Tanya Tripathi joins the WELCOME2 team and takes the position of a PhD student in Prof. Carsten Carlberg’s nutrigenomics group.
What is the focus of your research?
I will be investigating the effects of vitamin D using PBMCs. My main focus will be to investigate its role in the autoimmune disorders like Hashimoto’s disease and multiple sclerosis, and to find the pathways affected by the genes found.
What organizations/institutions have you studied or worked in?
I did my Bachelor’s in botany at the University of Delhi. My major subjects of interest were genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and evolution. Following this, I joined Jawaharlal Nehru University to complete my Master’s in computational biology. My thesis revolved around protamine and insulin interaction and their role in diabetics treatment. I also did a project where we studied the stability of mutant gene frequencies in large mating population using Holling type II response function. During my work I was familiarised with genomics and transcriptomics, and handling data thereof using various programming languages and software. This made me interested in this field and gave me a motivation to do my PhD in this area.
What do you consider the greatest achievement in your career so far?
I achieved a good national rank in graduate aptitude test in biotechnology in India which helped me gain a fellowship for meritorious students. I also succeeded in national exams like GATE in life sciences and biotechnology.
What was your motivation to join WELCOME2 team?
The motivation to join the WELCOME2 team was the chance to work with human data with the focus put on immunity, that was my ultimate research interest. The areas of genomics and epigenomics and how a point change could cause a big disease have always fascinated me. Prof. Carsten Carlberg is well known for his studies in this field, and it was a golden opportunity to work under his supervision. It also gave me a chance of international exposure since it is an EU project, which is a good motivation for any student.
What are your research goals to pursue in the near future?
Presently, I want to focus on learning as much as possible from our team and be able to generate good and substantial results for the project. Later, I want to continue doing research in the related areas.
What are your outside of work interests?
I enjoy dancing, debating and playing badminton. I have been on my university teams for debating and dance during my bachelor’s, and for badminton during my master’s. And I won many medals and trophies for my universities.
