I am a doctoral candidate in Biochemistry at Arizona State University's School of Molecular Sciences, where I work as a Graduate Research Assistant in Dr. Petra Fromme's laboratory at the Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Biodesign Institute. My research focuses on the structural and functional characterization of medically relevant membrane proteins, including the ZIP family zinc transporters BbZIP, combining synchrotron and XFEL beamtime with cryo-EM and computational structural biology tools such as PyMOL, Chimera, docking, and CryoSPARC. I have carried out beamtime at the Linac Coherent Light Source, as well as two beamtimes at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.
Alongside my research, I serve as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the School of Molecular Sciences. Before coming to ASU, I earned my Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Biotechnology in India and worked as a postgraduate researcher identifying GPCR-like proteins across apicomplexans under a grant from the Department of Science and Technology, SERB, Government of India.
I have presented my work at the Biophysical Society 2026 Annual Meeting, the SGP-EpIC Symposium at UC Davis, the International Conference for the Crystallization of Biological Macromolecules (ICCBM-18), the BioXFEL Symposium, and Biodesign Fusion, and I attended the Ultrafast X-ray Summer School organized by the Stanford PULSE Institute, the Center for Free Electron Laser Science at DESY, and the Paul Scherrer Institut.
I also serve as President of the Graduate Student Council at the School of Molecular Sciences, now in my second term. Under my leadership, the council has built out several programs connecting graduate students with each other, including Readox Reaction, a monthly book club, SomeBuddy for Help, a peer program for incoming and international students, peer-led lab safety training for teaching assistants, a nomination drive for the school's seminar speaker series, and the school's first comprehensive exam practice talk event. In 2026, this work earned the council a Commendable recognition in the American Chemical Society's Student Communities Award. I am also the founder and president of the first Laboratory Safety Team of its kind in Arizona, run in collaboration with the American Chemical Society.
Outside the lab, I enjoy hiking in Arizona's desert landscapes and find inspiration in music, literature, and the arts.