Dr. Apurba Paul

Postdoctoral Research Associate,

University of Notre Dame

Welcome to my web page. I am Dr. Apurba Paul, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, working with Prof. Gregory Timp.

I have done my Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore under the supervision of Prof Vasant Natarajan. My Ph.D. research was to study malaria-infected red blood cells using optical tweezers.

Trypanosomes are a single-celled parasite that causes diseases like sleeping sickness or nagana. Motility plays a crucial role in the survival of the trypanosomes against the host's immune response. We are studying the biophysical aspect of the motility and how it can be modified.

Septins, which are filament-forming GTPases plays a crucial role in the cell division process in yeast. Different septin proteins together form protein complexes. These protein complexes can further assemble into filament or rings. In this project, we are studying the biophysical aspect of septin ring formation and role of different septin proteins in this process.