NICED : Scientists

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.