I am interested in understanding the metabolic capabilities of disease-causing pathogens using computational and experimental biology.
Please visit my Publications and Projects to learn more about the work I do.
Experience
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Postdoctoral Fellow
Aug 2021 – Present
Systems biology approach to identify novel antimicrobials and elucidate their mechanism of action funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
Supervisor: Prof. James J. Collins
University of Geneva
Postdoctoral Researcher
Mar 2020 – Mar 2021 (1 year)
Doctoral Student
Jan 2015 – Mar 2020 (5 years 2 months)
Metabolic networks governing Toxoplasma gondii persistence and transmission
Interdisciplinary PhD (IPhD) project funded by the Swiss Initiative for Systems Biology (SystemsX.ch)
• A stage-specific genome-scale metabolic model for the apicomplexan parasite, T. gondii was generated. The in silico model was refined, harmonised with available experimental data and simulated to make predictions on potential target genes required for parasite survival.
• Several drug targets were validated with high-throughput experimental approaches, such as genetic modifications with CRISPR-Cas9, metabolomics and transcriptomics.
Supervisor: Prof. Dominique Soldati-Favre, University of Geneva
Co-supervisor(s): Prof. Vassily Hatzimanikatis, EPFL and Prof. Adrian Hehl, Institute of Parasitology (IPZ), University of Zürich
EPF Lausanne
Scientific Assistant
Jun 2015 – Aug 2015 (3 months)
Jan 2017 – Sep 2017 (9 months)
Collaborative work involving the generation of a stage-specific metabolic network for T. gondii using MATLAB and genome-scale modeling toolboxes. The curation, analysis and interrogation of the model for experimental validation was performed with Dr. Anush Chiappino-Pepe at the Laboratory of Computational Systems Biotechnology (LCSB), led by Prof. Vassily Hatzimanikatis.
ETH Zürich
Research Assistant
Feb 2014 – Nov 2014 (8 months)
Elucidating the role of protein phosphorylation in regulating Escherichia coli metabolism
Performed follow-up experiments to validate the results obtained during my master thesis with 13C-based metabolic flux analysis, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), targeted mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and phospho-proteomic approaches. The work was done at the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology (IMSB) led by Prof. Uwe Sauer.
Roche Molecular Diagnostics Rotkreuz
Clinical Data Assistant
Mar 2012 – Apr 2013 (1 year 1 month)
Assisted in the development of custom-built applications for the generation of internal study protocols and case report forms through meta-data analysis (Macro Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic). The work was done with the data management team led by Dr. Kamran Rastgooy.
SRM IST Chennai
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Jan 2011 – Aug 2011 (8 months)
in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Molecular dynamics study of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Mex-B protein inhibition
Performed molecular docking and dynamic simulations to study small molecule inhibition of multidrug efflux pumps. Packages from Schrödinger Maestro 9.0, GROMACS 4.5 and PyMol for molecular visualisations were used. The work was supervised by Prof. Waheeta Hopper.
Education
University of Geneva, Switzerland
PhD in Biomedical Sciences
2015 – 2020ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Masters in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
2011 – 2014University of California, Davis, USA
International Exchange Program in Biology
Fall 2009SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India
Bachelor of Technology in Bioinformatics
2007 – 2011
Fellowships and Awards
Postdoc.Mobility, Swiss National Science Foundation
2021 – 2023Laemmli Prize 2021
Interdisciplinary PhD project, SystemsX.ch
Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology
2015 – 2018 (3 years)BPCL scholarship for higher education
2011 – 2013 (2 years)Summer research fellowship
University Grants Commission, Government of India
2010 (1 semester)Global study scholarship
University of California, Davis, USA
2009 (1 semester)Merit scholarship for undergraduate studies
SRM IST India
2007 – 2009 (2 years)
Volunteering
ReMinfo
Refugee and Migrant information portal: Switzerland
April 2020 – Sep 2020 (6 months)
ReMinfo aims to provide refugees and migrants with a one-stop web-based platform containing reliable and useful information for their daily lives, facilitating their rapid integration within society.
The project was conceived as part of the national VersusVirus hackathon which ran in early April 2020, and focused on issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.