Post-Doctoral Fellows

Dr. Raghu Solanki

Dr. Raghu Solanki completed his Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. He is currently a SERB-NPDF in the Department of Biological Science and Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar, under the mentorship of Prof. Dhiraj Bhatia. He will work on DNA hydrogels for glioblastoma treatment as a postdoctoral fellow.

Dr. L. Karthikeyan

Dr. L. Karthikeyan completed his Ph.D. in Bio-Nano Theranostics Research Lab, Bharathiar University, India. He is currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Laboratory, Department of Biological Science and Engineering, IIT Gandhinagar. His research interests are majorly focused on the application of various functional biomaterials for potential cancer theranostics and tissue regenerative nanomedicine.

Dr. Amit K. Yadav

Dr. Amit K. Yadav is currently working as an Early Career Fellow in the project titled “Towards In vitro Selection, Characterization and Identification of DNA Aptamers against Cytokines for Biosensing Application” with Prof. Dhiraj Bhatia at the Department of Biosciences and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), Gandhinagar. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the Vinoba Bhave University, India in 2014 and 2016, respectively and obtained his Ph.D. degree in Nanotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2024. His research focuses on the design and application of cutting-edge nanotechnology and nanoscience-based electrochemical biosensors, with a particular interest in diagnostics. He focuses “Point-of-Care” diagnostic devices aims to tackle public health challenges by providing rapid and cost-effective medical care solutions. 

Dr. Abhijit Biswas

Dr. Abhijit Biswas is a chemist by training. During his doctoral degree, he engineered Cell-Penetrating Peptides (CPP) for efficient delivery of siRNA in cancerous cells. After getting his Ph.D degree in 2021 from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-Kolkata, he moved to University of Tartu, Estonia with individual grant where he learnt the cellular and biological applications of oligonucleotide conjugates of CPP which allowed him to understand the phenomenon of drug delivery in cancerous cells. He worked in Ecole supérieure de biotechnologie de Strasbourg (ESBS), University of Strasbourg with USIAS fellowship prior to joining in Prof. Dhiraj Bhatia’s lab at IIT Gandhinagar with his individual ‘DST Nanomission Postdoctoral grant’. Here he will work on ‘Peptides programmable DNA nanodevices/hydrogels for bioimaging and regenerative therapy’.

Dr. Krupa Kansara

Dr. Krupa Kansara is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. She obtained her PhD degree in Nanobiotechnology from Ahmedabad University in 2020. Her current research areas of interest include DNA nanodevices, In vivo imaging, Nano-based drugs and gene delivery. The impact of her research and her contributions to the field are also evident from the awards won by Krupa as she has won the “National Postdoctoral fellowship from DST-SERB” and “Dr. D.S. Kothari Postdoctoral fellowship from UGC” in the area of Nanotechnology and Life Sciences.

Dr. Nilesh D. Gawande

Dr. Nilesh D. Gawande completed his PhD in Biology with specialization in Plant Molecular Genetics from Concordia University, Canada. Currently he is working as an Institute postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Subramanian Sankaranarayanan. His research focuses on the characterization of the genes involved in pollen-pistil interactions in a model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Dr. Charli Kaushal

Dr. Charli Kaushal completed her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Jamia Hamdard University (Degree awarding body) & International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Laboratories), New Delhi, India. She is currently working as Research Associate-I in the Department of Biological Science and Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar, with Prof. Subramanian Sankaranarayanan. She is working on “Development of polyunsaturated fatty acid-rich groundnut using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing”. She has research experience in Genetic Engineering, Chloroplast Engineering, Plant Tissue Culture, Genome editing.

Dr. Deepti Arha

Dr. Deepti Arha, a cell biologist by interest completed her Ph.D. from CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow under the guidance of Dr. Akhilesh K. Tamrakar ( Principal scientist) after availing CSIR JRF.  Her previous work includes understanding the role of metabolic inflammation in insulin-sensitive tissues. She also has experience in drug development for Type 2 Diabetes. Currently, she is working as a Research Associate on a joint venture of Dr. Dhiraj Bhatia and Dr. Sharad Gupta on Programmable DNA – peptide hybrid devices for high throughput Bioimaging.

Dr. Nishita Mistry

Dr. Nishita Mistry completed her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. She is currently a research associate in the Department of Biological Science and Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar under the mentorship of Prof. Karla P. Mercado-Shekhar. Her research focused on the development of ultrasound-mediated drug delivery carriers for cancer therapy.

Dr. Indu Yadav

Dr. Indu Yadav is working as Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India. She earned her Ph.D. Degree in Biomaterials and Bioengineering in the Department of Polymer and Process Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. She did MTech in Biomedical Engineering, from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. She is working in the field of Biomaterials and Tissue engineering, and exploring the use of advanced Biocompatible hydrogels for various biomedical applications like drug-delivery, ophthalmic applications, wound healing technologies etc. Her expertise is in the field of biomaterials, bio-fabrications, hydrogels, crosslinking mechanisms, drug delivery and nano-encapsulations/formulations.