Research Experience
Dr. Amrita Bhattacharjee is a mucosal immunologist
with a strong background in Microbiology and Immunology.
She has over 13 years of experience in the immunology of
communicable diseases and has published and co-authored
papers in journals including Immunity, Infection and
Immunity, Journal of Immunology, and Nature Immunology.
After finishing her master's degree in Microbiology, Dr
Bhattacharjee studied how immunosuppressive molecules
are used by pathogens to evade immune surveillance
during her Ph. D. under the guidance of Prof Subrata
Majumdar at Bose Institute, Kolkata. Thereafter, she
continued her research on immune dysfunction during her
postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh,
where she studied various disease models of intestinal
infection and inflammation with Prof Timothy Hand. She
is now employed at ICMR-NIRBI (formerly NICED) as a
DBT-Ramalingaswami fellow at the Division of Immunology
where her lab is focused on understanding how exposure
to malnutrition and enteric infections during early life
modulate long term alterations in intestinal immune
responses.
In addition to her academic quests, Dr Bhattacharjee is
strong advocate for promoting inclusivity in STEM and
has participated in many science outreach programs .
Research interest:
Our primary research interest lies in understanding
the long term health consequences of early life
disruptions, due to malnutrition or repeated enteric
infections, with a particular focus on immune function.
Other newer areas of interest include exploring immune
evasion strategies employed by invasive bacteria to
breach intestinal barriers and disseminate to distal
organs , and deciphering the role of
malnutrition-related immune disruptions in spreading
antimicrobial resistance.
Honors and Awards
2010 : Junior Research Fellowship for
qualifying the National Eligibility Test (UGC-JRF) by
the United Grants Commission, Govt. of India
2016 : Was awarded the ‘Sir Nilratan Sirkar
Award' for recognition of doctoral work by the RAC of
Bose Institute.
2019 : Was awarded the Research Advisory
Committee (RAC) grant by the UPMC Children’s Hospital of
Pittsburgh.
2018 : Travel award for an oral presentation at
the Cytokine meeting , Boston
2019 : Best Poster award at the Rust Belt
microbiome meeting, Pittsburgh, USA
2020 : Travel award for presenting a talk at the
International Congress of Mucosal Immunity, Denver
(cancelled due to the pandemic, presented virtually
instead.)
2021 : Selected for oral presentation at the
Immunology Retreat of the University of Pittsburgh,
Wheeling, USA
2022 : Best Oral Presentation Award at the 11th
Children’s hospital Annual Research symposium,
Pittsburgh, USA
2022 :Guest associate editor at Frontiers in
Immunology
2023 : Granted the DBT-Ramalingaswami Re-entry
fellowship.