My Story So Far

From an early age—particularly during high school—I developed a deep interest in the biological sciences. At the same time, I was equally fascinated by computers and problem-solving. This dual curiosity motivated me to pursue a career that seamlessly integrates biology with computational approaches.

After completing high school, I chose to build a strong foundation in the life sciences by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology at West Bengal University of Technology, India (2006–2009). My undergraduate training covered a broad range of subjects, including Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Microbiology, Immunology, Genetics, Genetic Engineering, and Ecology. Alongside these, I was introduced to bioinformatics tools and undertook small projects using proteomic and genomic databases. It was during this time that I realized computational biology was the ideal field to unite my long-standing interests.

To gain deeper expertise, I pursued a master’s degree in Bioinformatics in 2009 at Banasthali University, one of India’s prestigious institutions. This program exposed me to advanced statistical methods and programming languages such as Perl, Java, and C. I developed a strong mathematical understanding of statistical analyses, including one-way and two-way ANOVA, chi-square tests, Student’s t-tests, and z-tests using SPSS. I also gained hands-on experience in chemoinformatics and phylogenetic analysis, along with the associated computational tools.

For my master’s thesis, I completed an external research project at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India, with a focus on genomics. During this project, I worked extensively with R, data normalization and preprocessing pipelines, and data-mining approaches using public repositories such as GEO and ArrayExpress. I designed microarray databases and generated graphical outputs, including heatmaps, through R programming. Following the successful completion of my dissertation, I continued working on this project to further strengthen my expertise in microarray data analysis.

Subsequently, I secured a competitive Ph.D. position at the Institute for Molecular Science, Japan. My doctoral research focused on an archaeal proteasome-associated protein, where I investigated the mechanisms underlying its structural assemblies. I successfully solved multiple crystal structures of this protein, revealing features distinct from its eukaryotic counterparts. The protein exhibited a cage-like architecture, potentially involved in encapsulating smaller peptides under cellular stress conditions. My work involved extensive protein engineering to create and modify these assemblies. I completed my Ph.D. in 2017, applying a range of structural biology techniques, including high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM), cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM), and X-ray crystallography.

Immediately after my Ph.D., I joined the Czech Academy of Sciences as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB), Prague. There, I worked on viral and membrane proteins using X-ray crystallography. My research aimed to elucidate the interaction between V-ATPase and lipids, with a particular focus on understanding Golgi trafficking and PI4P-driven localization at the atomic level. This work required the integration of X-ray crystallography with multiple complementary structural biology techniques.

After moving to the United States, I expanded my research portfolio to include projects in prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s disease drug discovery. Currently, I work as a Senior Data Scientist, where I leverage KNIME and R to analyze large-scale biomedical data in collaboration with NIEHS, bridging my background in molecular sciences with data-driven research.