Goal-oriented, self-motivated research professional, facilitating research independently and collaboratively, in a fast-paced academic laboratory. Research SkillsCell and molecular techniques• Nucleic acid extraction from cells, animal tissues, and viruses for downstream assays, such as: conventional Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Real-Time PCR (qPCR), Reverse Transcriptase PCR, expression cloning • Detection of protein expression levels using immunoblotting and quantification using protein assays• Isolation of primary immune cells from animals for in vitro differentiation, such as: TH1 memory CD4 T cells, bone marrow-derived M1 macrophages. • Cryopreservation of immune cells for post-thaw phenotypic and functional analysis • Molecular cloning: plasmid design, primer selection. restriction digestion, ligation, transfection/transformation, screening clones, sequence alignment, plasmid DNA purification • Propagation of different strains of influenza viruses in ovo and subsequent titer and characterization by Hemagglutinin (HA) assay, plaque assay, sequencing • Detection of viral titer and viral growth kinetics in cells using plaque assay Animal husbandry and procedures • Maintenance of a mouse colony (breeding, weaning, ear punch, tail snip) consisting of multiple mouse strains, genotyping using PCR and flow cytometry for in vivo studies • Harvesting tissues/organs (lungs, spleen, mediastinal lymph nodes, peripheral lymph nodes, uterine horn, nasal turbinate, brain, kidney) for in vitro analysis • Immunophenotyping novel animals using multicolor flow cytometry (upto 24 colors) • Mouse blood collection using submandibular vein bleeding and cardiac puncture • Mouse antibody detection by ELISA, viral titer detection in different organs using plaque assay, host RNA isolation for qPCR• Delivery of drugs, cells, anaesthetic solutions by retro-orbital (RO), intraperitoneal (IP) injections and oral gavage • Intranasal infection of mice with Influenza viruses in BSL2 and BSL3 containment facilities Clinical cohort studies• Antibody detection in human serum samples using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) against SARS-CoV-2 and common cold (OC43, 229E) antigens• Production of vaccine strain influenza virus-derived Hemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA) antigens using Expi293 expression system to detect serum antibody levels in vaccinated patients at different time points pre- and post-vaccination using ELISA Programming languages• R (beginner), Python (beginner), Galaxy (beginner)