Students

Anuj Menon pursuing Ph.D.

I study egg-laying rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster. Among the various circadianly rhythmic behaviors exhibited by the fly, this is a phenomenon that has been least investigated for various reasons. Modulation of egg laying rhythm is most likely to impact its Darwinian fitness and therefore understanding aspects of this rhythm is relevant and may even have applied value. My goals are to determine if this circadian (near 24 hr) rhythm, has certain unique properties, such as where it is generated from (because unlike the other well studied fly rhythms, it does not originate in the fly brain) and whether it is truly controlled by the “clock genes” which, strongly influence other behavioural rhythms.

My studies have shown that the presence of male flies can impact various aspects of the rhythm (Menon et al., 2014, Chronobiology International).

Kulkarni Rutvij Kaustubh pursuing Integrated Ph.D. in Biological Science

I study social aggregation behaviour in Drosophila and am interested in understanding the proximate and ultimate factors that influence it. Although Drosophila is a popular model for behavioural research, aggregation remains poorly studied in flies and we lack methods to comprehensively describe and quantify it. Hence a major aspect of my work involves the development of robust statistical and behavioural methods to measure aggregation using machine vision and simulation based techniques. I am also interested in understanding how social behaviours, in general, may impact fitness in fruit flies. With these studies I hope to explore the potential of Drosophila as a model for studying the simplest forms of social behaviour.

Arijit Ghosh pursuing Ph.D.

I wish to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying complex behaviors. My studies use diverse methodologies - from behavioral screening to whole-genome sequencing. I am trying to understand the genetic diversity that gives rise to different chronotypes in organisms, mainly through large-scale genomic deletion screening and pooled-sequencing. I am also interested in masking - a non-clock-dependent timing mechanism. I love to code, and my recent endeavors resulted in the development of a full-scale shiny app for time-series analysis.

Apart from my work in the lab, I am a serial chiller, leisure photographer, and connoisseur of sci-fi (old and new) and good food (I am rated a super foodie by Zomato)! For a full list of my publications, check out my Google Scholar profile, for my publicly available codes, check out my Github page. More details here - https://orijitghosh.github.io/

Ankit Sharma pursuing Integrated Ph.D. in Biological Science

Huntington Disease (HD) is a monogenic neurodegenerative condition caused by increase in glutamine (CAG) repeats in the Huntingtin gene (Htt). The causal gene was identified in 1993, yet we remain unclear about fundamental information regarding the disease and its progression. My studies using Drosophila melanogaster as a model, I am trying to understand how mutant human Huntingtin protein leads to disease phenotype and if protein homeostatic pathways can be targeted as a therapeutic approach to mitigate the toxic effect of the mutant protein.

Sharma Pragya Niraj pursuing Integrated Ph.D. in Biological Science

Life forms on earth are continuously subjected to geophysical factors that change over the course of a day.  Cycles of light and temperature impact behavioural and physiological processes and internal clocks enable living organisms to synchronise to these external cycles.  Behavioural rhythms such as locomotor activity and the underlying molecular machinery of the clock are both rhythmic with 24 hr periodicity.  Across the year, these environmental cycles change in many ways - the length of day and hence the photoperiod and thermoperiod, variation in light intensity, changes in the amplitude of temperature cycles, etc.  Hence, it is critical for circadian clocks and their outputs to be flexible. My goal is to explore the extent of circadian waveform flexibility and aspects of underlying neuronal organization governing such flexibility.  I am using novel light regimes and genetic tools available in our model organism, the fruit fly, to probe flexibility of the circadian waveform. 

Dani Chitrang Kamal pursuing Ph.D.

Most studies on circadian rhythms are carried out in controlled laboratory conditions, usually in the presence of one time-cue. However, in natural environments multiple time-cues like light, temperature, humidity, food availability, predators etc. are simultaneously present and how circadian clocks would be keeping time in such complex environments is not well understood. I am studying how circadian clocks of flies reared in such conditions evolve in terms of clock controlled behaviour and life-history traits compared to flies reared in the lab.

Mansi Rathi pursuing Ph.D.

After completing my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Zoology from University of Delhi, I have arrived here at JNCASR with a vision to dig deeper into the roots of Circadian Rhythms and Chronobiology as it has fascinated me since I first learnt about it. It’s applicability in daily life and in human health and physiology amazes me. My purpose here is to learn, explore and indulge in researches about this field of biology as much as I possibly can.