Sohela Sarkar

Coordination between various organs of the body is of utmost importance in achieving proper growth in multicellular organisms. I use fruit flies to model how specific tissues sense fluctuations in nutrient and oxygen levels in the environment and help coordinate growth of the rest of the body organs in response to such changes, especially during the early developmental stages of an organism. I completed my Bachelor's degree in Zoology, from Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta University, West Bengal. I joined IISER-TVM as an Integrated Ph.D. student in 2017. I completed my Master's project in Dr. Satish Khurana's lab at IISER-TVM where I worked on understanding the molecular architectures of the different hematopoietic niches during the various stages of mammalian development and the role of chemokine, such as SDF1-alpha, in homing and maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells. My broad areas of research interest lie in the fields of developmental biology, genetics, physiology and metabolism. I found my ‘niche’ for a Ph.D. in Dr. Jishy Varghese’s lab in August 2020 where I have since been asking interesting questions about the interplay between the cellular oxygen and nutrient sensing pathways, and the various inter-organ molecular communications that help coordinate the systemic growth of an organism. I have an ardent love for science communication, especially for younger students! I aspire to become an independent scientific investigator and pave the way for future generation of scientists in the field of Developmental Genetics.