Ms. Indrani Mukherjee completed her Bachelor’s degree from Bethune College, Kolkata, the oldest women’s college in Asia with first division in Zoology. She pursued her Master’s degree in Zoology with first class from Asutosh College, University of Calcutta.

Ms. Indrani completed her research training during M.Sc on the “Role of nanocapsulated flavonoidal antioxidants in combating age related cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (CIR) induced oxidative injury in rat brain” under the guidance of Dr. Nirmalendu Das, Emeritus Scientist, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata. She formulated nano-encapsulated antioxidants and applied them orally to Sprague Dawley rats as a pre-treatment prior to CIR insult. She studied the rat brains for histological examinations and expression of cellular apoptotic factors.

Later, she worked under the guidance of Dr. Parasuraman Jaisankar, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, in two projects. One project was entitled “A molecular docking approach to study the possible interactions between Yeast 1,4-α glucosidase and some synthetic inhibitors” where she used molecular docking to analyse the interactions between various proteins and their ligands. The second project was entitled “Isolation of enzymes from natural resources” where she used column chromatography, thin layer chromatography and HPLC for the extraction and chemical purification of phosphatases from natural resources.

Ms. Indrani then worked as a Project Fellow under the guidance of Dr. Shantanu Chowdhury, Senior Principal Scientist, Functional Genomics, CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi. She focussed on learning the basic molecular biology techniques. She was involved in the amplification of pGL3 basic vector in Stbl2 strain of E.coli and its transient transfection and analysis of protein expression profile in HT 1080 cells.

Currently, she is working as a PhD student under the guidance of Dr. Subhradip Karmakar, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. She is a registered Ph.D candidate of Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Her tentative thesis is entitled as “To Investigate the Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in Development of Pre-eclampsia”. Pre-eclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity and is usually diagnosed during the last trimester of pregnancy (after 20 weeks of gestation). During Pre-eclampsia, trophoblast cell migration and invasion into the maternal decidua, and vessels are typically incomplete, and thus angiogenesis and trophoblast cell proliferation are impaired. The shallow trophoblastic invasion induces placental ischemic reperfusion injury due to irregular uterine blood flow which results in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, she hypothesized that excessive ROS generation along with an alteration of cytokine and hormonal levels in the uterine microenvironment, might contribute to the pathogenesis of Pre-eclampsia.

Research Publications:

1. Seethy A^Ϯ, Singh S^Ϯ, Mukherjee I, Pethusamy K, Purkayastha K, Sharma R, Sharma J, Dhar R and Karmakar S. Potential SARSCoV 2 interactions with proteins involved in trophoblast functions – An in-silico study.Placenta 2021,10.1016/j.placenta.2020.10.027
2. Dhar R, Singh S, Mukherjee I, Pethusamy K, Purkayastha K, Das P, Sharma J, Sharma R and Karmakar S. EMTiness in pseudomalignant behavior of trophoblasts during embryo implantation. Frontiers in Bioscience, Landmark 2021, 26, 717-743.doi.org/10.2741/4915
3. Dhar R , Pethusamy K , Singh S, Mukherjee I, Seethy A, Sengupta B, Srivastava T, Sarkar S, Mandal V, Karmakar M, Gupta S, Ghosh A and Karmakar S. Draft genome of Ompok bimaculatus (Pabda fish). BMC Res Notes 2019, 10.1186/s13104-019-4867-y
4. Dhar R, Mukherjee I, Singh S, Goswami S and Karmakar S. Role of Carbon Mono-Oxide (CO) Signaling During Trophoblast Invasion in Humans. Open Access Journal of Reproductive System and Sexual Disorders 2019, 10.32474/OAJRSD.2019.02.000133
5. Kulandhasamy M, Singh S and Mukherjee I. Quantitative Genetics. Springer Nature Switzerland AG, Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior 2019, 10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_168-1
6. Dhar R, Seethy A, Pethusamy K, Singh S, Rohil V, Purkayastha K, Mukherjee I, Goswami S, Singh R, Raj A, Srivastava T, Acharya S, Rajashekhar B and Karmakar S. De novo assembly of the Indian blue peacock (Pavo cristatus) genome using Oxford Nanopore technology and Illumina sequencing. GigaScience 2019, 8, 1–13, 10.1093/gigascience/giz038
7. Dhara A, Guchhait N, Mukherjee I, Mukherjee A, Bhattacharya SC. 2016. A novel pyrazole based single molecular probe for multi-analyte (Zn2+ and Mg2+) detection in Human gastric adenocarcinoma cells. RSC Adv 2016, 10.1039/c6ra22869k

Academic Awards and Achievements:

1. Certificate of Participation as a Poster Presenter at 31st Annual Meeting of the Indian Society for the study of reproduction and fertility (ISSRF), Global Conference, 2021
2. Participated in the 40th Annual Conference of Indian Association for Cancer Research (IACR), 2021
3. Presented at the Global Conference “From Stem Cells to Human Development”, organized by The Company of Biologists Ltd, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2020
4. Certificate of Participation as an Oral Presenter in “Young Scientists’ Conference” at India International Science Festival (IISF), organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India in collaboration with Vijnana Bharti (VIBHA), 2020
5. CSIR-Senior Research Fellowship (Direct), 2019
6. Best Poster Award in ISSRF (Indian Society for the Study of Reproduction & Fertility) Global Conference, 2019
7. Certificate of Competence in “Hands on Workshop on Handling and Care of Laboratory Animals” from JNU, New Delhi, 2019
8. Second Prize in Essay writing Competition on World Cancer Day organized by AIIMS, New Delhi, 2018
9. Second Prize in Immunology Quiz on World Immunology Day organized by AIIMS, New Delhi, 2018

Non-Academic Awards and Achievements:

1. Cultural Secretary, Society of Young Scientists, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 2020-21.
2. Became Calcutta Times “Miss Fresh Face Kolkata”, 2012
3. Won Gold medal in Kolkata Inter Club Swimming Competition (under 25 Girls), 2010
4. Won Gold Medal in Table Tennis (District Championship, Girls under 16)
5. National Dance Scholarship, Kathak and Odissi (Bangiya Sangeet Parishad) by Ministry of Culture, Government of India.