Aakanksha Kakran

• At Dhiti Life Sciences, led cell culture processes for monoclonal antibody production in mammalian cell culture lab. My responsibilities included performing ELISA for positive clone selection and utilizing hybridoma technology for production of monoclonal antibodies. Additionally, I prepared virus transport media for commercial purposes. During my tenure, I designed and executed several experiments focused on monoclonal antibody production using hybridoma technology, significantly contributing to laboratory's research goals.

• As a Junior Research Fellow at Talwar Research Foundation, I worked under the guidance of Prof. G. P. Talwar on the Phase-I and Phase-II clinical trials for a pregnancy-preventing vaccine. My role involved working on recombinant proteins that could potentially be used as immunotherapeutics for hormone-dependent and terminal stage cancers. I performed transformation and expression of recombinant proteins in E. coli, and purified these proteins using techniques such as IMAC and ion exchange chromatography. Additionally, I conducted ELISA to detect antibodies in serum samples during clinical trials, handled various cancer and hybridoma cell lines, performed FACS for cancer cell line characterization, conducted cytotoxicity testing of monoclonal antibodies via MTT assays, and performed in-vivo testing of recombinant proteins in mice and rats.

• During my research internship at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, I focused on characterizing regulatory T cells in healthy subjects and detecting circulating tumor cells in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Under the supervision of Dr. Nirupama Trehanpati, I performed immunophenotyping and FACS data acquisition and analysis. Additionally, I isolated DNA from blood and PBMCs, enriched and detected carcinoma cells, cultured mammalian cell lines including cancer cell lines, isolated RNA from PBMCs, and conducted real-time PCR. A notable achievement during this internship was my identification as a co-author on an abstract presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). The abstract, entitled "ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) lipid emulsions are safe and effective to reduce endotoxemia and sepsis in patients with Acute Chronic Liver Failure," highlighted the results of a randomized controlled trial (NCT02691533, ID# 2767708). This project allowed me to develop a comprehensive understanding of cellular and molecular medicine.

At Sakosh Biotech Pvt Ltd, I undertook a project under the supervision of Dr. Gaurav Pandey to check the expression of recombinant antigens for in-vitro diagnostics. My work involved isolating recombinant plasmids, performing restriction digestion, preparing competent cells, and conducting cell culture and IPTG induction. I also carried out cell lysis using sonication, checked protein expression using SDS-PAGE, and purified recombinant proteins using affinity chromatography (IMAC). This experience provided me with hands-on expertise in molecular biology techniques and protein purification.