Babli was trying to understand the role of actin in tissue mechanics during Drosophila embryogenesis during her internship in Prof. Adam Martin’s lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Multicellular organisms originating from a single cell, has to undergo a myriad of mechanical transformation to acquire its final form and function. Epithelial cells in embryo have polarized actomyosin structures acting as ropes which are responsible for stable contractile force generation to undergo desired mechanical change. How do the differential levels of actin and its dynamics regulates cellular constriction, stretching or intercalation across a tissue is not yet understood properly. She aimed to answer these questions using various gene knockdown experiments along with destabilizing actin dynamics using drugs and finally supporting the data with quantification modeling. Understanding this behavior can have a direct implication to understand and treat various diseases related to development as well as angiogenesis which involves similar tissue mechanics.
Richa is researching the synthesis and characterization of 2D materials. She will be using high temperature vacuum furnaces to grow GaSe thin film. And, then she will characterize the grown materials using Atomic force microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy and Photoluminescence spectroscopy she will characterize these materials and their opto-electronic properties.
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked with Aseem Ansari. In the lab, Aimen is Establishing Reporter Lines for detecting Friedreich Ataxia (FXN) Gene Reactivation in Human Neural Cells using the CRISPR/ Cas9 Genome editing method.
Unnati is studiyng survey Report on Designs of Experiments to determine the 3 neutrino mass hierarchy and laboratory work on development and characterisation of Avalanche photo diode detectors.
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked at John Hopkins University under Professor Trina Schroer.
“The focus of my project is to study cargo binding and regulation of Cytoplasmic Dynein motor and Dynactin. It involves development of TetR-shRNA constructs for inducible knockdown of targeted subunits of the Dynactin complex and analysis of its effects on the cargo binding ability of the Dynein-Dynactin-Activating Adaptor Complex, using live cell imaging. Simultaneously, it also involves studying the effects of mutations at sites of phosphorylation of the p25 subunit of the Dynactin complex on cargo binding and other phenotypes like cell cycle progression and primary cilia-genesis.”
2018 Khorana who worked with Yiping Qi. “I improve plant genome editing tools using molecular biology techniques to simplify genetic manipulation of crop plants. Specifically, these tools like base editors and CRISPR based tools are for activation and/or repression of targeted genes.”
Richa’s research is “NON UREMIC CALCIPHYLAXIS” highly fatal and extremely rare disease of “ Non Uremic Calciphylaxis ”, which has a reported mortality rate of 81% within 6 months of diagnosis , which is much more than many of the stage IV malignancies. It is an ischaemic vasculopathy characterized by the deposition of calcium within the media of small and intermediate dermal vasculature which can lead to epidermal ischaemia , ulceration and necrosis. It is usually seen in end stage kidney disease patients but i am working on that disease that develops in non kidney disease patients.
2018 Khorana Scholar who went to Northwestern University and worked under William Klein.
My main project is “Studies of brain cell loss caused by the toxic amyloid beta oligomers linked to Alzheimer’s dementia.” I am working on two things: one is to study the role of amyloid beta oligomers in the CNS development; the other one is to confirm the binding of synthetically produced fluorescent peptides with the amyloid beta oligomers.
I’m a 4th year MD/PhD dual degree student, currently working towards my PhD in Epidemiology. My research interests are in the area of healthcare-associated infections, especially those related to antibiotic resistance and Clostridium difficile globally. Outside of work I enjoy cooking, photography, reading, and travel.
Mahak’s research interests lie in the field of Oncology. She will do her internship at Indiana University School of Medicine under the mentorship of Prof. Edward A. Motea. During her stay in the lab, she will investigate the mechanism of action of a novel tumor- selective DNA damaging anti-cancer agent as a monotherapy and in combination with DNA repair inhibitors.
I am interested in understanding the cellular mechanisms aimed at maintaining genome stability, and in the mechanisms involved in stable epigenetic mechanisms across generations.
I worked with Prof. Aravinthan Samuel at Harvard University. I performed analyses of courtship and mating in C. elegans to better understand the neural basis of decision making in a small circuit with a complete connectome. My discoveries by performing experiments between C. elegans males and hermaphrodites of different genetic backgrounds highlighted new aspects of sensory perception.
I am currently pursuing my B.Tech and M.Tech Dual Degree in Biotechnology from the KIIT School of Biotechnology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. I want to become a scientist and focus on understanding genetic diseases. My research interests include cancer biology, stem cells and molecular biology. I have been selected at Yale University under Prof. Lilian Kabeche.
Shubham is studying physiological and genetic basis of stress resistance in 288 genetic lines of cultivated sunflowers, in a large greenhouse study at the UGA
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked with Georg Jander. His project was “Maize-insect interactions : Study of corn leaf aphid(Rhopalosiphum maidis) or in general insect induced genes in maize lines. Mainly genes like bx1/bx2 and involved in synthesis of benzoxazinoids and terpenes defense volatile compunds respectively against insects and various pests.”
Nishtha is an aspiring biotechnologist passionate about science of stem cells, epigenetics and cancer biology. She would describe herself as a dedicated student with a never giving up nature.
Vishal is researching the detection of morphological differences in tissues in the context of osteoarthritis. His project is based on the registration of two images to analyse effect of bone development in osteoarthritis.
Sourav researched on “Polyhydroxyalkanoates production from methanotrophic and non-methanotrophic organisms”. He collected information on how microorganisms accumulate biopolymer inside their cell. The biopolymers can be extracted and purified from the microorganisms. All these factors will be helpful to facilitate the industrial scale production of polyhydroxyalkanoates.
Amir is doing his research on a NASA Project that looks at the transformation of Cyanobacteria with alkane producing gene for the production of biofuel
Natalie is investigating mechanism of Orb2 dependent long term maintenance of memory in Drosophila – Research focuses on studying the proteins involved in the regulation of memory
Ishu is researching on estimating the structure and motion from Videos. He will be using Deep Neural Networks to train a model that decomposes frame-to-frame pixel motion in terms of scene and object depth, camera motion and 3D object rotations and translations. The model when trained can be used to predict depth maps from the single monocular 2-d image and predict the pose and motion from two consecutive images of the video.
I did my summer research internship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the guidance of Prof. Chad Rienstra. My project was on the quest of searching lattice structure and dynamics of celebrated antifungal drug Amphotericin-B (AmB) and its interaction with Cholesterol and Ergosterol. The motivation of this project was to understand the working mechanism of the drug inside a cell. Since AmB is also a nephrotoxin and kills good cells (presumably by binding with Cholesterol) besides killing fungal cells (binding with Ergosterol), a modified structure of AmB for targeted functionality is necessary. I used solid-state NMR data of AmB from various experiments and conducted molecular dynamics simulations with restraint inputs from the NMR NOE data. I’m currently continuing to contribute to the project by doing Density Functional theoretic calculations to understand UV-Vis spectrum of the AmB lattice.
Mohit worked on Active Flow Control for drag reduction due to wall turbulence. He was using blowing/suction actuation to suppress the turbulent coherent structures in the flow. The flow bed had an array of sensors to detect the pressure fluctuations at the wall and blowing/suction will be performed accordingly. To design the experimental setup, simulations were performed using resolvent Spectral method.
Pallav is studying Invariant Theory of General Linear Groups over Finite Fields – They are trying to describe the generators of the invariant ring of general linear groups over finite fields due to their action on a quotient subring of the polynomial ring
I was in my third year, pursuing a Bachelor in Pharmacy when I got my acceptance as a Khorana Scholar. Having developed an interest in Neuroscience in an earlier internship, I ventured to explore it further as a Khorana Scholar. Though the pandemic set a major roadblock, my mentor, Dr. Subhojit Roy at UCSD was gracious and let me sit in on some of the lab meetings, which were online, and I look forward to working with him in person next year!
Chinmay is a medical student with interests in neurology and optogenetics. Besides, he is also a published science communicator and plans to work on health equity in the future. He was selected to work on understanding the neural mechanisms of sensory processing and decision making in the lab of Dr.Venkatesh Murthy at Harvard University.
Daniel Howard, a 2015 S.N. Bose scholar, spent his summer in Bengaluru, India at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Centre for Applicable Mathematics (TIFR-CAM) with Prof. Praveen Chandrasekhar. Collaborating with Prof. Dinshaw Balsara from the University of Notre Dame, research work focused on computatonal fluid dynamics and discontinuous Galerkin methods. Daniel received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics, Engineering, and Physics (AMEP) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2015 and is now a Ph.D. graduate student at the University of Notre Dame in the Department of Applied & Computational Mathematics & Statistics (ACMS).
Kanika is studying the production of biofuels using Zymomomas using MEP pathway which is used to make isoprenoid. They are trying to clone 5 enzymes of this pathway and incorporate this plasmid into zymomonas for bioduels biofuels production
Atishay is in a lab researching “Karma” – An information integration tool that enables users to quickly and easily integrate data from a variety of data sources.
Currently I am a final year B. Tech student in the department of Biotechnology of Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata. I was an Indian Academy of Sciences fellow in the summer of 2019 and worked in International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. My research interests include Medicinal biology, Oncology and Neurosciences. I want to join a Ph.D. course after my undergraduate studies to explore the world of research and development more. As a Khorana scholar I got selected to work under the supervision of Dr. Kallol Gupta in the Yale University.
I am currently in my masters final year, Department of Biochemistry, Aligarh Muslim University. The field of study that always boggled my mind and intrigued me is molecular oncology.
Student of M.Tech. Biomedical Engineering, Riya has a strong desire to explore and contribute to this field of research. Riya has been selected for internship under Dr Will Klein, Northwestern University, Chicago.
US Bose 2016 Scholar Shilpa is investigating the Relationship Between Usual Diet and Prevalence of Infections with Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDRO) in Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Ananth is studying polymer conformations in ionic liquids. The aim of the project is to find the dependence of polymer size on the molecular weight, when the polymer is dissolved in an ionic liquid. The polymers studied are PEO and NIPAM. The studies will be conducted using rheology and light scattering techniques.
Manaswini is researching the effect of changing extracellular potassium ion concentration in action potential firing frequency of the crab somato-gastric nervous system.
Currently a Chemistry undergraduate at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, I’m particularly interested in the glycobiology of host-pathogen interactions and immune evasion, synthetic organic chemistry and its applications in designing artificial life. I was placed at Dr. Nikhil Malvankar’s Lab at Yale University – my project would have been on investigating the role of Geobacter ‘nanowires’ in bacterial adhesion to the host and metabolism in disease. It’s been downright phenomenal to be a Khorana scholar, and a part of the WinStep Forward community – I’m beyond grateful for this opportunity.
The Klein Lab discovered that amyloid-beta oligomers (AβOs) causes neuronal death and ultimately dementia in Alzheimer’s disease. My research was on understanding the cellular and subcellular localization of AβOs in isolated CNS neurons. This was done by isolating neurons from chick embryo retina and performing immunocytochemistry to check the distribution and localization of AβOs . AβOs were found mainly in ganglion cells and subcellularly found in cell body and processes of the neurons.
Anuja’s project is studying a norovirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in the world. The ORF1 of this virus encodes a polypeptide which is cleaved by a protease to form non structural proteins. The project is to study the effect of various protease inhibitors on the Houston variety of this virus (HOV) and find the most potent inhibitor of HOV protease.
Host: University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center
2016 Khorana Scholars
Siva Sai is researching nucleic acid delivery using nanoparticles- to deliver different mRNA , tRNA , sgRNA using lipid nanoparticles for gene editing purposes.
Vivek’s lab is called “The Effect on the size distribution of the Nano-particles by the application of DC as well as AC Electric field to the Flame System with different geometry”. Along with this they will also focus on doing charge fraction, size distribution measurement, and SEM TEM imaging of Nano-particles.
The topic that Rhaul is studying is Rhodopsin Biosynthesis and Disc Formation in Rod Photoreceptor cell Description: Photoreceptor cells are a specialized type of neuron found in the retina that absorb and convert photons into electrical signals. They are essential for initiating the phototransduction cascade, which ultimately leads to visual perception. There are two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. Rods are located in the outer regions of the retina and allow us to see in dim light as well as dark conditions. Rhodopsin is the light sensitive visual pigment in rods that allows humans to see in these low light conditions. Cones, on the other hand, reside mostly in the central portion of the retina and allow us to perceive fine visual detail and color. Both rods and cones are comprised of an outer segment full of discrete membranous discs, an inner segment, a nuclear layer, and a synaptic terminal. My project focuses on understanding rhodopsin biosynthesis and disc formation patterns in rod outer segments (ROS). It is widely accepted that disc formation in mammalian rods follows a 10-day cycle and light exposure increases disc phagocytosis at the apical end and increases lipid production at the basal end. Phagocytosis and degradation of ROS ensures functional integrity of the photoreceptor cells and other retinal cells. There are several factors, such as genetic or environmental factors, that can cause photoreceptor degeneration and eventual vision loss. Currently I am exploring how varying light conditions impact ROS renewal and rhodopsin incorporation into discs. Using a transgenic mouse that has a fluorescent marker attached to rhodopsin, I aim to understand the pattern of disc formation, rhodopsin biosynthesis in ROS, and the degenerative effect of light. This project can provide insight on how light exposure affects photoreceptors structure and function, which plays a key role in the visual process.
Jared Landsman is an MS student in the Building Science program at UC Berkeley. He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in 2014. Through the Center for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD), Jared is currently conducting research on occupant comfort and the performance of passive design strategies in buildings in both the United States and India. This past summer, Jared spent 6 weeks working with the Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science & Energy (CARBSE) at CEPT University in India.
I am a final year master’s student in Biotechnology with specialisation in Disease Biology at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology. My research interests are Antimicrobial resistance and Breast cancer.
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked at the University of Wisconsin Madison under Professor Jo Handelsman.
Shruthi studied genetic analysis of microbial community and invasion. In which I am working on developing a stable model community and will identify the genetic determinants of synergistic community assemblages using this model community.
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked with Nitish V. Thakor. “I am working on building a mixed reality training program for upper limb amputees and providing them a proprioceptive feedback of their arm location.”
I am currently pursuing MSc In Biotechnology from JNU. I have interests in exploring the cellular signaling networks in case of complex diseases using both computational and wet lab approaches.
Somesh is studying the Development of Computational Model and Experimental Study on Quantification and Therapeutic Efficacy Study of varying density of Phosphlipid based Supramolecular Nanoparticles
“We are using a novel Separase inhibitor Sepin-1 developed by Dr. Pati’s lab to treat Neuroblastoma tumors. We will be injecting Sepin-1 into NB mouse model and check it’s anticancer activity. The last step would be to perform IND enabling studies.”
I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Biotechnology at Madurai Kamaraj University, India. I enjoy problem-solving, and the unparalleled pleasure of success after endless hard work endorses me to be involved in the research.
“I am a Master’s student in Cognitive Sciences at IIT Gandhinagar, Gujarat, with a B.Sc. in Cell & Molecular Biology from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. I am interested in Brain Sciences, particularly the molecular basis of neurodegeneration and related dementias. I was set to visit Prof. William Klein’s lab at Northwestern University this summer where I would have worked on the structure and mechanism of action of amyloid beta oligomers in Alzheimer’s disease (although, I am hoping to do that next summer!). Apart from reading about or discussing anything Neuroscience-related with whoever is willing, I really enjoy reading fiction, especially a good whodunit mystery.”
Purba Mukherjee is a masters student at IIT Mandi and a 2020 Khorana scholar. My interests lie in cancer biology and related therapeutics. I had been selected to work at Georgia State University and it involved research related to novel druggable targets in breast cancer
My research work is to “Predict mutation in kinesin-3 motor by quantifying the effect of translational velocity using the stochastic model”. Kinesin-3 are the class of motor proteins that transport information within the cell by moving on the microtubule. Kinesin-3 are superprocessive in nature that means that cover around a hundred steps before detaching from the microtubule and have high velocity. The reason behind high processivity and velocity is still unknown. So in order to understand how a small change in the binding energy of the motor to the microtubule results in a fast change in translational velocity. We use the different stochastic model to calculate the translational velocity of the motor on the microtubule by performing the analytical simulation. The model uses experimental data such as ATPase activity and Diffusion coefficient from the biochemical assays as an input parameter to calculate the translational velocity. The predicted velocities from the model are further correlated with the experimental average velocity to understand the behaviour of a particular input parameter of the motor.
Harshith currently pursuing my Bachelor of Science (Research) at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. I am interested in Neuroscience, particularly in circadian regulation as well as Cognitive Neuroscience. I would be working under Dr. Xinyu Zhao at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for my fellowship.
I find my passion in teaching and research, where every experience is an opportunity for learning and sharing knowledge. My interest lies in the field of Biology – Developmental Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Systems Biology. Through the Khorana program, I have been offered a chance to work in a Biophysics laboratory to work on a Dev Bio problem statement and explore the Mechanisms of transcriptional bursting that initiate the cell differentiation process.
The joy of getting answers to all hows that came to my mind is what made me realise that I would have more fun finding answers to the unanswered questions out there. I am Neelima P V and I am doing my master’s degree in life sciences from CEBS Mumbai. I am inquisitive, hardworking and passionate about knowing more about how cells work alone and in a group and the possibilities such info put forth. I am looking forward to seeing where this passion takes me in my research career.
Murlidhar is fabricating scaffolds from blend of natural cell-interacting chitosan and lactide-polyethylene gylcol hydrogel followed by characterization of hydrogels which can further used for encapsulation of MSCs.
Mitali will be joining Prakash Lab, Stanford University in summer 2021 to broadly be working with their gravity machine team; exploring how biological cells detect pressure and orient towards gravity, showing extremes gravitaxis behavior in open ocean during vertical field migrations. She will also be engaged in efforts to enable CRISPR based gene editing in marine organisms to enable new tools to study fundamental biological questions in collective cellular dynamics.
Sibendu is studying the ffective SINR measurement for wifi OFDM PHY layer abstraction. Actually present PHY layer abstraction has a default AWGN channel so we have a constant frequency independent SINR but to avoid interference and multi path fading we go for OFDM where a number of subcarrier frequency bands used to send parallel bit stream. So here SINR will be different in each frequency band so we get a SINR vector that we are trying to map in a single SINR by EESM and MIESM algorithm. The entire implementation will be done in NS3 where the SISO (Single Input Single Output) model exist so from the SINR vector got from MIMO model we will have a single SINR so that it can be equivalently fitted in that SISO.model
I am a final year undergraduate student in the department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering at Jadavpur University. I aim to pursue research related to Biochemical and Bioprocess Engineering in near future. I thank Winstep for organizing this program, while hoping to join the lab in the next summer.
Arindam Paul is a final year undergraduate student in the department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering at Jadavpur University. He been selected in the Bioprocessing and Bioproduct Engineering Laboratory in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Washington State University , Pullman under professor Shulin Chen, Ph.D. The main objective of my project is to produce Biodiesel by transesterification of algal feedstocks using immobilzed lipase. Arindam aims to pursue research related to Biochemical and Bioprocess Engineering in near future.
Jacob is studying multiple vulnerabilities among People Who Inject Drugs (PWIDs) – This research focuses on the scope for primary prevention among PWIDs in their injecting as well as sexual networks. This work also looks into scope for integrating sexual reproductive health services with maternal and child health services. He finds this topic very interesting looking at India’s HIV control programme (which looks at prevention programmes aimed at high risk groups for HIV) at one hand,and the existing social cultural structure with patriarchy and status of women and how these affect access to health on the other to understand various dimension of vulnerabilities for transmission in the population.
Amartya studied the effect of drug-mediated metabolic stress on lipid droplet (LD) abundance, one of the major hallmarks of cancer. His experiments showed a significant alteration in the LD abundance post drug treatments in major cell lines of triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive form of breast cancer.
Sushmita is receiving hands-on training in advanced laboratory techniques in characterizing various components of plant-biotic stress interactions; genetic diversity analysis and bioinformatics.
“I am a graduate student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi pursuing my Masters in Life Sciences. I have a growing interest in Cell and Molecular Biology.”
I am a M.S. Scholar in the field of Pharmaceutics. Broadly describing, my studies aimed at formulation development and to design dosage forms to address the current medical needs. I was to work in Dr Abu Serajuddin’s lab at St John’s University, Queens, NYC. I would have worked on solubility enhancement techniques aiming BCS class-2 and class-4 drugs, about Hot Melt Extrusion and its role in enhancing bioavailability. I also would have gotten insights about 3D printing and other novel technologies.
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked at University of Utah under Professor Oleksandr Shcheglovitov.
“I am working on genetic pediatric epilepsy caused due to focal cortical dysplasia. The gene being investigated is mTOR due to mutations found in this gene (kinase) in patients.”
Poovizhi Rengasamy is studying the simulation and implementation of voltage quadrupler. For the purpose of electrofishing 240V AC generated in the boat is converted to 1200 V DC using power electronic switches.The simulation is done using PLECS software and has to be implemented in PCB board.Earlier the conversion from AC is done using manual switches and huge capacitors. After using power electronic circuit we are able to achieve the conversion with less capacitance values and also control can be done in the final output voltage which is also cheaper.
Bhargav is trying to understand the working of some secretory and cargo proteins using CRISPR tagging aided live imaging and hopes to apply that to a neurodegenerative model.
I am a final year Chemistry Majors student of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, India, currently pursuing an Integrated Masters Course (BS-MS Dual Degree). I am keen on using the concepts and tools provided by bioinorganic and electrochemistry to synthesise novel materials with widespread applications, or to develop novel methods for the synthesis of essential chemicals, whose already existing synthetic methodologies are tedious and expensive.
My interests are in the areas of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Through the prestigious Khorana program, I am potentially placed at Stanford University under the supervision of Dr. Julia Salzman. My project would explore the questions in the circular RNA field using single-cell RNA-seq analysis.
I am currently a Master of Sciences student at the Centre for Human Genetics, Bangalore.
I will be joining Prof. Leslie Vosshall’s Lab at The Rockefeller University, New York in Summer 2021. My work will involve studying the olfactory receptors of mosquitoes – on what causes mosquitoes to attract particular human odors more than others. The study will broadly involve techniques like GC/MS metabolomics and behavioral studies.
I am currently pursuing my Post Graduate in Biological Engineering. I aspire to become a Neuroscientist in the next few years where I would be contributing for translational research on the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases focussing mainly on Alzheimer’s disease.
Suriya is studying MR reconstruction using deep learning. Use of compressed sensing techniques allows MRI reconstruction from undersampled sparse K space data.To explore the use of specialised convolutional neural networks and autoencoders to learn optimal regulizers in reducing the motion artifacts and also reducing the computational time in compressed sensing based CEST(chemical energy saturation transfer) MRI reconstruction.
“The Effect of Hepatits B Status on Drug Induced Hepatotoxicity from Anti-Tuberculosis Treatment” — Treatment with antituberculosis medications often induces hepatotoxic effects, deemed drug induced hepatotoxicity. This can cause serious liver damage, increase likelihood of default, and complicate treatment. Chronic Hepatitis B co-infection is hypothesized to exacerbate this side effect. The Tibetan refugee population in India has both a high burden of Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis and thus provides a unique opportunity to study the interaction between these two diseases.
An aspiring scientist with a predilection for brain and biomechanics, currently trying my hand in rehabilitation robotics.
I was going to use my Khorana Scholarship to work with Dr. V. Reggie Edgerton (UCLA) who is amongst the premier scientists in neuromuscular research.
My potential project was based on the use of video games in assistive rehabilitation.
I’m a second year master’s student in Biotechnology with specialization in Molecular Diagnostic and DNA fingerprinting. My research interest is to explore various fields of biology and develop new strategies for molecular diagnostic and personalized medicine. Outside of work I love cooking, painting, traveling and interacting with people.
Anish is researching the analysis of Transcription Termination and Alternative Splicing by computational data mining of available 4 SU transcription termination experimental data
Currently I am pursuing my Post graduate studies ( M.Sc. Biotechnology ) at Madurai Kamaraj University. My objective as a researcher is to obtain a first hand experience in solving problems in science and to be a part of the ever developing and intrigu
Yashovardhan’s proj is called et name is “Dynamic Searchable Encryption via Blind Storage”. He will be working on implementing and improving a solution developed by his professor to the problem of “Symmetric Searchable Encryption. He will be considering various security, efficiency and usability aspects of this construction.
Shashank was researching on recent changes in glaciers with respect to mass budget and flow dynamics in Sikkim, India as a part of the ‘NASA High Mountains of Asia Project’. He used medium to high resolution satellite images to derive DEMs and work on a time series using open source libraries. Additionally, he assessed the galcial lakes in the region and try to establish a link between glacier dynamics and lake growth pattern.
I am Mohit Singla, 4th-year Undergraduate pursuing my Dual Degree (Btech+Mtech) in Computer Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked at Northwestern University under Professor Yuan Yang. Nirvik is looking into the investigation of detection threshold for transcutaneous electrostimulation in CVA patients and healthy individuals- a comparative study of the effects of gender, age and subcutaneous fat.
Pankhuri is currently pursuing my master’s at Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar in biological engineering. Her research experiences has mainly been in the field of cancer cell biology. Pankhuri was placed at Uchicago under Prof. Yamuna Krishnan.
Sanchit Sood is post graduate student in IIT -Kharagpur got selected in Georgetown University, Washington DC for the internship. He worked on designing food/agri based sensors which can be of therapeutic (biomedical) as well as industrial importance. Along with this he also focused on the exploration of polymer-based nanofibers and nanoparticles for drug delivery applications.
Soundarya’s project area is the Process Engineering and Energy. Brief description: It deals with supply chain management and finding the most optimized way for producing biofuel using regioanl depots and GAMs software.
My interests range from molecular dynamics to cosmology and are mostly centered on studying the photochemical reactions during the origin of life. I have previously worked in the fields of terahertz, photoacoustics and bioinformatics. Along with my academics, I’m also into creating comics and short films as part of my science communication endeavors.
Chandana is a final year postgraduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology at Dr Y.S.R. Horticultural University. She aspires to become a successful researcher in the field of Virology and would like to contribute to the farming community. Chandana was assigned under H.R.Pappu’s lab at Washington State University, Pullman.
Sudharshan is in a lab titled: An Autonomous Method to Engage/Disengage a Remote Differential Lock using a Monocular Fisheye Camera to Increase the mobility of a Double-Ackermann Steered Rover
I am a hardcore Cell Biology enthusiast, pursuing Integrated Masters in Molecular Biology at Yuvaraja’s College, University of Mysore. Aspiring to pursue research in Basic Biology that has scope for a translational breakthrough.
A Biomedical engineering student from School of Electronic Engineering , Vellore Institute of Technology, TN, India. I got potentially placed at University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA under the prestigious Khorana scholarship program 2020. I feel honored to part of the winstep family even though couldn’t do the internship physically but it’s overall great experience.
Raman is studying the preparation of Samples of Coprolites from two different formations of same age for investigation of correlation between biomarkers present and diet of the source organism
2018 Khorana Scholar who worked at Duke University under Ashutosh Chilkoti.
“I’m working on exploring the use of recombinant polypeptide to deliver platinum based anticancer therapeutics using Elastin like polypeptide (ELP). This involves cloning of bacteria, including its transformation with plasmids, plasmid extraction along with the expression of the protein in the transformed bacteria. This will be followed by characterisation of the protein and its conjunction with anti-neoplastic drugs.”
I am a Student of Life Sciences. I did my B.Tech in Biotechnology and doing M.Tech in Bio-Pharmaceutical technology from Anna University, Chennai, India (a premier University of South India). I am interested in understanding the underlying mechanisms of diseases and finding a cure for the same. I am fortunate to be mentored by Dr. Graham C Walker at MIT, Boston, USA. I will be guided on “Synthesizing mutagenic TLS in mammalian cells and its inhibition as a way to improve chemotherapy”. I thank Winstep for organizing this fellowship and eagerly waiting to join the lab soon.
Santhoshini is studying approximating MAXDICUT in a streaming setting – They are working on finding a good approximation algorithm for finding Max DICUT of a directed graph with its edges coming in a streaming setting and they are working on lower bounds for the same
Sridevi is studying homeostatic plasticity in cultured visual cortical neurons: The aim of the project will be to transfect cultured visual cortical neurons with a lentiviral construct expressing a mutant form of GRIP, a post synaptic protein and study the effect on homeostatic plasticity.
I went to India this past summer to complete my field work for my Masters in Public Health program. I did a qualitative research project on antibiotic resistance. I enjoyed learning more about public health along with learning about the Indian culture.
Sai Sinhu is working on Biosensors for small molecules based on Transcription Factors. They have transcription factor gene and a GFP transformed into a bacterial cell. So when the transcription factor goes and binds to promoter of GFP , the GFP is repressed. When the small molecule binds to transcription factor, it leaves the promoter making space for RNA polymerase to bind and GFP is expressed. So this GFP on Off helps us to sense how much small molecule is produced in the cell. I am checking which promoter for transcription factor will give us a good on-off signal. So they selected promoters which have diverse distributed protein production units and planning to transform them into bacterial cells and see how the GFP on off works.
