Richa Sirmaur

Richa came into the laboratory with a M. Sc. in Biotechnology from the Savitribai Phule Pune University. She joined the laboratory as a Ph.D. student in August 2019. She submitted her thesis in September 2024 and defended in January 2025. She moved to Prof. Joshua Gordon's laboratory in Columbia University, New York as a postdoctoral fellow in April 2025.

Rituparna Roy

Rituparna came into the laboratory with a M. Sc. in Biotechnology from the Savitribai Phule Pune University. She joined the laboratory as a Ph.D. student in August 2018. She submitted her thesis in April 2023 and defended in July 2023. She moved to the Institute of Experimental Medicine (KOKI), Budapest in November 2023, as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Judit Makara.

Divyansh Mittal

Divyansh came into the laboratory with a B. Sc. (Hons.) in Biomedical Sciences from the Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi. He joined the laboratory as an integrated Ph.D. student in May 2016 (August 2015 batch). He submitted his thesis in January 2022, defended in July 2022, and continued as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory until October 2022. He moved to Prof. Richard Benton's laboratory in The University of Laussane, Switzerland as a postdoctoral fellow in November 2022.

Pavithraa Seenivasan

Pavithraa came into the laboratory with a B. Tech. in Industrial Biotechnology from the SASTRA University, Thanjavur. She joined the laboratory as a Ph.D. student in July 2015. She submitted her thesis in December 2020, defended in July 2021, and continued as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory until October 2022. She moved to the Janelia Research Campus, USA in November 2022, as a postdoctoral fellow jointly with Profs. Vivek Jayaraman and Michael Reiser.

Reshma Basak

Reshma came into the laboratory with an M. S. in Biological Sciences from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. She was a research trainee in the laboratory during July 2013-July 2014, and joined as a Ph.D. student in August 2014. She submitted her thesis in July 2019, defended in February 2020, and continued in the laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow till October 2020. She moved to Prof. Hema Somanathan's laboratory in IISER, Thiruvananthapuram as a postdoctoral fellow in November 2020.

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology, GITAM University, Bangalore.

Poonam Mishra

Poonam came into the laboratory with an M. Sc. in Biomedical Genetics from VIT University, Vellore. She was a research trainee in the lab during February-July 2013, and joined as a Ph.D. student in August 2013. She submitted her thesis in July 2019, defended in December 2019, and continued in the laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow till July 2020. She was awarded the Prof BH Iyer medal (2019-2020) for the best PhD thesis in the Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc. She moved to Prof. Vatsala Thirumalai's laboratory in NCBS, Bangalore as a postdoctoral fellow in August 2020.

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher, Yale University School of Medicine, USA.

Manisha Sinha

Manisha came into the laboratory with a B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering from PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore. She joined the laboratory as a Ph.D. student in August 2011, submitted her thesis in July 2016 and graduated in March 2017. She continued as postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory until February 2018, and moved to Dr. Jean Christophe Poncer's laboratory in IFM - Institut du Fer à Moulin as a postdoctoral fellow in April 2018.

Anindita Das

Anindita came into the laboratory with a B.Sc. in Microbiology from St. Xavier's college, Kolkata. She joined the laboratory as an integrated Ph.D. student in May 2011 (August 2010 batch), submitted her thesis in July 2017 and graduated in March 2018. She was awarded the Prof BH Iyer medal (2017-2018) for the best PhD thesis in the Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc. She moved to Dr. Jesse Goldberg's laboratory in Cornell University as a postdoctoral fellow in February 2018.

Current Position: Investigator Scientist, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK.

Sufyan Ashhad

Sufyan came into the laboratory with a B.Sc. in Microbiology from Bundelkand University, Jhansi. He joined the laboratory as its first integrated Ph.D. student in May 2010 (August 2009 batch), submitted his thesis in December 2015 and graduated in July 2016. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory during January-July 2016. He moved to Prof. Jack Feldman's laboratory in the University of California at Los Angeles as a postdoctoral fellow in July 2016.

Current Position: Sufyan now heads his own research laboratory, the Breathing Neuroscience Laboratory at National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India.

Rahul Kumar Rathour

Rahul came into the laboratory with a M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Tezpur University, Tezpur. He joined the laboratory in August 2009, submitted his thesis in July 2014 and graduated in March 2015 as the first Ph.D. student of the laboratory. He was awarded the Prof BH Iyer medal (2014-2015) for the best PhD thesis in the Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc. He was the first postdoctoral fellow of the laboratory during August 2014-January 2016. He decided to trace his academic origins and moved to Prof. Daniel Johnston's laboratory in The University of Texas at Austin in February 2016.

Shreshth Jaiswal

Shreshth earned his Bachelor of Science (Biology-Major) and Master of Science (Biology-Major) degrees from the Institute (Batch of 2021-26). He did his B.S. (April 2024-April 2025) and M.S. (April 2025-April 2026) projects in the laboratory. He moved to a Ph.D. position in the University of Rochester, USA in August 2026.

Barnopriyo Dutta

Barnopriyo joined the laboratory as a student of the Bachelor of Science (Biology-Major) program at the Institute (Batch of 2020-24). He did his final year B.S. project in the laboratory (January 2023-April 2024). After receiving his Master of Science (Biology Major) also from IISc, he moved to a Ph.D. position in Systems Neuroscience at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, UCL, London.

Harshith Nagaraj

Harshith earned his Bachelor of Science (Biology-Major) and Master of Science (Biology-Major) degrees from the Institute (Batch of 2017-22). He did his B.S. (March 2020-June 2021) and M.S. (July 2021-April 2022) projects in the laboratory. He continued as a research trainee in the laboratory until December 2022 and moved to a Ph.D. position in McGill University, Canada in January 2023.

Minnal Balaji

Minnal earned her Bachelor of Science (Biology-Major) from the Institute in 2022 (Batch of 2018-22). She did her final year project in the laboratory (July 2021-April 2022). She moved to The University of Manchester in September 2022 as part of a Masters programme in neuroscience. After successful completion of her Masters degree, she moved to the University of Cambridge for a Ph.D. position in September 2023.

Ankit Roy

Ankit earned his Bachelor of Science (Biology-Major) from the Institute in 2020 (Batch of 2016-20). He did his final year B.S. project in the laboratory (May 2019-April 2020). After receiving his Master of Science (Biology Major) also from IISc, he moved to a Ph.D. position in the University of Toronto, Canada in February 2022.

Abha Jain

Abha earned her Bachelor of Science (Biology-Major) and Master of Science (Biology-Major) degrees from the Institute in 2018 (Batch of 2013-18). She is the first student to do both her B.S. (May 2016-April 2017) and M.S. (May 2017-April 2018) projects in the laboratory.

Sunandha Srikanth

Sunandha earned her Bachelor of Science (Biology-Major, Physics-Minor) degree from the Institute in 2015 (Batch of 2011-15). She was the first B.S. student to do her final year project in the laboratory (May 2014-April 2015). She moved to a Ph.D. position in The University of California at San Diego, USA in September 2015.

Pragyan Bagchi

Pragyan Bagchi was a research intern through the "Joint Science Academies' Summer Research Fellowship Program 2026" in the laboratory from May-July 2026. He is pursuing his B.Tech. in Biotechnology (with a minor in Computer Science) at the National Institute of Technology Durgapur.

Harsh Tripathi

Harsh was a research intern in the laboratory from May-July 2025. He is pursuing his B.Tech. in electrical engineering at the Indian Instiute of Technology, Bombay (Batch of 2022-26).

Mahima Gautam

Mahima was a final-year BS-MS student at IISER Pune (Batch of 2019-24) when she joined the laboratory. She did her final-year M.S. project in the laboratory during June 2023-April 2024. She moved to a Ph.D. position in University of Groningen, Netherlands in September 2025.

Prerna

Prerna is currently pursuing BS-MS Dual Degree(2020-25) from IISER, Mohali. She was a research intern in the laboratory from May-June 2023.

Sameera Shridhar

Sameera came into the laboratory with a B. Tech. in Biomedical Engineering, and was a research trainee in the laboratory from August 2019-August 2021. She moved to a Ph.D. position in The University of Chicago in September 2021.

Arunima Banerjee

Arunima came into the laboratory with a B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, and was a research trainee in July 2018-July 2019. She moved to a Ph.D. position in the Johns Hopkins University in August 2019.

Sahana Gangadharan

Sahana was a research intern in the laboratory from May-July 2019, when she was pursuing her dual degree (B.Tech. & M.Tech.) in Biological Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. She moved to the Northeastern University as a graduate student in September 2022.

Subhash Chandran

Subhash came into the laboratory with a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, and was a research trainee in the lab during July 2017-July 2018. He moved a Ph.D position at NERF, Leuven, Belgium.