Research Interest: 

Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering applies engineering approaches to understand quantitatively fundamental cellular functions and to explore this understanding for designing improved technologies. We use Structural DNA Nanotechnology to explore important aspects of receptor-mediated regulation of cell behavioral properties like endocytosis, signalling, migration, and differentiation. The central paradigm of my research is developing DNA-based nanodevices to probe, program, and reprogram receptors mediated regulation of cellular functions, and to achieve this, we explore techniques of biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology to programming parameters characterizing receptor-ligand properties in in-vitro and in cellular systems. Our research questions are inspired by healthcare technologies of interest to pharmaceutical, biomedical and biotechnological companies, and we strongly invest in multi-disciplinary collaborative interactions, involving colleagues from both academics and industry.

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Background and Experience:

• Assistant Professor, Biological Engineering, IIT Gandhinagar: July 2018 - Present

• DST-Ramanujan Fellow, IIT Gandhinagar (2018-2023)

• Labex (Laboratories of Excellence), co-PI and Postdoctoral Fellow, September 2017-June 2018

• Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) Postdoctoral Fellow: September 2014 - August 2017

• Curie Postdoctoral Fellow: September 2013-August 2014

• Ph.D., NCBS-TIFR: 2007 - 2013

• MSc Chemistry, University of Pune 2007

• BSc Chemistry, University of Pune 2005

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Email: 

dhiraj.bhatia@iitgn.ac.in

 

Lab Website:

dhirajbhatia1.wixsite.com/bhatialab

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iitgn.ac.in/faculty/biology/dhiraj.htm

scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=HNJJ9tsAAAAJ&hl=en

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Lab Members:

PhD students

1. Anjali Rajwar, (2018 - )

2. Udhisha Singh, (2019 - )

3. Chaitra Maya, (2019 - )

4. Payal Vaswani, (2020 - )

5. Pankaj Yadav, (2021 - ), Director's PhD Fellowship recipient

6. Ankur Singh, (2021 - )

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MTech  students and JRFs

1. Hema Naveena, M.Tech (2020 - 2022)

2. Subhajit Das, JRF (2021 - )

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Postdocs

1. Dr. Krupa Shah, Postdoc, Ph.D - Gujarat Cancer Research Institute, 2017

2. Dr. Krupa Kansara, Postdoc, Ph.D. - Ahmedabad University, August 2020 - 

3. Dr. Jeet Kumar Bhatt, Postdoc, Ph.D. - CSMCRI Bhavnagar, October 2019 - 

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Alumni

Santu sinha, MSc. JNCSR., JRF 2019

Aditya Kulkarni, MBBS, JRF 2019

Naman Maniyar, BSc-MSc MSU Vadodara, SRIP student 2019

Dr. Ewan Macdonald, Institut Curie, Visiting Postdoctoral fellow 2019

Sumit Kharbanda, MTech, IITGN 2020

Debarpan Ghosh, MTech IITGN 2020

Sanya Jain, eSRIP student 2020

Somesh Singh, eSRIP student 2020

Ashadul Haque, M.Tech, IITGN 2021

Kahkasha Bansal, M.tech, IITGN 2021

Pankhuri Sinha, M.Tech, IITGN 2021

Shanka Walia, Post Doc, Ph.D.- CSIR-IHBT, 2019-2021

Zeaan Pithawal, eSRIP student 2021

Ankit Gangarde, Postdoc, Ph.D. - IIT Guwahati, 2020 - 2021

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We are funded by:

• IITGN intramural support 

• SERB - Ramanujan Fellowship

• DBT Ramalingaswami Fellowship (Declined)

• DBT Extramural grant support

• BRNS - BARC

• Gujcost - DST

• GSBTM (2x)

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