A chemical engineer aspiring to contribute to the interdisciplinary areas in Science & Technology and Medicine. My research interests lie in areas of Microfluidics, Opto-electronics, Device fabrication and Medical diagnostics. I aim to build low-cost point-of-care Biomedical devices for resource-constrained settings. My research focuses mostly on innovation and targeting the scientific gaps in Healthcare and Biomedical field. Currently, I am working on building a Flow Cytometer for performing CBC and WBC differential. This is to be commercialized after providing a proof-of-concept of the device. I have also developed a unique viscosity measurement technique on a smearing device for low-sample volumes especially biological samples. The technique also helps detect and screen sickle cell anemia. My supervisor, Prof. Mahesh S Tirumkudulu, is a core faculty in the department of Chemical engineering, IIT Bombay working in area of Fluid mechanics, Soft matter and Microfluidics.
I am working on an industry affiliated project aimed at building a Flow Cytometer for 5-part differential using laser scattering principle. Further work is to be done in applications like disease detection and new flow cell/chip designs on blood cell analysis are proposed to be built.
Completed my Bachelors having done a project on 'Electrodialytic purification of biomass based platform molecules.'
Cleared the Higher secondary boards with 6th rank.
The Project was based on desinging an electrodialytic cell performing purification of TAL (Triacetic acid lactone) from the impurity methionine. TAL is an important platform molecule obtained as a by-product during fermentation along with several impurities that need to be separated. The impurities poison and deactivate the platform molecule specific catalyst. I performed electrodialysis of TAL along with a known concentration of methionine in a 5-compartmental electrodialytic cell wherein separation was done by employing an applied electric field across alternately arranged cation and anion exchange membranes. Methionine being a zwitter ion, at its iso-electric point, is rendered motionless suspended in its compartment and hence being separated from TAL.
A plant visit where I learnt how the products of petroleum are obtained.
A vocational training at the coal chemicals department of the steel plant of India.
A fellowship granted for projects based on novel cutting-edge technology catering to the needs of Indian nation.
Patent filed (Application No. 202421027804) titled, “A method to determine the concentration of sickle-cell hemoglobin in blood”, May 14, 2024. Seeking application for US Patent.
"A viscosity measurement technique for ultra-low sample volumes", (10.1039/D4SM00050A).
Talk on the topic, "Development of Biomedical devices for Blood cell analysis.".
Paper presentation on the topic, "Controlling blood film thickness on a smear device.".
Presented a poster on the topic, "Low-cost flow cell for flow cytometry and 3-part differential.".
Presented an oral presentation on the topic, "Low-cost flow cell for flow cytometry.".
Presented a poster on the topic, "Five part differential of blood cells by flow cytometry: Design and characterisation of flow cell."
Presented a poster on the topic, "Flow cytometer for 5-part Differential of blood cells by light scattering".
"A Low-cost flow cell for flow cytometry", (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2022.114334).
Indian Patent granted (Patent no. 446889) titled, "Compact smear device for biological samples".
Indian Patent granted (Patent no. 404041) titled, “Sheath flow cell and flow cytometer including the same”.
My PhD work has been mainly focused in developing low-cost biomedical devices for targeting disease detection in resource-constrained areas. We started off with developing a flow cytometer for performing a 5-part differential. We have been able to perform a 3-part differential of WBCs on our laboratory flow cytometer. We have also developed a smearing device for viscosity measurement of low-volume samples, especially biological fluids like blood. We have successfully been able to detect sickle-cell anemia by measuring the increase in viscosity in sickled RBCs in these patients. Such a low-cost device may be helpful for point-of-care detection in resource-challenged areas where the prevalence of the sickle cell disease is high.
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay.