PUJA TIWARY

With over 13 years of research experience, I possess a robust background in conducting multiple clinical trials for biomarker validations, human genetics, diagnostics, and vaccine advancement. I developed several biomarkers including the antigenic, SNP genotyping, serological and molecular tools in the Field of Chikungunya fever, Malaria and Visceral Leishmaniasis. Conducted multiple successful research projects across BMGF, NIH, and ERC grants and established global partnerships. Backed by 17 published articles in reputable journals, I excel in crafting compelling written content and developing SOPs.

Current position: Post-doctoral Research Associate, University of North Carolina, United States

• Replication mechanism in RNA viruses to develop therapeutical drug targets.
• Expressed several Chikungunya virus non-structural proteins in mammalian expression system.

Senior Research Engineer, Umeå University, Sweden                                                                  (4 years 2 months)

• Established Malaria Rodent Models to unravel the phenotypes of more than 3000 unknown genes in Plasmodium parasites.
• Established molecular cloning and Crispr-Cas9 to generate hundreds of genetically modified organisms for Plasmodium species. 
• Performed reverse genetic engineering and Illumina-based BARSeq to investigate gene functions.
• Identified several potential transmission blocking vaccine candidates for the prevention of Malaria.

ProjectScientist, Bill & MelindaGates Foundation Project, India                                                (4 years 6 months)

• Facility manager and Project Scientist to conduct a clinical trial on more than 17000 human subjects to validate a new diagnostic tool for the infectious disease, Visceral Leishmaniasis. 
• Managed a team of over 20 members including graduates, lab technicians, and field workers. Managed the budget, instrument procurements, trained the crew.
• Efficient troubleshooter, project planning, data analysis, project report preparations, presentations, SOP and manuscript preparations, national and international travelling.
• Established ACL-2 grade sand fly insectary, and BSL-2 grade animal house facilities followed by ethical approval from local and International ethical committee. 

Doctoral Projects, Banaras Hindu University, India                                                                                  (5 years)

• Conducted a GWAS-based case-control study for Visceral Leishmaniasis on more than 3000 human population followed by SNP genotyping with more than 30 biomarkers to explore the genomic association of the disease.
• Developed several molecular and antigenic diagnostic biomarkers and validated their sensitivity and specificity in a case-control trial on large sample size of more than 2000 subjects.
• Developed drug resistant biomarker for the Miltefosine resistance in the case of Visceral Leishmaniasis and validated on large sample size for the treated and relapse cases.
• Conducted a large scale and multi-centric clinical trial to validate multiple rapid-diagnostic kits under a case-control study on thousands of human subjects.

Ph.D. in Molecular epidemiology of Infectious diseases.                                            

Masters in Biochemistry