BHATTACHARYYA LAB - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Masters Student at Notre Dame in ESTEEM
Job Titles:
- Microfluidics Engineer at Draper
- Post Graduate Research Associate
Anthony graduated from UC Berkeley Bioengineering in the Class of 2020. He specializes in MEMS technology, fabrication, and imaging. His current interests are to develop new tools and techniques to study cellular signaling heterogeneity. Anthony loves teaching and mentoring others in the lab whilst learning new skills and improving standard protocols.
Job Titles:
- Masters Student at NYU in Public Health
- Post Graduate Research Associate
Trained as a social anthropologist, Anushka's passion for science led her to the Yale School of Medicine where she has followed the lesser known narrative of the chemical interplay between membrane proteins and lipids, and how this regulates our cellular physiology. She has worked on the development of a novel mass spectrometry based investigative platform for studying lipids and aims to use this platform to address pertinent biological questions in the Bhattacharyya lab. She also strives to keep up her reputation as crazy plant lady and can often be found taking a hike in her natural habitat.
Gerard studied biology and biochemistry at Villanova University and conducted a post-baccalaureate fellowship at the NIH, where he studied protein and membrane trafficking events at the cellular level. Gerard now seeks to explore the molecular mechanism of the regulation of small GTPases at the membrane and their role in oncogenic signaling. Gerard is developing and using new technologies to answer these questions, hoping to decipher how the oily environment of the plasma membrane alters protein behavior. When he isn't in the lab, Gerard can be found trail running and fishing.
Harry received his bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering from SUNY Stony Brook University in 2022. Under the supervision of Dr. Dongyan Tan, his undergraduate research aimed to understand the impact of histone variants on chromatin compaction and gene expression through various structural methods such as cryo-EM. In the Bhattacharyya lab, Harry is studying RTKs and the MAPK signaling pathway using cryo-EM and MD. Outside of lab, Harry enjoys working out, snowboarding, and bouldering!
Lukas is studying medicine at the LMU and TU Munich in Germany and is going to graduate in 2028 as a medical doctor. For his medical thesis he is doing structural and functional research on the transmembrane protein Wolframin and its alterations that lead to the Wolfram syndrome. In his freetime he loves lifting weights and running.
Dr. Bhattacharyya received her Ph.D. in Computational Biophysics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where she used molecular dynamics simulations and graph theory to study allosteric communication in protein complexes. She made a transition into experimental biology during her postdoctoral studies at the University of California Berkeley. Here, she used structural biology and single-molecule microscopy to study the molecular mechanism of regulation in a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase that is critical for learning and memory. She started her lab at Yale University in the summer of 2020. Her focus is on understanding the molecular mechanism of signaling using an integrative approach.
Rachel graduated with a bachelor's in biochemistry from UCLA in 2020 and became a graduate student at Yale. In her undergrad lab, she worked on the mechanism of sortase, a bacterial pilin polymerase. Current projects include a joint mentorship between Dr. Bhattacharyya and Dr. Gupta to investigate the oligomerization of Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BtK) on the membrane and optimize structural and functional assays in the context of the native membrane. Her free time is spent reading, playing tennis, or hiking around New Haven.
Job Titles:
- Postgraduate Research Associate
Rhys studied bioengineering and materials science at UC Berkeley, graduating in 2023. During his time at Berkeley, he used photolithography techniques to fabricate biological sensing devices. Currently, Rhys is researching the causes of the differential effects of various Ras isoforms in human cancers and developing code to automate the lab's data processing needs. Outside of the lab, Rhys enjoys learning new recipes (and the science behind them) and reading, mostly fantasy.
Dr. Bhattacharjee completed his doctorate degree from NCBS-TIFR, India. In his Ph.D., he worked in the field of protein folding. He studied the folding and unfolding mechanisms of a sweet plant protein named double-chain monellin using hydrogen deuterium exchange-mass spectrometry. In this lab, he is trying to understand the structural basis of p75 receptors in the presence of different forms of neurotrophins that have been implicated in neuronal development, apoptosis and cell survival. He is using single molecule spectroscopy and cryo-EM to investigate them. In his free time, he loves to cook, watch and play different sports.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Scientist
Dr. Kumar received his Ph.D. from the CSIR-IMTECH, India. He worked on redox regulation of glutathione biosynthesis and degradation using yeast as a model system. He then moved to the NIH-NIDDK to study chaperone-mediated stress response and protein degradation. Currently, his research focuses on understanding the regulation of Trk-family receptor tyrosine kinases and LRRK2, a kinase implicated in Parkinson's disease etiology. In his spare time, he loves cooking and exploring nature.
Vanessa is a first-year and proud Pierson Knight of Yale College. She is currently on the premed track with the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology major in mind. Neuroscience is the perfect convergence between her desire to help others and her love of the puzzle that is the human brain. She is excited to work in the Bhattacharyya Lab to study regulation of Trk-family receptor tyrosine kinases. When she is not buried in psets, Vanessa is deeply fond of overthinking movie plots, consuming pineapple pizza, and playing Nintendo music on her violin at random hours of the night.