throughput electrofluidic cell sorting device for cancer cell isolation and real-time mechanical characterization to investigate their biophysical properties.

Projects:

1. Optical Tweezers based molecular stiffness

2. Nanopore Biophysics

3. Single Cell stiffness measurements 

Serene is our resident molecular and cellular biologist. She is currently interested in DNA-protein interactions using the CRISPR system.

As a part of DNA-protein interaction studies, I work on the model system chromatin to better understand compaction of 30nm fiber. I assemble histone octamers on different lengths of PCR amplified DNA fragments having nucleosome positioning 601 sequence. 

To study the shape dynamics of red blood cells in an electro-fluidic device by high speed imaging.

I work to create a library of ideal particles using droplet microfluidics and study its mechanical properties. These particles when coupled with their RPS signals would help detecting atypical cells in trace sample quantity.

Currently, I am studying the dynamics of translocation under different bead geometries, bead properties, and different salt solutions.

Along with that, I am also looking at the effect of ethanol on RBC translocation in terms of cell stiffness and cell volume

I am working on PDMS-based microfluidic devices to explore the mechanical properties of cells, such as stiffness, elasticity, and viscosity, etc…

Studying DNA Translocation by passing DNA through nanopores platform.