Healthcare Product Development and Management - Batch 02

Prof. Neetu Singh’s research focuses on nanomaterials and biomaterials, particularly their biological activity and applications in medicine. She aims to establish design principles for biomedical systems, advancing technologies for targeted therapy and diagnostics.

She obtained her BSc and MSc from the University of Mumbai before pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, under Prof. Andrew Lyon. Her doctoral research focused on developing multifunctional hydrogel nanoparticles through novel synthetic approaches. She then undertook postdoctoral research at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology with Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia, where she worked on nanomaterials for RNA therapy.

In 2012, she returned to India as a faculty member in the Polymer Sciences and Engineering Division at NCL, Pune, before joining IIT Delhi in 2014 as an Assistant Professor, later being promoted to Associate Professor in 2019.

Her contributions to cancer research earned her the Kiran Shaw-Mazumdar International Oncology Fellowship to establish research collaborations with MIT, USA. She has also received prestigious awards, including the Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (2013), NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Award (2019), and Janaki Ammal-National Women Bioscientist Award (2020-21).

Prof. Biswarup Mukherjee’s research focuses on developing multi-modal platform technologies for non-invasive, real-time monitoring of neuromuscular activity, particularly for rehabilitation applications. His work also includes designing biomimetic sensors to enhance sensorimotor integration in individuals with motor disabilities and developing tools for the quantitative assessment of motor skills.

He earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras, where he developed capacitive and magnetic sensing systems for medical training and simulation. He later worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School, developing innovative medical training models for emergency medicine, ophthalmology, and nursing.

Prof. Mukherjee also served as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at George Mason University and was an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions. At Mason, he contributed to multiple federally funded projects, focusing on low-power ultrasound instrumentation and muscle activity monitoring for prosthetic and rehabilitation applications.

Prof. Pradipta Mukherjee is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Biomedical Engineering, IIT Delhi. His research focuses on biophotonics, an interdisciplinary field combining biomedical engineering and optical sciences. He specialises in developing advanced optical imaging systems, including optical coherence tomography, microscopy, and polarisation-based imaging, to explore the functional dynamics of living tissues. His work aims to advance non-invasive optical imaging techniques to transform healthcare diagnostics and treatment.

He earned his PhD as a Japanese Government MEXT scholar from CORE, Utsunomiya University, Japan, where he developed an epi-illumination Mueller matrix microscope and polarimetric methods for analysing microstructural and mechanical properties of biological tissues. After his doctorate, he pursued postdoctoral research at the Computational Optics Group (COG), University of Tsukuba, Japan, under Prof. Yoshiaki Yasuno, focusing on technological advancements in optical coherence microscopy for studying metabolic diseases.

Prof. Sachin Kumar’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary fields of biomaterials, biomechanics, and bio-optics, exploring how the mechanical, chemical, and physical properties of biomaterials influence cellular functions. His work aims to advance understanding in areas such as cancer progression, stem cell differentiation, tissue regeneration, and cellular metabolism.

He earned his undergraduate degree in Biotechnology from M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology and pursued a PhD in Biomaterials at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Following his doctorate, he was awarded the Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research at the Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP), Germany. He later continued his postdoctoral research at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin, USA, before joining IIT Delhi in 2021.

Prof. Aarat Kalra leads the Bioelectronics Research Group. His research explores the electrical basis of life by integrating materials science, electronics, and medicine. His current focus includes investigating the mechanism of electric field-based cancer treatments and exploring how the electronic properties of proteins can be utilised in solar cells and OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes). His work has significant implications for both medicine, driving the emergence of “electroceuticals” for disease treatment, and nanotechnology, advancing protein-based electronic devices.

Prof. Kalra holds a BSc (Hons.) in Chemistry from Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Agra, India), an MSc in Biology from McGill University, and a PhD in Physics from the University of Alberta, where he worked with Prof. Jack Tuszynski. Following his doctorate, he pursued postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University with Prof. Gregory Scholes, publishing pioneering work on microtubule electronics.

His research has earned several prestigious awards and funding. In 2020, he received the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship, and in 2021, he was honoured with the Young Systems Scientist Award by the Systems Society of India. In February 2022, he delivered an invited talk at Google on "Is Our Brain a Quantum Computer?". His work on microtubules has also been featured in The New Scientist magazine