Arunima Purkayastha, PhD

• • ~1 year experience as Senior Scientist. Responsible for leading projects (design, execute, troubleshoot, data-analysis and presentation) for SMID and Large-cap biopharma/biotech clients focusing on areas including, but not limited to gene-therapy, cell-based high-throughput screening for drug discovery , infectious diseases, oncology using cell and molecular biology techniques. Involved in multiple projects individually and in team setting to meet aggressive timelines.
  • Led and completed 5 client projects, contributed to 2 projects and established assays for internal development.
  • Data Analysis: Graphpad Prism, MS Excel, ImageJ, Harmony etc.
  • Data Preparation and Communication: Clear and concise presentation of data regularly to internal and external stakeholders (including scientists, KOLs and management).
  • Mentoring: Mentored and led team of 2 research associates and 1 junior scientist (1 direct report).
  • Writing: Preparation of proposal and quotes for commercial contract, SOPs, data files and study reports for various stakeholders.

• • 4+ years experience as a project scientist in respiratory epithelial stem cells in disease (COVID19, CF) and drug screening.
  • Performed projects investigating role of smoking in aggravating SARS-Cov-2 infections in human airway epithelium (Purkayastha A et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2020) and deleterious impact of e-cig juices on rodent and human airway epithelium (under review).
  • Contributed to multiple cross-collaborative projects including high-throughput drug screen against SARS-Cov2 (under review).
  • Published 8 research articles in high impact journals including Cell Stem Cell, Nature Medicine, Cell Reports.
  • Grantspersonship: Contributed to drafting 5 grants, scientific manuscripts.
  • Presentation and communication: Presented research at multiple platforms, including international conferences.
  • Mentoring: Mentored and trained 5 undergraduates, graduate students and junior postdocs.

• •4+ years - cellular signal transduction and cancer metabolism.
  •Investigated Cell Signaling and Metabolic shift in Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK)-Induced tumor model in Drosophila.
  •Led project investigating role of glycolytic enzyme in RTK-induced tumors.
  •Co-authored 1 research article (another in preparation), contributed to NIH-R01 grants. Regularly presented work at academic meetings.

• PhD student in molecular biology and virology.
• Functional Genomics: Developed RNAi- based gene silencing vector for functional genomics in rice.
• Published 4 articles, 1 book chapter and 1 patent.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively.