Kanikah Mehndiratta
Kanikah Mehndiratta attained an Honors degree in Biotechnology, followed by a Master’s in Medical Genetics from the University of Glasgow. Her thesis project was focused on designing a two-stage diagnostic NGS gene panel for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. She also did a minor project exploring potential pathogenic variants for Alzheimer’s disease via PCR-RFLP based SNP assays during this period.
As a Project Associate at CSIR-IGIB, she then gained exposure in CRISPR-based therapeutics and diagnostics for Sickle Cell Disease under the mentorship of Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty and Dr. Souvik Maiti. Apart from core laboratory work in pre-clinical studies, she was actively involved in the management of clinical trials for SCD, mainly funded by DST, DBT, and CSIR, India. Later, as a Stipendiary at the Universitatsklinikum Frankfurt, she gained insights into experimental studies around tumor models.
Apart from this, she has been avidly pursuing scientific communication opportunities for her research projects and beyond. She aims to make a translational impact via research in the therapeutics and diagnostics domain. And this has acted as her motivation behind joining CrisprBits.