My areas of research are Immunology, Cancer Immunotherapy, Aging, Metabolism. My academic training and research experience during my master’s study (M.Sc. Biotechnology) at ‘Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, India’ have provided me with an excellent background in multiple biological disciplines including molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, and genetics. The vast experience gained during the M.Sc. study led me to publish a co-author paper for searching a novel combination therapy (phytochemical + Vit. C + Cu) against muti-drug resistant bacteria (e.g., Vibrio fluvialis, Salmonella enterica subsp. Enterica Serovar Typhi) that inhibit the bacterial load by an order of 3-4 log cfu/ml (Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2019, 85 (4), e02487-18). Based on the learning from bacterial defense, further, I developed interest in how our immune system act against foreign pathogens and the cancer in our body. I applied to renowned immunologist ‘Prof. Tasuku Honjo (Nobel Prize, Medicine, 2018), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan’ for the doctoral research under his esteemed supervision. Prof. Honjo along with Prof. James P Alison laid the foundation of cancer immunotherapy. These two great scientists discovered immunoinhibitory receptors PD-1 and CTLA-4, respectively. I felt very lucky to be supervised by Prof. Honjo for my doctoral research. Though PD-1 blockade therapy made a paradigm shift in cancer treatment, a significant fraction of patients shows unresponsiveness. During my doctoral research I worked on the different mechanisms of unresponsiveness the tumors employ and published the research output in eLife journal where we have classified unresponsive tumors into two groups a) tumors with systemic immunosuppressive property (SIP); SIP-positive tumors inhibit the immune responses systemically by releasing small molecule (e.g., LLC tumor, CD26 tumor) and b) the SIP-negative tumors which do not inhibit immune responses like B16 melanoma (eLife Sciences, 2020; DOI: 10.7554/eLife.52330).

Further, for the postdoctoral research, I moved to Delgoffe’s lab at University of Pittsburgh, U.S. Here, I am working on CD8 T cells exhaustion. T cell exhaustion, a state of unresponsiveness, limits the efficacy of ICB therapy. Rejuvenating exhausted T cells would be able to clear tumor burden. Recently, Delgoffe lab published a paper in Nature Immunology where our lab revealed that chronic stimulation and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) lead to the exhaustion state in T cells. In this project, I am investigating the primary effect caused by the ROS and will further down the target responsible for causing exhaustion. During my undergraduate and graduate careers, I received several academic awards and fellowships/grants. My long-term research goals involve becoming an independent researcher and solving the issues related with cancer immunotherapy.