Members

Dr. Preeti Srivastava is a professor at IIT Delhi and the project supervisor for iGEM-IIT Delhi. She has completed her post-doctoral research studies from the National Cancer Institute, Maryland, USA, with her research interests lying in the fields of Molecular Biology and Genetics. Prof. Preeti has guided the team from the start, right from the ideation of the project to its execution. She has been the constant pillar of support through the course of the project and has always provided valuable insights into the experimental workflow and troubleshooting drawn from her experiences.

Dr. D. Sundar is the Institute Chair Professor and the Head of the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology at IIT Delhi. He has completed his post-doctoral research from John Hopkins University, Maryland, USA, with his research interests lying in the field of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Dr. Sundar has conducted extensive research in the fields of genome editing tool designing, biological studies of natural drugs, and metabolic engineering, reporting impactful insights, and accomplishing multiple awards and accolades for the same. Prof. Sundar has always been a stalwart support for the team, helping them out at every step, and helping them tackle obstacles, always guiding the team towards the right path.

Nidhee Patil is a budding researcher, currently pursuing her PhD in Biotechnology and Bioengineering. She is very sensitive towards the challenges faced by the environment and topics such as climate change, pollution, and waste accumulation. She aims to work in areas contributing to the restoration of the ecological balance in the world through her research expertise. Apart from being a travel enthusiast, she is an admirer of fiction and relishes watching films and reading novels. She is a trained Kathak dancer and takes great interest in various Indian classical forms.

Agrima Deedwania is a graduand, who completed her Bachelor's in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from IIT Delhi in the year 2022. She was always interested in biology and engineering led her to pursue this field, synthetic biology. Molecular biology is something that always fascinated her. She believes biology has no limits and is something that is never ending and one can solve any problem with help of it. Apart from this her interests also lie in playing badminton, photography, travelling and exploring new food.

Sriram is a final year doctoral student at the Virology Institute in Münster, Germany. During his bachelors and masters in Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai, he worked on several projects aimed at synthesizing adsorptive agents using biological waste products, to remove, recycle and reuse various heavy metals from industrial effluents. His team received funding from the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) through the Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Student Teams (BEST) program, and from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, through the PALS Innovation Challenge, to scale-up their system. His technical experience in this front helped the team improve our project. Born and brought-up in a family of professors and teachers, Sriram values and regards mentorship as the most rewarding aspect of an academic career, and hence serves several mentoring groups, including the iGEM Mentors Committee. Sriram is an iGEM Veteran: He was the Advisor for 2017, 2018 and 2019 iGEM Teams of REC-CHENNAI, and was a Judge for iGEM 2020, all of which helped the team navigate through the competition.

Dhwani Teckchandani is a rising senior pursuing a Bachelor's in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology. Her love for life sciences stemmed from a novel she chanced upon in high school, "Perfect People" by Peter James, and she has been hooked ever since. In her pursuit to encourage interdisciplinary research in life sciences, she has worked on game-theoretic approaches for modelling biological systems and iGEM is another avenue for her to work with a diverse team. Synthetic biology is her first experience with tangible research outputs that directly translate into societal upliftment, which has proven to be a potent motivator. Apart from absolutely everything life sciences, Dhwani enjoys music, passionate discussions about things ranging from sitcoms to alien invasions, and an eerie amount of crime documentaries.

Apar Ahuja is a final year computer science undergrad at IIT Delhi. He's keen on learning new things and loves studying math, computer science and biology. He's been a part of various clubs before and enjoys working on projects and meeting new people. He has worked on various computational modelling and simulation projects before and is thrilled to be a part of the dry lab team. Other from that, he is fond of photography, standups and sitcoms.

Aashita is a Senior at IIT Delhi in the Department of Civil Engineering. Civil engineering? What is she doing at iGem IITD? She is an active member in Human Practices who has prior experience in similar domains. She loves thinking about applicability of projects in real life and the integration of ideas into the real world. She has previously worked with organisations such as Menon Fellowship and Enactus, to help spread awareness about existing social and environmental issues, and has worked with teams towards solving them. But this is not all she is, you can find her a good company to explore new places to eat or new things to do!

Aasritha Kondapalli is in her final year of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering, at IIT Delhi. She has been interested in Molecular Biology since she was a sophomore. When she was introduced to Synthetic Biology for the first time, she was so intrigued. To understand more about Synthetic Biology while working with fellow team members, she joined iGEM IIT Delhi this year.

Pratham Bansal is a senior at IIT Delhi, pursuing a major in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology. He is interested about the translational research potential of bioengineering and wishes to explore the same. He has worked with the wet lab team during the course of the project and lead the fundraising efforts for the team. Outside iGEM, he is into sports and travel.

Sarthak is an upcoming third-year undergraduate student at IIT Delhi. He is interested in synthetic biology because it is one of the essential tools to tackle climate change, hence his interest in iGEM. He loves literature review and is idealistic to think that formulating 'clear' ideas is more than enough to complete any project :'). He is one who wants to put on several songs at once and therefore is involved in multiple verticals of iGEM, including a wet lab, dry lab, and human practices. His hobbies include binging interviews of politicians, interpreting the existence of actions committed by any individual or group of individuals, and watching random war movies.

Prashita is a Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology major entering her pre-final year at IIT Delhi. Her interest in Biology started with an intractable interest in wet lab work. While going through the multiple biological domains and scope as a biotechnology major, she landed upon Synthetic Biology and has willed to explore more ever since. For her, Synthetic Biology is the perfect amalgamation of Biology, Computation, and Mathematics- thus acting as the quintessential method to tackle any and every challenge in the world. Building upon this, she joined the iGEM IIT Delhi team to satiate her curiosity and propose solutions to real-life problems with fellow SynBio enthusiasts.

Snigdha Malhotra is a third year undergraduate student studying Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology at IIT Delhi. She has been interested in biology and genetics since her time at high school. The astonishing ways in which synthetic biology and genetic engineering can be used to make a huge difference to the world fascinates her, and is one of the reasons for her joining iGEM IIT Delhi. She is majorly involved with the project wet lab work and the outreach activities of the club. Her other hobbies include photography, dancing, reading books and sleeping.

Shreyas is a 3rd year biochemical engineering and biotechnology student. He was interested in research from a young age. Can swear Spider-Man was what him into biology then got him reading about genetics and got acquainted with syn-bio. He loves to learn about new stuff and always looking to make things fun.

Sonali is a 3rd year student in the Biotech department at IIT Delhi. She is interested in computational and interdisciplinary approaches to biology. She believes the combination of biology and computational techniques can lead to innovative, sustainable products that can have a positive impact on the world. For her, iGEM is a great opportunity to combine her studies with a way to contribute to society and the environment. Other than iGEM, she is actively involved in NSS . She is very passionate about the education of underprivileged students. She loves travelling, reading novels, and trying different cuisines.

Aayushi Agrawal is a rising junior majoring in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering. She is fascinated by the vast potential and applicability of synthetic biology in all spheres of human sustainment ranging from healthcare, food security to environmental issues. Joining the iGEM team has helped her to explore, ideate and get a hands-on experience at solving real world problems. Apart from academics, Aayushi is part of the Institute Basketball Team and a member of the Fine Arts and Crafts Society, IIT Delhi. Her hobbies include cooking, painting and cycling around the city.

Ajai is an upcoming third-yearite majoring in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering. He is mainly interested in Synthetic Biology after learning how multidisciplinary thinking can significantly improve Biology research. He loves the field of genetic engineering and how it solves previous impossible problems quickly. His hobbies include watching Nature, singing, binge-watching, and cooking.

Ashish Choudhary is a rising third-yearite majoring in Computer Science and Engineering. He is interested in synthetic biology because he believes that the potential for synthetic biology is vast; we all have an opportunity to create the future together. So he joined IITD iGEM 2022 team to further explore the field of synthetic biology, currently working on modeling, wiki development, and human practices. Outside science, he enjoys playing badminton and basketball and discussing music, animes and lore.

Harsh Saini is a pre-final year student at IIT Delhi, majoring in Engineering Physics. He is fascinated about the surreal yet smooth life processes that govern every bit of a life as complex as ours. He loves how aptly principles of physics align with aspects of synthetic biology. He believes that synthetic biology has got an important role to play in improving the quality of human life as technology is becoming more accessible and advanced. He loves binging YouTube (especially Veritasium, VSauce and 3B1B) and reading books. He appreciates good music and good food in life.

Rehan is a pre-final year student at IIT Delhi, persuing Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology. He is a tech fanatic and a core biotechnology enthusiast too. In the team, he is working on building the Wiki with his experiences in the field of frontend development. He is also fascinated with science and astronomy since a long time, probably since the time of the end of the world theories in 2012. Apart from that, he's also a bibliophile and a weeb, reading novels and watching anime one after the other.