Growing up in India, I had a humble beginning, where my family showed me the way of simple living and high thinking. I did my undergrad in Zoology and graduated as a salutatorian with National Scholarship for excellence. I completed my Master's degree from University of Calcutta, a top ranking University that produced three Nobel laureates. After awarded with a rare Overseas Travel award, I pursued my PhD in the prestigious Howard University with full scholarship. I graduated as an Exemplar Graduate Student with 4 esteemed peer-reviewed publications and joined a stellar group of Brain Cancer Researchers at Emory University Medical School (Ranked#22). After completing my postdoctoral studies with two highly esteemed articles and a book chapter, I joined the star-studded Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine (Ranked# 11). In my journey till date, I have achieved numerous awards and recognition. Beside academic achievements, my work on brain cancer was recognized by local, national and international conferences. I served as a judge in the The Allied Genetics Conference in 2015 and am a young-investigator committee member in Society for Neuro-Oncology Conference. I was featured in the Delta Sky Magazine advertising the excellence of Emory in research. I also represented Emory in Atlanta Journal Constitution and at the NCI website when The Winship Cancer Institute received the Comprehensive Cancer Center Designation from NIH. I am thrilled to be a part of Northwestern community and currently an associate member of Lurie Cancer Center. With my work, I am dedicated to contribute significantly in the research and therapy development against cancer.

My primary interest is to understand the self-renewing properties of glioma stem cells (GSCs), the driving force behind glioblastoma (GBM) growth, recurrence and therapeutic resistance. My ultimate goal of finding druggable targets to attenuate their growth. My background in genetics and cell biology, and my past and current experience in neuro-oncology and glioma biology have positioned me to address these biologically and clinically relevant problems. My larger goals in biomedical research are to develop and use models of GBM, including Drosophila and mouse, to uncover mechanisms and to translate the findings to human GBM therapeutics.