Team
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.
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.
Integrated Ph.D Student
Ashitha graduated in 2022 with a triple major undergraduate degree in Chemistry, Botany and Zoology. For her term paper, she worked on the "Action of monoclonal antibodies in cancer immunotherapy." She then joined the lab as an Integrated-PhD student, and hopes to study tissue dynamics in 3D.
Ashitha was raised in Bangalore, and often finds herself playing local travel-guide to people on campus. She has a wide range of shifting interests, but tennis, rock, and classical music currently have her attention.
Saheli Dey
Graduate Trainee
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.
Nandhu Krishna Babu
Graduate Trainee
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.
Alumni
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.
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.