RESEARCH PROJECTS
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2018 nowGif-sur-Yvette, France
EBRAINS Live Papers
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Mentor: Dr. Andrew Davison, Neuro-PSI (UNIC), CNRS
Funding agency: European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under Specific Grant Agreements No. 785907 and No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA2 and SGA3)
Computational approaches to neuroscience, such as development of models and data analysis, lack an established system for distributing code, data and other related resources. The absence of such a system significantly diminishes the utility of scientific outputs such as published models and datasets within the neuroscience community, and also hinders the reproducibility of data analyses. This has also severely impeded the promotion and progress of community-based, collaborative modelling efforts. We have developed an online platform, called EBRAINS Live Papers, for sharing scientific resources in neuroscience. It aims to enable researchers to easily access the data resources employed in published studies and understand in detail the provenance of published results and figures. -
2017 nowGif-sur-Yvette, France
Model Representation and Standards
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Mentor: Dr. Andrew Davison, Neuro-PSI (UNIC), CNRS
Funding agency: European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under Specific Grant Agreements No. 720270 and No. 785907 (Human Brain Project SGA1 and SGA2)
Work with community partners and with model developers to adopt and/or develop standards for representing brain models, and for sharing them. Specifically, develop open APIs for morphology analysis, classification, conversion, and manipulation; establish open standards for performant, interoperable model representations (from the cellular-level to the point neuron levels); develop open APIs to access information on models; and work to create representations for models of synaptic plasticity. Work with others to ensure that the APIs and model representations are consistent with high performance on both traditional HPC and neuromorphic computing systems. As far as possible use and/or extend existing community standards (e.g. NeuroML, NineML, PyNN). -
2017 nowGif-sur-Yvette, France
Validation Framework Services and Apps
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Mentor: Dr. Andrew Davison, Neuro-PSI (UNIC), CNRS
Funding agency: European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under Specific Grant Agreements No. 720270 and No. 785907 (Human Brain Project SGA1 and SGA2)
Develop services and apps facilitating community model-building and community validation of models, and use them to perform preliminary validations of these models. The work to be performed includes enhancements of the existing validation framework in collaboration with corresponding other HBP tasks; tools facilitating web access to validation experiments and their results; and outreach activities. In addition, work actively to build community support with a special emphasis on validation experiments coming from the community. The apps developed will make a fundamental contribution to community-driven modelling, and will encourage community-driven app development. -
2010 2016Mumbai, India
Computational Modeling of Bladder Smooth Muscle
IIT Bombay
Position: Research Scholar
Mentor: Prof. Rohit Manchanda, IIT Bombay
Funding agency: Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India [BT/PR12973/MED/122/47/2016] and the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) [UKUTP20110055]
Certain smooth muscles, such as the detrusor of the urinary bladder, exhibit a variety of spikes that differ markedly in their amplitudes and time courses. The origin of this diversity is poorly understood but is often attributed to the syncytial nature of smooth muscle and its distributed innervation.
In order to help clarify such issues, we developed a three-dimensional electrical model of syncytial smooth muscle implemented using the compartmental modeling technique, with special reference to the bladder detrusor. Values of model parameters were sourced or derived from experimental data. The model was validated against various modes of stimulation employed experimentally and the results were found to accord with both theoretical predictions and experimental observations. Model outputs also satisfied criteria characteristic of electrical syncytia, such as correlation between the spatial spread and temporal decay of electrotonic potentials as well as positively skewed amplitude frequency histogram for sub-threshold potentials, and lead to interesting conclusions.
Based on analysis of syncytia of different sizes, it was found that a size of 21-cube may be considered the critical minimum size for an electrically infinite syncytium. Set against experimental results, we conjecture the existence of electrically sub-infinite bundles in the detrusor. Moreover, the absence of coincident activity between closely spaced cells potentially implies, counter-intuitively, highly efficient electrical coupling between such cells. The model thus provided a heuristic platform for the interpretation of electrical activity in syncytial tissues.
A number of enhancements and extensions to the basic model had been developed and discussed, to obtain a better understanding of syncytial tissues. These include the investigation of initiation, propagation and modulation of action potentials in a syncytium and the development of a physiologically more realistic gap junction model. Relevance to physiological function were discussed, and their implications assessed, at each stage.
COURSE PROJECTS
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2010 2010Mumbai, India
Virtual Instrumentation for Real Time ECG Signal Processing
IIT Bombay
Guide: Prof. Soumyo Mukherji, IIT Bombay
Topped course & awarded ‘AA’ grade; Appointed Head Teaching Assistant -
2010 2010Mumbai, India
Molecular Classification of Cancer by Gene Expression Monitoring
IIT Bombay
Guide: Prof. Subramani Arunkumar, IIT Bombay
Seminar on same topic awarded ‘AA’ grade -
2010 2010Mumbai, India
Micro-machined Retinal Prosthesis
IIT Bombay
Guide: Prof. Rohit Srivastava, IIT Bombay
Awarded ‘AA’ grade in course -
2009 2009Mumbai, India
Computational Methods for Cancer Gene Identification and Classification
IIT Bombay
Guide: Prof. Pramod Wangikar, IIT Bombay
Selected as one of the best projects & awarded ‘AA’ grade -
2007 2008Navi Mumbai, India
Commutation Information System (CIS)
SIES Graduate School of Technology
Guide: Prof. Aparna Bannore, SIES Graduate School of Technology
Worked with support from local transport networks