Biography

Head, Central Instrumentation Facility (CIF), IIT Guwahati: since 1 August 2025.

Associate Dean, Research and Development, IIT Guwahati: 29 September 2020–17 January 2025.

Administrative experience

EXPERIENCE AS ASSOCIATE DEAN, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, IIT GUWAHATI (29.09.2020-17.01.2025)

Serving as the Associate Dean, Research and Development (R&D) at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) has provided me with a multifaceted leadership role, integrating scientific administration, institutional research coordination, financial oversight, human resource management, and strategic collaborations. My tenure has been instrumental in shaping the research ecosystem at IITG, fostering innovation, and strengthening partnerships with academic and industrial stakeholders in India and abroad.

Scientific Administrative Responsibilities As part of the scientific administration at IIT Guwahati, I have played a pivotal role in formulating and implementing policies that drive research excellence. This includes:

Overseeing research project approvals, progress monitoring, and compliance with funding agencies' guidelines.

Facilitating interdisciplinary research initiatives, encouraging cross-departmental collaboration for impactful scientific advancements.

Enhancing laboratory infrastructure and research facilities to support cutting-edge research across various domains.

Organizing research workshops, seminars, and faculty development programs to foster an environment of continuous learning and knowledge exchange.

Financial Sanctioning Powers (Purchase Section) As a key administrative authority, I have been entrusted with financial sanctioning responsibilities within the purchase section, ensuring transparent and efficient procurement processes. My role includes:

Approval and oversight of research funding allocations, optimizing budget utilization for institutional research activities.

Streamlining procurement of scientific equipment, consumables, and infrastructure in compliance with financial regulations.

Negotiating with vendors and suppliers to ensure the institute receives the best value for research-related procurements.

Implementing cost-effective financial strategies that enhance research productivity while adhering to institutional and governmental guidelines.

Coordinating and Managing Institutional R&D Projects A significant aspect of my tenure has been the coordination and management of institutional research and development (R&D) projects, ensuring their successful execution. Key contributions include:

Facilitating the proposal submission process for government, industry, and international funding opportunities.

Establishing monitoring and evaluation frameworks for R&D projects to track progress, milestones, and outcomes.

Strengthening collaborations with funding agencies such as DST, DBT, CSIR, SERB, and industrial partners to secure competitive research grants.

Encouraging faculty and researchers to undertake translational research, leading to patents, technology transfer, and commercialization.

Staff and Institute Post Doctoral Fellows (IPDF) Recruitment (HR Section)

Recruitment and talent acquisition play a crucial role in strengthening the research ecosystem. My responsibilities in the HR section have focused on:

Overseeing the hiring process for research staff, project assistants, and research fellows, ensuring selection of the most qualified candidates.

Enhancing policies for post doctoral research scholar recruitment, attracting talented postdoctoral researchers (IPDF) to IITG.

Implementing measures for workplace diversity, academic integrity, and professional development of research personnel.

Coordinating with academic departments for effective mentorship and career advancement opportunities for research scholars.

Coordinating Institutional Academic and Industrial Research Collaboration

A key focus of my leadership has been on strengthening institutional collaborations at both the national and international levels. This includes:

Establishing Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with leading universities, research institutions, and industries in India and abroad.

Facilitating joint research projects, student and faculty exchange programs, and technology development initiatives with partner organizations.

Promoting industry-academia partnerships to foster translational research, technology incubation, and startup ecosystems.

Organizing international research conclaves, innovation summits, and industry-connect programs to enhance IITG’s global research footprint.

Institutional/Multi-institutional Project Proposal: Actively Involved in Multiinstitutional Joint Research Proposal preparation, submission and coordination-Ex: SATHI; SC-ST-Hub

Initiative For Providing IP Protection And Technology Commercialisation Services:

Coordinated/Facilated/Signed Memorandum of Agreement Between National Research Development Corporation [NRDC-An Enterprise of DSIR, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India], New Delhi 110048 AND Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, Assam

Other Major New Initiatives taken during my tenure Research for Resurgence Grand Idea Challenge Empowering Societal Need:

COVID-19 Grand Idea Challenge: A Covid-19 Grand Idea Challenge was organised by Research and Development Section for the students of IIT Guwahati in the area of cost-effective hand-held cold storage and safe delivery system for Covid-19 vaccines. Mr. Vishnudath P, a master student from Design Department was chosen as the winner of the grand challenge for suggesting an innovative Peltier module based hand held storage for covid 19 vaccines. The winner was virtually awarded by the director of IIT Guwahati in association with NRL- Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Materials with a cheque of rupees ten thousand (Rs. 10,000/-) and a certificate of honour on 18.12.2020.

R&D Virtual Outreach Programme: Virtual Outreach Day: Research & Development Section of IIT Guwahati hosted a full day Virtual Outreach Programme on 18.12.2020 in response to the invitation received from the Principal Coordinator of Outreach Programme and Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. The Outreach Programme was organised in association with India International Science Festival (IISF) 2020 under the theme of Science for Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Global Welfare.

Research for Resurgence Seminar Series: To disseminate the research activities/outcome of IIT Guwahati to all the Stakeholders including other research organizations and corporate sectors from India and abroad with the intention to find the natural research partners for PI's on-going research.

Conducted Meeting: Virtual Research Meeting on Robotics, Drones & Automation: Virtual Research Meeting on 3D & 4D Printing: Virtual Research Meeting on Application Software Development Future: Other trust areas will be explored one after another at least in a monthly one basis.

Audio-Visual Documentary Competition on R&D Activities: To showcase the R&D activities going on in the Departments/Centres/Schools of IITG. 7 Departments have submitted.

Rest are in preparation. Due to COVID pandemic it was delayed. Technology Day Celebration: First-ever initiative. Held on 11th May, 2021. Each year will come with new thoughts and dissemination and conference.

Research Concept Challenge: The aim is to revenue generation through submitting 16 consortium project proposal by a group of IITG faculty with their National/International Collaborators.

Outstanding Women Faculty Researcher Award: The aim is to recognize and encouraging potent women scientist of IITG which in turn may attract other Women to join the IITG for giving a balance on Gender equality in a academic settings.

Revenue Generation (July 2020 to August 2021): Total Sanctioned Amount = 45.89 crore Number of Sanctioned/running Projects [ 01/07/20-31/08/2021]: 92 Patent: Number of Patent Granted/Filed: 04 MOU/MoA: 30 numbers CoEs Establishment Established: 5 Initiative measures have been taken to establish new Centre of Excellences with industrial and academic interventions including

CoE- Sustainable Transportation & Logistics, CoE- on Quantum Technologies, Industrially focused CoE-on Artificial Intelligence, International Research Centre with Deakin University on Sustainable Polymers, Australia Industry driven R&D activities with Taiwanese counterparts

In summary, as the Associate Dean, Research and Development at IIT Guwahati, I have had the privilege of driving strategic research initiatives, fostering collaborations, managing financial resources, and supporting faculty and researchers in achieving academic excellence. My tenure has been dedicated to enhancing IITG’s research ecosystem, ensuring that the institute continues to be at the forefront of scientific innovation, technological advancement, and global research leadership.

EXPERIENCE AS HEAD, CENTRAL INSTRUMENTATION FACILITY (CIF), IIT GUWAHATI (01.08.2025 – Till Date)

SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE AND/ OR TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT I have made highly impressive and pioneering contributions in India in the field of “Expansion of the Genetic Alphabet and the Genetic Code”. The “Just-Mix-&-Read Strategy” for Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) Genotyping is my unique introduction in the “Personalized Medicine”. The "Click" Chemistry and/or Sonogashira Coupling approaches to synthesize the required biomolecular building blocks reflect my intelligence and elegance in the fields.

The discovery of Charge-Transfer-Complexation-Force mediated DNA-duplex stabilization is my pioneering contribution in expanding the genetic alphabets. Thus, searching for an alternative interacting force, except those explored, in base pair stabilization in DNA, I have unraveled that the “CT-Complexation-Force” is strong enough to stabilize a DNA duplex efficiently [Ref. 1-2]. The CT interaction force could be recognised by DNA polymerase to copy DNA containing my donor-acceptor triazolyl unnatural base pair(s). Fused Triazolyl Phenanthrene and Triazolyl-2-Quinolinone nucleobases (FTPhen and FTQuon) are my other unique contributions to the expansion of the genetic alphabet [Ref. 3-4]. Out of many, triazolyl C-nucleobase and tetrazolyl-nucleobase analogs [Ref. 5] are my other notable contributions in the field [Ref. 1, 3, 4-8, 9-10]. Some of the synthesized unnatural nucleosides are found to be active against bacteria, and a preliminary study shows their potential inhibitory activity against HIV-Protease-I.

My unique and unparalleled contributions to the expansion of the genetic code include the introduction of a set of widely-applicable “Fluorescent Triazolyl Unnatural Amino Acids (FTUAA), Scaffolds unnatural amino acids (SUAA), isothiocyanyl-Alanine/Lysine (Ita/Itl), thioureayl-/aminotetrazolyl-alanine (Tua/Ata) etc., and β-turn/sheet Peptidomimetics [Ref. 11-23]. The encouraging results make the amino acids Ita/Itl universally appealing and has enabled site-specific protein labelling/ligation at physiological condition. He is the pioneer in establishing the ̶ NCS as an IR-sensitive-spectral-probe for investigating the protein structure, function, and dynamics. The developed SUAAs as β-turn/sheet-nucleators, β-turn peptidomimetics/Lopinavir analogue-peptides are found to be active against Alzheimer’s disease by inhibiting β-amyloid aggregation, HIV-Protease-I, and SARS-CoV-2 Mpro-protease revealed from a Molecular Docking study.

Currently, we have successfully incorporated FTUAA into desired proteins and peptide sequences to encode our designer amino acids using Cell-based and also flexizyme-mediated Cell free approaches. We are able to incorporate a wide number of unnatural amino acids, including FUTAA and SUAA into a wide spectrum of short peptides and proteins with high efficiency. Towards this end, FTUAAs are in play in Protein engineering, such as, GFP labelling, creating efficient SSBT7 RNA polymerase, -galactosidase, Superoxide dismutase A etc. Encoded GFP showed modulated photophysics while the transcriptional efficiency of encoded SSBT7 RNA polymerase became doubled.

The axially chiral amino acid scaffold, ArTAA has been elegantly exploited by me for fluorimetric discrimination of methanol from ethanol both in liquid and gaseous phases. This impressive outcome inspired me to fabricate a practical Organic Field Effect Transistor (OFET)-based sensor utilizing the fluorescent peptides containing the scaffold. The device is efficient for sensing blood proteins in solutions and polar gas molecules at room temperature which has attracted both academic and commercial interest toward biomedical research, and in the detection of Chemical/Biological warfare agents [Ref. 16, 24].

The fluorescent triazolyl unnatural nucleobases (FTUN) could serve as a part of a codon in mRNA for encoding our novel triazolyl unnatural amino acids (FTUAA)/ NCSLys (Itl) using an engineered orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (AARS), and tRNA pair. Thus, a combination of both fields would ultimately allow them to translate the genetic alphabet into genetic code leading to the generation of semisynthetic organisms with enhanced functionality.

In the field of Personalized Medicine, I have also made outstanding contributions by developing a simple protocol, “Just-Mix-&-Read Strategy” [Ref. 6, 11, 25-29] for SNPs genotyping and detection of other DNA lesions. I am the pioneer in India to coin and establish the Just-Mix-&-Read Strategy in 2013 in Tetrahedron Lett. for the detection of triple T–C and discrimination of triple T–G mismatched base-pair containing target DNA via enhanced fluorescence signal. The strategy is more beneficial over conventional methods as it does not require DNA annealing [Ref. 1, 10b, 11, 25-26, 28-36]. This novel protocol has attracted immediate academic and industrial interest and further utilized for genotyping SNPs using fluorescent DNA probes. The wavelength shifting fluorescent oligonucleotide probe for DNA detection and wavelength shifting ODN probes [Ref. 28] and detection of H45 G-Quadruplex DNA [Ref. 8] are my unique contributions in the field. The Universal linker labelled-2'-deoxyuridine (EPMAPU Linker) developed by us is highly inspiring, which would have a potential impact on the generation of post-synthetically designed fluorescent DNA probes useable for genetic analysis in a cell for Personalized Medicine [46]. The inspiring outcome from the Just-Mix-&-Read Strategy makes the fluorescent ODN probes (FODNs) universally appealing for the design of FODNs-packaged array-based DNA Chips for label-free gene detection in a parallel and cost-saving way for the innovation in Personalized Medicine.

I have also extended my fundamental contributions in the field of photochemistry and photobiology by exploiting the fluorescent DNA probes/peptidomimetic candidates [Ref. 13, 14, 20-23, 27, 37]. Especially, the Dual-Door-Entry to exciplex emission, in a chimeric DNA-duplex and its elegant universalization in other DNA/peptide/β-lactam scaffolds have attracted immediate academic and industrial interest for the application in chemical biology and design of light-harvesting materials [Ref. 20, 23, 37].

I have also notably contributed to the field of β-lactam and enediyne anticancer antibiotics. Thus, the major outcome includes (a) fluorimetric sensing of β-lactam cleavage and selective labelling of penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), which have shed light to establish a rapid test protocol for the sensing of β-lactamase [Ref. 37, 52-53], and (b) the design of enediyne anticancer agents, enediyne-nucleoside/enediyne-amino acids [Ref. 40-44]. Such research activities would find potential applications in anticancer antibiotics drug development.

A few more representative seminal contributions are: “Click-Reagent Version of Sonogashira Coupling” [Ref.38], “Installation/Modulation of Emission” [Ref. 21], “Photocatalytic Click/Hetero-selective Glaser Coupling”, development of Fluorescent Chemical/Biochemical/Nanobio-Sensor for environmentally hazardous metals and “Just-Read-&-Mix Strategy” for label-free detection of protein/DNA biomolecules” [Ref. 5, 10a, 11, 18-20, 25-26, 29, 46, 49, 50-51], and wound-healing gel/Drug/Nanodrug Design [Ref. 53-57].

In summary, my fundamental contributions have enabled to bridge across a number of healthcare disciplines where chemistry plays a major role. My contributions blended with pharmacogenomics, would help to screen and further design Personalized Medicine for curing the diseases at the genetic level with all-round positive health impact for the Human Civilization.

Please see the Graphical Abstracts of a few of the Publications

Society leadership

January 2022: Organized free of cost installation of a Water Treatment Plant (TATA make) at Anandamarga Childern Orphanage Home. Now, 20 orphans will get pure and iron free water fro drinking and other activities.

April 2020: Organized Relief Work through AMURT for Distribution of Food Packets and/or Cooked Food to Homeless People and Several Other Needy People in Maligaon, Guwahati City and Locality Area During the Present Pandemic COVID-19. Permissions were taken for 3 such drives from the Authority and Social distancing was also maintained during the same.

April 7th-14th 2020: Offered online Teaching on Yoga (Rajadhiraj Yoga), Asana and Meditation to few IITG campus residents, students and relatives for improving immunity and get rid of stress, anxiety and depression during the Global Crisis COVID-19.

A Project Proposal on Yoga (Rajadhiraj Yoga), Asana and Meditation is also prepared for submitting to DST based on the special call on COVID-19 under SATYAM. This is a concept note on the Development of Protocol for improving Immunity and get rid of Stress, Anxiety and Depression and thus to fight against COVID-19. This is a joint proposal with Mr. Bibhansu Maiti, Director, Kevalam Kalyan Kendra, 367 Chirag Delhi, New Delhi.

Associated with Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Samiti and Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, participate in restoration and propagation of Bharatiya philosophy, culture and moral teachings and other activities of local as well as national chapter. Actively take part in teaching the followings and in social works as below: Deliver Lectures in Various Schools, Colleges, Public Places on Bharatiya Philosophy Moral Teachings from Puranas, Veda, Mahabharata, Yoga and Meditation

20th October, 2019: Delivered Lecture on Bharatiya Darshan and Mahatma Gandhi; Organized by Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Samiti, Barpeta District, at Shankardev Sisuniketan, Nalbari, Assam.

Led for Propagating Teaching-learning methodologies as a Member of Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, IIT Guwahati (BSM-IITG).

Since 2014: Institute Coordinator of Teachers Training Camp for Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhijan (RMSA), Assam Government, Since 2014.

Actively Engaged in Social Work with a concept of establishing a symbiotic society through the utilization of Neohumanistic Education. Actively take part in teaching the followings and in social works as below: Deliver Lectures in Various Schools/Colleges/Universities/Public Places on Neo-Humanism, Neohumanistic Education, Socio-Economic Theory, Progressive Utilisation Theory-a balanced economic system to establish symbiotic society, Biopsychology, Science of Microvita Theory, Yoga and Meditation. Organize Relief works during natural disasters Organize Free Medical Camp Free Teaching to Schools based on Neohumanistic Education System

29th-30th March, 2019: Invited Lecture on “Toward the Goal of World State In Light of Neo-Humanism” in a Two Day International Seminar on “Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii’s contributions to Philosophy, Language, Literature, Music, Science, Economics”, organized by the Department of Hindi, Pandicherry University.

30th -31st January, 2017: Organized (as Convener) two days National Seminar - 53rd National Symposium on the Academic Contributions of Shrii P. R. Sarkar in collaboration with the Department of Assamese and Bengali in Gauhati University, Assam.

27th February, 2016: Delivered Invited Lecture on “A Neohumanistic Approach to Go Beyond Nationhood And Geo-Sentiment”; Organized by the Department of Sanskrit, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

Since 2015: Delivering lecture on Yoga and Meditation Each year on 21st June, at various Schools/Colleges around Guwahati City as a part of celebration of International Yoga Day.

Since 2011: Organizing Cultural Competition based on “Prabhat Sanmgiita” on behalf of Renaissance Artists’ and Writers’ Association (RAWA), Guwahati. About 500 candidates of various age groups from all around Assam participates in Drawing, Dancing and Singing competition based on “Prabhat Sanmgiita”.

14th December, 2014: Invited Lecture on “Yoga and Meditation for the Betterment of Self and the Society”, Organized by Renaissance Universal (RU), Kolkata.

2nd September, 2014: Invited Lecture, “Toward the Goal of World State Through Regional Development”, Organized by Renaissance Universal (RU), New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal.

25th August, 2014: Invited Lecture, “Toward the Establishment of Symbiotic Society In Light of Neohumanism and Progressive Utilization Theory”