Team

Tapomoy Bhattacharjee (He/Him/His)
CV | Google Scholar | Twitter | email

Assistant Professor, National Centre for Biological Sciences
Affiliated Faculty, The Center for the Physics of Biological Function, Princeton University

Tapa received his B.E. degree in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University in 2012 and earned his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 2018. During his graduate work, Tapa studied cells in jammed microgels and received the 2019 Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Biological Physics from the American Physical Society. His postdoctoral work at Princeton University was supported by a distinguished postdoctoral fellowship from the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Tapa was born and raised in Kolkata where he lived for 22 years before moving to Gainesville, Florida in 2012. After spending 3 years in Princeton Tapa has moved back to Bengaluru in search of good weather.

Sreepadmanabh M
CV | Google Scholar | email

Ph.D Student

Sree received a BS-MS Dual Degree in Biological Sciences from IISER Bhopal in 2021. His MS thesis work was on the SARS CoV-2, which resulted in the discovery of a novel function for the virus' nucleoprotein. An ex-KVPY Fellow, he has previously worked at IISc. on developing a microfluidic setup to model ovarian cancer metastasis. He was also a member of the 2019 silver medalist and mentor for the 2021 bronze medalist IISER-B teams at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) Competition. 

An army brat, he spent most of his childhood shifting schools and avoiding sports. Formerly an intrepid debater and moderately successful quizzer/quizmaster, the graduate school version of Sree has realigned his priorities towards a zealous (almost academic!) interest in classic rock, private socio-political commentary, and scouting the most budget-friendly pubs in Bangalore.

Nandhu Krishna Babu

Ph.D Student

Nandhu received a BS-MS Dual Degree in Physical Sciences from IISER Bhopal in 2021. He did his MS thesis work under the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. An ex-INSPIRE Fellow, he has done internship on Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in Cosmology. He got an aptitude for multidisciplinary research which is evident from his attitude of shifting research domains.

Nandhu was born and brought up in Vaikom, Kerala. He is passionate about history. He loves to read, listen to music and travel.

Astha Mukhopadhyay

Ph.D Student

Astha received her Integrated Masters’ Degree in Biotechnology from St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata in 2024. Her Masters’ dissertation work - undertaken in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGME&R), Kolkata - involved investigating the expression of DYRK1A gene in hypothyroidism in context of Down Syndrome. She joined the lab as a Ph.D. student of the GS2024 batch.

Astha was born in Bardhaman and brought up in Kolkata, West Bengal. She likes to read and sing in her leisure time. She also happens to be a Swiftie! 

Dr. Subhodip Chatterjee

TIFR Postdoctoral Research Associate

Subhodip obtained his Ph.D. Degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Centre For Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2023. The area of his doctoral research was focused on Injury Diagnostics, mainly dealing with slip biomechanics and slip risk assessment in realistic situations. Prior to that, he earned his M.Tech in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (Specialization: Physical Metallurgy) from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur in 2016. His M.Tech research area during was focused on Metallic biomaterials especially bioabsorbable Magnesium based alloys. Sunhodip received his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the West Bengal University of Technology in 2014. He has three years of teaching experience as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering in different engineering colleges in West Bengal.

He is currently working on the domain of soft matter 3D printing, fabrication of soft tissue surrogates, Cellular mechanics and organoid development. Apart from research, he enjoys science fiction, photography and  cycling.

Nikita Bagade

Project Associate

Nikita received her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru. With a keen interest in multidisciplinary research, she has worked on several projects including designing IoT-based systems for grain storage and monitoring, and testing the effects of plasma treatment on seed germination. Her passion for interdisciplinary exploration has led her to delve into research fields like tissue engineering and bioprinting at NCBS.

Outside her academic pursuits, Nikita enjoys immersing herself in crime novels, baking, and discussing cricket with anyone that's willing to listen.

Mridul Gautam

Project Associate

Mridul received a B.Tech in Biotechnology from Jaipur National University in 2023. During his undergraduate dissertation at CSIR-CCMB, Mridul investigated the role of the CITED-1 gene in colorectal cancer using transgenic knock-in murine models, and  contributed to pre-clinical research on Curcumin as a therapeutic regimen for colorectal cancer using nanotechnology in knock-out murine models. His primary interest lies in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying   pathophysiological   disorders,   with   the   goal   of   developing   effective therapeutic interventions. In his leisure time, Mridul enjoys sketching, playing sports, and occasionally indulging in parody. 

Joanrose John Kattikaren 

MS Thesis Student, IISER Pune

Joan is a BS-MS dual degree student at IISER Pune, specialising in biology with an interest in ecology and evolution. Her research experience ranges from studying the impact of diet on Drosophila gut microbiomes to investigating the trends in reproductive success in natural populations of Psammophilous dorsalis. Joan is currently doing her MS Thesis research jointly with us and Prof. Deepa Agashe's Lab.
Outside the lab, Joan loves exploring languages and linguistics. She is currently learning Spanish and Japanese, adding to her growing list of languages. She is also quite the owl fanatic!

Sayan Kundu

Intern, NISER Bhubaneshwar

Sayan is an Integrated MSc student at NISER Bhubaneswar. His primary interest lies in cell morphodynamics, biomaterials, and polymer science. In the lab, he is currently working on C. elegans. He was born and brought up in Chandannagar, WB.  He enjoys exploring his creative side through reading novels, drawing, and science communicative writing.

Gokulnath Ganesan

Project Associate
Currently Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Gokul did his undergraduate work in Chemical engineering at IIT Madras. He received the Khorana fellowship (2023), which supported his research on Carbohydrate Binding Modules at Rutgers University. Through his undergrad years, he has tried quite a few things like recycling wind turbine blades, growing bacteria in squishy gels and cooking sambhar under 30 minutes (very unsuccessfully). You can easily impress him with stories of your tryst with new biotechnological capabilities. Having spent most of his childhood in Chennai, Gokul enjoys the cool weather of Bengaluru when he is at NCBS.  

Saheli Dey
Graduate Trainee
Currently Graduate Student at the Universität Göttingen

Saheli completed her Bachelor’s degree from St.Xavier’s College (Kolkata) in the field of Microbiology. During this course, she was involved in two project works, which were presented at recognized conferences. Recently, she graduated from Ballygunge Science College (University of Calcutta), pursuing her Master’s in Biotechnology. Her academic interests include Microbiology and Cancer Genetics.

Saheli was raised in Kolkata, West Bengal. She is passionate about travelling, cooking, painting, and photography. She is also a cynophilist.

Kiruthika Kumar

Intern
Currently Graduate Student at EPFL, Lausanne

Kiruthika earned her BS-MS degree from IIT Madras   in   biological   sciences   with   specialization   in   biomedical   sciences. She  is   a   recipient   of   KVPY   fellowship   2016.   Her   interests   lie   in understanding infectious diseases by integrating immunology, biomaterials and computational modelling approaches. 

Kiruthika   was   born   and   brought   up   in   Chennai.   Her   hobbies   include cycling,   playing   badminton   and   sketching.   She   is   an   anime   enthusiast too!! She is popularly known as “Lab Butterfly” among her colleagues.

Meenakshi  Ganesh
MS Thesis student, IISER Mohali

Meenakshi was a MS Thesis student in the lab. She did her thesis work on 'Exploring the impact of three-dimensional confinement on bacterial growth dynamics'. Meenakshi received her BS-MS dual degree in biological sciences from IISER Mohali in 2024.

Suman  Dutta
Suman was a graduate trainee in the lab. He received his B.Tech degree in mechanical engineering from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology in 2021 after completing his schooling from Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Purulia in 2017. During his bachelor’s dissertation, he studied surface tension driven flow displacement in capillary tube at NIT Durgapur. He was rewarded with Swami Vivekananda Merit Cum Means fellowship throughout his undergraduate course. Suman was also a HPF scholar during 2017-’21.

Suman was born and brought up in Bankura before joining NCBS, Bangalore. He is broadly interested in interdisciplinary research work. Because of his diverse research interest, he ends up engaging in one topic to other. Suman has got diverse interest in literature and travelling in leisure time.