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PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Shirisha Nagotu
Assistant Professor, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Email - snagotu@iitg.ac.in
Dr. Shirisha Nagotu joined IIT Guwahati in 2015. She received M.Sc in Biotechnology from University of Essex, UK with a distinction. Later she carried out her PhD research work in the Molecular Cell Biology group at University of Groningen, The Netherlands under the guidance of Prof. Ida van der Klei. She received the Alexander van Humboldt fellowship to pursue post-doctoral research at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany under the guidance of Prof. Ralf Erdmann. Further, she also worked at LIMES institute, University of Bonn in the group of Prof. Thorsten Lang before joining IIT Guwahati. At IIT Guwahati with the help of a very enthusiastic research group she aims to understand mechanisms of organelle biology, inter-organelle communication and cellular ageing.
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Education:
B.Sc in Agriculture, ANGR Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Hyderabad, India, 2003.
M.Sc in Biotechnology (with distinction), University of Essex, Colchester, UK, 2005.
Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, 2010.
Position and Employment:
Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, India — July 2015 to present.
Postdoctoral Fellow, LIMES Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany — April 2012 to March 2013.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Ruhr University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany — November 2009 to March 2012.
Honors and Awards:
Selected for the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, India membership - 2025
Mid-career Lady scientist award (Biogerontology) from Association of Gerontology India (2024)
Invited to participate in the ASEAN-INDIA Women Scientists Conclave (AIWSC), 2024 Singapore, co-organized by Singapore’s Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) with India’s Department of Science & Technology and Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) with the support of the ASEAN Secretariat.
DST-ITS Travel grant to attend Cold Spring Harbor Conference on Yeast and Life Sciences in Japan (2023).
Inducted council member, Association of Gerontology, India (2022)
Selected for the Young Scientist Award - Early Career Research Award (ECRA), by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. Supported by a major project (2016-2019).
Alexander von Humboldt Post-doctoral fellowship, Germany (2010)
EMBO-Welcome Trust travel award to attend EMBO annual meeting, Barcelona (2010)
American Society of Cell Biology travel award to attend ASCB conference, San Francisco (2008)
FEBS Travel award to attend Advanced Course on "Origin and Evolution of Mitochondria and Chloroplasts” (2007)
Ubbo-emmius fellowship to pursue PhD in the Netherlands (2005)
Distinction in M.Sc Biotechnology (2005)
Among top 3 rank holders in B.Sc Agriculture in ANGRAU, Hyderabad (2003)
State level first prize for Science fair project inn class X (1995)
Students guided:
PhD – Completed 4 [3 (as supervisor), 1 (as co-supervisor)], Ongoing 5
Masters – Completed 10, Ongoing 1
Outreach:
Member of core organizing committee of IIT Guwahati for India International Science Festival, 2024 held at IIT Guwahati.
Interaction with students of SFS school Narengi, Guwahati (Class XI and XII science and maths stream), 2024.
Interaction with Navodaya students of the North-east (Class IX, XI and XII science and maths stream), 2024
Invited speaker - International Seminar on Comparative Reflections on Gender and Higher Education in India (Special Focus on the NEP 2020 and the States of Northeastern India) 2024 held at IIT Guwahati.
Resource person for 50th KVS Rashtriya Bal Vaigyanik Pradarshani at KV school, IIT Guwahati, 2023.
Resource person for the Science day organized at Delhi Public School, Kamrup, 2022.
Resource person for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan - State government program of teacher training in the state of Assam, 2022.
CURRENT MEMBERS
Isha Kashyap
PhD student
Email: isha.kashyap@iitg.ac.in
Isha joined OBCAL as a PhD student in July 2021. She is interested in the science behind ageing. She will look at the connection between protein import and cellular ageing in yeast. For this, she will look at the import of matrix proteins of peroxisomes in S.cerevisiae and will try to decipher the importance of oxidation of fatty acids in ageing.
Tanveera Rounaque Sarhadi
PhD student
Email: tanveera.rounaque @iitg.ac.in
Tanveera joined OBCAL in July 2021. She is interested in the science behind neurodegeneration. Her research focuses on understanding the interplay between various organelles, their pathways and the proteins that are associated with the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism.
Ankita Adhikary
PhD student
Email: ankita.adhikary@iitg.ac.in
Ankita joined OBCAL in July 2022. She is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying mitochondrial dynamics dysfunction and the relation of Dnm1 and actin in mediating the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Her hobby is painting, sketching and dancing.
Darshani Sardar Chopade
PhD student
Email: darshani@iitg.ac.in
Darshani joined OBCAL in July 2023. Her research explores the intersection of α-synuclein aggregation, polyamine homeostasis, and organelle dynamics in Parkinson's disease. She is investigating how intracellular polyamine level modulation impacts cellular function and influences α-synuclein aggregation.
Soham Basu
PhD student
Email: soham.basu@iitg.ac.in
Soham joined OBCAL in July 2023. His research focuses on the role of mitochondrial-derived vesicles (MDVs) in interorganelle communication and mitochondrial quality control. He is particularly interested in how these processes differ between normal physiological conditions and the pathological state associated with Parkinson’s disease.
Anushka Dixit
M.Tech. student
Email: d.anushka@iitg.ac.in
Anushka is a Master’s student in OBCAL, working on the functional characterization of a vacuolar membrane protein in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to better understand its role in cellular homeostasis.
Selva Parameshwari S
JRF
Email: selva.sudalaimani@gmail.com
Selva is a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) working on a SERB-POWER project. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of membrane contact sites.
ALUMINI
Phd | M.Tech. | B. Tech | JRF | Interns
PhD / GRADUATE STUDENTS
Dr. Riddhi Banerjee
PhD
Email: riddhibanerjee1991@alumini.iitg.ac.in
Thesis Title: To gain insights into the function of yeast Dnm1 in mitochondrial dynamics
Year of completion: 2024
Current position: Post doc at NIH, USA.
Dr. Rachayeeta Deb
PhD
Email: rachayeeta@alumni.iitg.ac.in
Thesis Title: Cellular Ageing: Deciphering the role of peroxisomes in yeast
Year of completion: 2023
Current position: DBT, RA at IISc Bangalore.
Dr. Nayan Mori Deori
PhD
Email: d.nayan@alumni.iitg.ac.in
Thesis Title: Molecular characterization of the organelle contact facilitating protein Pex30 and its role in peroxisome dynamics in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Year of completion: 2023
M.Tech.
Selva Parameshwari S
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: Effect of expression of α-synuclein on mitochondria-peroxisome tether proteins in yeast.
Year of completion: 2025
Ishita Mathur
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: To investigate the disease-associated mutations of Acyl CoA oxidase for their role in peroxisome function & associated human diseases.
Year of completion: 2024
Current Position :
JRF at ACTREC, Mumbai
Abhigna Battineni
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: To investigate the disease associated mutations of Acyl CoA oxidase for their role in peroxisome function.
Year of completion: 2023
Current Position :
Ph.D at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Ganesh Mohan
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: To identify and characterize arginylation in yeast expressed alpha-synuclein.
Year of completion: 2022
Agradeep Mukherjee
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: Identification and characterization of post translational modifications in yeast Dnm1.
Year of completion: 2022
Current Position :
Ph.D at Heidelberg University, Germany.
Atchaya S R
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: Characterization of novel SNCA mutations using computational and molecular biology approaches.
Year of completion: 2021
Current Position :
RA, Dr. Reddy's institute of life sciences, Hyderabad.
Terence Infant WL
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: Elucidating the role of various domains of pex30 in its function and spatio-temporal localization.
Year of completion: 2020
Current Position :
Ph.D at Stockholm University, Sweden.
Jyoti Yadav
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: Molecular characterization of CSFV envelope proteins E2 and Erns in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Year of completion: 2019
Current Position :
Ph.D at Auburn University, USA.
Sahaya Glingston
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: Microscopic analysis of the expression and effect of NDV NP and M proteins on cell organelles in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Year of completion: 2018
Current Position :
Ph.D at University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Rishi Agrawal
M.Tech.
Thesis Title: Prediction/Revision of Peroxisomal Targeting Signal (PTS)1 and characterization of the identified novel PTS1 containing proteins in yeast.
Year of completion: 2017
Current Position :
Founder and CEO of Ayusla Café, Innovator of Ayurveda Informatics.
B.Tech.
Vivian Joseph
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Pathways to Parkinson's: The synergy of α-synuclein, Dnm1 and actin in mitochondrial dysfunction.
Year of completion: 2025
Current Position :
MS at Kyoto University, Japan
Neema Tundup
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Organelle morphology analysis in the vps35 strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Year of completion: 2025
Current Position :
Sreelakshmi Aneesh
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Expression and characterization of Pox1-GFP in cells lacking PEX5
Year of completion: 2024
Current Position :
Business analyst at Shadowfax Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru.
Anindya Rajan
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Analysis of ctt1 and cta1 strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Year of completion: 2023
Anurag Loona
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Effect of actin cytoskeleton depolymerisation on the aggregation of α-synuclein
Year of completion: 2023
Current Position :
M.S. at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Mritunjay Dwivedi
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Characterization of α-synuclein affects on tif4631yeast cells.
Year of completion: 2022
Current Position :
Research scholar at IISER Bhopal
Anshuman Pandey
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Characterization of Parkinson’s disease causing Vps35 mutation.
Year of completion: 2021
Bhavya
B.Tech.
Thesis Title:
Year of completion: 2021
Current Position : Management trainee at ICICI bank
Hridayesh Debbarma
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Characterizing localization and targeting of Pex3 in various yeast mutants affected in peroxisome biogenesis.
Year of completion: 2020
Neha Meena
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Investigating the effect of peroxisome proliferation and function on α-synuclein aggregation and toxicity in yeast models of PD.
Year of completion: 2020
Jitika Rajpoot
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Investigating the effects caused by the expression of NDV matrix protein in yeast.
Year of completion: 2019
Current Position :
M.S. at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Abhishek Mishra
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Characterization of peroxisome fission mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Year of completion: 2018
Current Position :
Software Developer, FICO
Saketh Raju
B.Tech.
Thesis Title: Analysis of organelle biology under various growth conditions in yeast.
Year of completion: 2017
Current Position :
Senior Product Engineer, School of Accelerated Company, Hyderabad.
JUNIOR RESEARCH FELLOWS
Chirag Pulwani
Chirag joined as a JRF in 2023.
Email: pulwanichirag27@gmail.com
Neha Joshi
Neha was a part of OBCAL from 2017-2021.
Current position: Biocurator at Pierian DX
Tasrin Shahnaz
Joined as JRF in 2017
Current position: Post Doctoral Scientist at National Energy University, Malaysia
Suchetna Ghosh
Suchetna joined as a JRF in 2018.
Current position: JRF at ICMR-NIOH
INTERNS
Satish Aglave
M.Sc. MSU Baroda
Summer intern 2025
Email: satishaglave8055@gmail.com
Atreyee Marick
BS-MS IISER Mohali
Summer intern 2025
Email: ms22111@iisermohali.ac.in
Ankita Mishra
BS-MS IISER Kolkata
Summer intern
Email: am20ms180@iiserkolkata.ac.in
AG Joycy
Summer intern
Email: agjoycy@gmail.com
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