I am  a senior PhD student in Neuroscience Program at Brandeis University, MA. My research is on deciphering neuronal functions of CircRNAs in Drosophila. I did by bachelors in Biotechnology at T John College, Bangalore University and masters in Medical Biotechnology at Manipal University, Dubai. Before starting my PhD at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then at Brandeis University, I gained research experience as research fellow at NCBS in Prof K VijayRaghavan's lab working on characterizing genome wide protein localization reagents, in-vivo. In 2019, I have obtained HHMI-QBReC instructorship for mentoring Brandeis undergrad students in research projects. Besides research, I enjoy teaching that brings enriching experince of learing, sharing knowledge and stimulating interest in students for scienctific concepts. I am volunteering to teach for neurobiology course at Scienspur.

I am Anupama Hemalatha, currently a post-doc in the Greco Lab at Yale Genetics. Trained at the intersection of cell biology and developmental biology, during my PhD, I studied how multiple endocytic pathways co-regulate and add nuance to the Wingless- signaling pathway in Drosophila wing discs. This sparked my interest in how intersecting complex growth signaling pathways are deciphered per cell to result in cell behaviors in a tissue-specific coordinated manner. Energy metabolism is one such hub that integrates growth signals and directs cell behaviors like proliferation and differentiation. Using cancer-causing mutations as a model for aberrant growth in the skin of live mice, I have adapted and standardized ways to live image the metabolic state while the tissue adapts to the aberrant growth patterns. My goal long-term is to understand how signals for tissue and cellular growth are deciphered and connect it to downstream metabolic and behavioral outputs during homeostasis and aberrant cancerous growth.  

I am an avid reader, enjoy sci-fi shows and am an amateur(ish) enthusiast for Carnatic music and Indian classical dance.

I am a cell biologist at heart. My research work mainly focused on cellular mechanisms underlying physiological and developmental pathways. During my PhD at NCBS, Bangalore, I uncovered the mechanisms of exovesicular release of morphogen Hedgehog in context of wing development in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. My training with Prof. Jitu Mayor was enriching experience and a masterclass in scientific rigor. Currently at Yale university, I am solving the puzzles of protein sorting inside cells using principles of phase separation. My work has identified the enigmatic receptor independent mechanism for sorting of proinsulin and other hormones from the trans Golgi network, a problem which has bothered cell biologists for over 100 years. In the long run, I am interested in applying fundamentals of cellular processes and pathways to target diabetes or neurodevelopmental disorders.  

I love teaching, brainstorming, and mentoring. I was blessed with fascinating teachers during my training and their philosophy, 'how to ask an important scientific question and how to tackle that question experimentally' has been my guiding principle in life. I strive to teach this philosophy to my fellow aspirants of science during my classes and so far it has been very fulfilling. When I am not doing experiments, I am playing squash, board games, and watching movies and sports. 

I am Arka Banerjee, and I am originally from West Bengal, India. After completing my MSc from the Department of Biotechnology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, I obtained my PhD from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, under the guidance of Prof Sandhya S. Visweswariah. I worked on cyclic nucleotide signalling in mycobacteria. I received the “2020 Genesis Doctoral Dissertation Award” for best PhD thesis from the Dept. of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.  I then joined the laboratory of Prof Dirk Schnappinger as a Postdoctoral Associate in 2018 at the Weill Cornell Medicine, New York. My current research interests focus on developing directed regulatory switches in mycobacteria and to use them to better understand their cellular physiology. I use traditional bacterial genetics in combination with functional genomics to address the questions I am interested in. In my free time, I enjoy reading about popular science and current affairs. I have always been picky about good textbooks. It gives me immense joy to reach out to young minds and convey modern, complex scientific problems and concepts in a lucid manner with an aim to bridge the gap between the textbooks and most recent state of our scientific understanding.

I am a vascular biologist, currently working in the lab led by Timothy Hla at Harvard Medical School / Boston Children's Hospital. I am studying the impact of a sphingolipid receptor, the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor, on blood vessels. I previously characterized its role in vascular development in the team of Christer Betsholtz in Sweden. I also demonstrated how this receptor can protect the endothelium upon high dose radiation (with Francois Paris, in France) and in retinal vasculopathies (in my current lab). I was thrilled by the possibility to offer a glimpse of the endothelium in the central nervous system for the Scienspur Neurobiology course, but most importantly I am really grateful for Scienspur to fulfill a critical mission: to reach out for communities that lack access to advanced education and connect them to scientists actively engaged in research.

Ms. Gayatri Ramachandran has over 10 years of career experience spanning academia and industry.  She has predominantly been a geneticist, who is currently pursuing a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Hyderabad, India. When she is not working in the lab, Gayatri is actively engaged in several voluntary initiatives that involve teaching, mentoring and skill building of undergraduate and postgraduate students in India, with a focus on the women student community, which she is extremely passionate about. Frequent journaling keeps her mind and body spirited and fuelled with renewed motivation, every day. Gayatri’s keen interest behind working with Scienspur as an instructor is what she calls an ‘inner  drive’, to utilise her knowledge and experience, in empowering Indian graduate students.

I am a post-doc working with Florian Engert and Jeff Lichtman at Harvard University. My scientific interest is to describe how brain circuits process sensory information. Over the past ten years, I have developed methods to record neuronal activity, morphology and synaptic connectivity in the zebrafish brain. Besides this research work, I taught multiple classes in France and at Harvard on Neuroethology, Brain development and Imaging technologies. I have always enjoyed this part of my work as transmitting knowledge to the next generation is at the core of scientific progress. Therefore, I am extremely enthusiastic about teaching with Scienspur, hopefully stimulating new career interests for Neuroscience.

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. I did my PhD at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, India where I studied how cells sense mechanical forces and regulate membrane trafficking. I am now using that training and interest developed in microscopy to understand how cells coordinate with each other to renew and sculpt a tissue. I am obsessed by the latest technology and while not doing research, I try to teach, travel, and dabble in a bit of cooking and gardening.

I am a PhD student in the Engert lab at Harvard University. My current work revolves around vision evoked behavior and decision making in larval zebrafish. I entered the world of neuroscience to take inspiration from the biological neural networks and eventually apply these concepts in domains like artificial intelligence. My background in computer science and electrical engineering lends a computational touch to my current research. I am always excited to share knowledge and actively engage in teaching pursuits. Equally important to me are sports and music as I am a big proponent of a balanced life! 

My name is Maya Anjur-Dietrich, and I'm currently a graduate student in applied physics at Harvard University in Dan Needleman's lab. We study the biophysics of cell division! I am fascinated by using physics and quantitative models to understand fundamental rules of biology. In my free time, I enjoy hiking with my dog.

I am broadly interested in developing a better understanding of the protein structure-function relationship. Currently, as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. James Spudich at Stanford University, I study how cardiomyopathy-causing mutations in myosin protein affect its structure and function, ultimately pathologically affecting the force produced by the human heart. I developed a keen interest in protein dynamics during my PhD in the lab of Prof. Jayant Udgaonkar at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, where I focused on protein folding kinetics and protein design. Outside of lab, I enjoy cooking, reading fiction and engaging in science communication. Effective communication of scientific knowledge is probably as important as its accumulation. I enjoy the process of repackaging my science to make it suited for different communication mediums and different audiences. As a part of the Scienspur team, I hope to use that excitement to make scientific advances accessible to young science enthusiasts.

I completed my PhD from University of British Columbia, Vancouver (most beautiful city in the world) where I used Drosophila as a model system to functionalize human gene variants involved in neurodevelopmental disorders. Currently I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Van Vactor and Artavanis lab at Harvard Medical School, Boston. I am again using my favourite model organism, the "fruit-fly" to understand mechanisms of ALS pathology. When not in the lab, you can either find me biking around the city or in quaint old book shops and cafes.

Scienspur is a forum where one can not only get an opportunity to engage with young talented minds but also nurture their skills as a teacher, mentor and educator. I think as a scientist, I often get entangled in scientific jargon and forget that engaging with the community is an integral part of being who I am.  So here I am, trying to hone my existing skills, give back to the community and learn science while interacting with the talented organizers, instructors and students. 

Currently I am working as an instructor at the Neurobiology Department of UMass. Chan Med. School, USA. I received my Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), India. I then joined UMass as a postdoctoral fellow. My initial research was focused on glia-neuron interactions in the Drosophila visual system. In the Emery Lab, I am now investigating the molecular mechanisms that control sleep. I aim to identify key glial genes that impact the amount and quality of sleep. Sleep affects various aspects of brain function including neuronal development, cognition, learning, memory, and synaptic plasticity. My work would help identifying glial therapeutic targets to treat sleep disruptions as well as related neurodegenerative and psychiatric dysfunctions. I believe that my scientific career was ignited because of the inspiring teachers that I have come across in my life. My learning continues to be nourished by my Ph.D. and Postdoc mentors and fellow researchers. I look forward to teaching young and malleable minds of the future. I am hoping that as a part of the Scienspur team, I will be able to inspire scientific curiosity in students.

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the laboratory of Juan S Bonifacino, National Institutes of Health (NIH),

USA. I am studying intracellular protein and organelle trafficking in neurons. My interest focused on understanding the mechanism of endo-lysosomal trafficking in axon and how malfunctioning of these trafficking pathways lead to neurological disorders in humans. I did my PhD with Lolitika Mandal at IISER Mohali, where I worked on blood cell development using fruit flies as a model system.

I am grateful to Scienspur for giving me the opportunity to share the experience of science with the young minds . I really enjoyed the time I spent with the students. It is indeed an amazing experience to get connected with students in India and across.

I am Sambhavi Puri. I am a postdoctoral associate at the Boston University School of Medicine. My work is focused on understanding the role of non-coding RNA in Alzheimer's Disease. We use post-mortem human brain tissue and iPSC-derived neurons to answer exciting questions. 

When I am free, I either doodle, make science illustrations or explore dessert places but mostly I sleep and netflix and sleep again!

I am a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Naoshige Uchida at Harvard, and I did my PhD with Dr. Zachary F. Mainen in Portugal, my home country. I am interested in understanding the computational roles played by the neuromodulators serotonin and dopamine in animal learning. My research project focuses on the comparison between the activity of dopamine neurons and a teaching signal used in learning algorithms developed in the context of Reinforcement Learning. I use electrophysiological and optical techniques to record and manipulate the activity of dopamine neurons while animals learn associations between odours and rewards. I am very happy to contribute to the mission of Scienspur and hope to inspire budding scientists.

I am interested in understanding the evolution,development and modification of animal organs. I am currently a postdoc at the Vertebrate paleontology & evolutionary developmental biology lab at Carleton University in Ottawa,Canada, where I do comparative research on limb development in direct developing and metamorphosing salamanders in a lab that primarily studies fossils. Prior to this I have worked on larval ovary development in fruit flies at Harvard university. I did my PhD on the evolution and development of insect wings at IISER Pune . In my spare time nowadays, I like to go on a hike, ride a bicycle or play Volleyball.

I have taught a couple of topics in developmental biology at Scienspur and I enjoyed it thoroughly. My goal through teaching in Scienspur is to provide students with exposure to on-ground scientific research, its challenges, successes and failures. I hope to inculcate curiosity and critical thinking in students while I improvise my own teaching methods.

I was trained as a clinician, but switched to research due to my interest in basic sciences. Completed my PhD in molecular neurobiology from Bangalore. I worked for two years in TIFR, Mumbai. Currently pursuing postdoctoral research in France. My research focus is mammalian brain development and function. I am deeply interested in teaching and science communication.

I completed my PhD from CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, India. I studied how epigenetic mechanisms especially DNA methylation alterations are involved in the development of complex cardiovascular diseases. Presently, I am working at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Dr. Kevin Wei’s lab. My research interest encompasses understanding the complex interplay of epigenetic factors in driving synovial fibroblast differentiation in Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Besides working in the lab, I enjoy cooking, dancing and exploring new places. Through Scienspur, I want to reach out to the broader community to enlighten the young minds about advancements in the field of Genomics and motivate them to pursue a career in science going forward.