Dr. Sharmila Bhattacharya is the Director of research in the Biomodel Performance Laboratory, Space Biosciences Division, NASA Ames Research Centre. An alumna of Presidency College, Kolkata, India (B.Sc., Human Physiology), Dr. Bhattacharya received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Princeton University, NJ, USA and went on to do her postdoc at Stanford, CA, USA. She is a pioneer in the field of astro-bionics, which creates and provides innovative, technological solutions for NASA’s human exploration and challenges of life in space. The Bhattacharya lab studies the effects of altered gravity in the spaceflight environment on the molecular biology of model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. An interesting chapter of their research involves investigation of neurobehavioral changes in fruit flies under altered gravity and the associated effects on their nervous and immune systems. Her team is also working on the Biosentinel project to study the impact of highly ionizing radiation on DNA damage in yeast cells. Recent Awards and Honors:
Fun fact! Dr. Sharmila Bhattacharya was the project manager for small payloads flying on Progress and Soyuz (Russian spacecraft) and space shuttle missions. She was also the principal investigator for the space shuttle flight experiment, Fly Immunity and Tumors (FIT) which flew on STS-121 in July 2006. Recent Publications:
Jigeesha Mukhopadhyay
PhD student
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AuthorWe are graduate students at the Department of Microbiology, University of Manitoba Archives
October 2023
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