I am a neuroscientist, born and raised in India. As a kid, I was always driven by science especially – Biology. I was fascinated by how little yet complex organs make up a huge working system called the human body governed by the BRAIN. The brain, itself being a very complex organ, chaperones all the cells, tissues, organs, hormones, how we think, our emotions, and so much more.

EDUCATION

The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Institute for Neuroscience, College of Natural Sciences; Moody College of Communication
Doctor of Philosophy, Major: Neuroscience

New York Institute of Technology, New York City, NY
Bachelor of Sciences, Major: Biological Sciences

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE & ADVISORS

Hamilton Lab, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Graduate Research Assistant; Advisor: Dr. Liberty Hamilton
May 2023 – Present

Developing a computer game to test auditory attention with and without exercise in the pediatric and adult population with intractable epilepsy. The computer game can be used to test auditory attention with and without exercise in the adult population using scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and intracranial EEG (sEEG).
Aim to improve epilepsy surgery outcomes via neuroplasticity in the auditory circuit of the brain. Accomplishing this by acquiring EEG data and preprocessing it with MNE-python.
Acquiring sEEG and ECoG data in intractable epilepsy patients pre- and post-surgery.
Using speech and music encoding models to deduce which areas of the brain care about various acoustic features of speech and music such as spectrogram and pitch.
Conducted a literature review on selective auditory attention in epilepsy and Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) patients.

Church Lab, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Rotation Student; Advisor: Dr. Jessica Church-Lang
Jan – May 2023

Aimed to develop models for analyses for data collected for understanding brain changes in academic tasks and executive functioning task processing in children.
Collected fMRI data to understand factors influencing summer learning change and doing gender gap comparisons.

Hamilton Lab, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Rotation Student; Advisor: Dr. Liberty Hamilton
Aug – Dec 2022

Aimed at improving epilepsy surgery outcomes via neuroplasticity in the auditory circuit of the brain. Accomplished this by acquiring EEG data and preprocessing it with MNE-python.
Acquired sEEG and ECoG data in epilepsy patients pre- and post-surgery.
Conducted a literature review for mTRFs, auditory attention, and natural stimuli to better understand the ongoing research in the field.

Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY
Research Assistant; Advisor: Dr. Erich Jarvis
Aug 2020 – Jun 2022

Tested for intracortical connectivity between the laryngeal motor cortex and orofacial motor cortex. Both regions are associated with vocal communication in mice.
Used retrograde and anterograde viral tracing to map out the connectivity between these areas. I used immunohistochemistry to label proteins of interest and imaged sections with light and confocal microscopy. I used Nanoject II for stereotaxic injections, and data were analyzed in FIJI, Python, and Excel.
Tissue clearing techniques, iDISCO and AdipoClear, were used to generate 3D visualizations of the cortico-brainstem and cortico-cortical connectivity of the mouse vocal communication circuits.
Maintained and performed routine genotyping on important mouse lines used for my experiments and others in the lab.

Department of Psychiatry Irving Medical Center, Columbia University, New York City, NY
Research Intern; Advisor: Dr. Kristina Denisova
Nov 2019 – Feb 2020

Conducted a literature review through PubMed to understand the neurobiology and side effects of drugs used to manage autism symptoms in infants. Used this data to understand which drugs enter the blood- brain barrier and what side effects each drug has in infants.

Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Research Intern; Advisor: Dr. Haig Keshishian
Jul – Aug 2019

Performed ablations using a microbeam laser confocal microscope to access individual motoneurons in Drosophila embryo to understand the development of synapses.
Maintained Drosophila (adult and larvae) lines used for my experiments.

Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY
Senior Research Assistant; Advisor: Dr. Niharika Nath
Oct – May 2020

Studied organosulfur compounds for potential anti-bacterial activity using the disc diffusion and growth curve assay. Bacterial strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were examined using Chloramphenicol as a positive control and DMSO as a negative control.
Tested if the organosulfur compounds release hydrogen sulfide and if there is a relationship between hydrogen sulfide and antibacterial effects.

EDUCATION

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE & ADVISORS

PRESENTATIONS

LEADERSHIP AND ACTIVITIES

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

SKILLS AND ASSETS

AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS