About Me
Hi, I'm Kunal! I'm a third year Computational Biology Ph.D. student under the joint supervision of Assoc. Prof. Jacques Behmoaras and Assoc. Prof Enrico Petretto. I have experience working in both genomics and transcriptomics. In the past, I've worked in the wet lab performing cell culture and molecular biology experiments.
My research mainly focuses on unravelling the complex role of macrophages in the context of chronic kidney disease through cross-species integrative analyses and systems genetics approaches. In our lab, we use both genetic and experimental animal models, combined with human samples to study kidney diseases.
My research mainly focuses on unravelling the complex role of macrophages in the context of chronic kidney disease through cross-species integrative analyses and systems genetics approaches. In our lab, we use both genetic and experimental animal models, combined with human samples to study kidney diseases.
Publications
eLife, 2023 | DOI - 10.7554/eLife.85530
Nature Communications, 2021 | DOI - 10.1038/s41467-021-26085-2
Posters and Talks
Duke-NUS Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Retreat '22
Experience
Bioinformatics Intern
Genome Institute of Singapore @ A*Star, Singapore
May 2020 - Jul 2021
Conducted benchmarking, enabled speed improvements and worked on a novel scRNA-seq feature selection algorithm (CRAN: DUBStepR). Led analysis and demultiplexing of human fetal brain single-nuclei data, project funded by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. Analysis of Rheumatoid Arthritis Single-Cell RNA Sequencing data (Bachelor's Thesis).
Technologies Used: R, Seurat, Demuxlet/Freemuxlet, AWS, Git
Research Intern
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Jul 2019 - Jan 2020
Maintenance of the zoonotic parasite Plasmodium knowlesi clinical isolate A1.H1 and Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 cell lines. Investigated the use of bioreactors for parasite culturing, optimised reactor parameters and prepared Standard Operating Procedure.
Technologies Used: Cell culture techniques, data analysis
Research Intern
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Aug 2018 - Jul 2019
Conducted medium-throughput drug screening using fluorescence-based assays on Plasmodium falciparum. Conducted ring-stage assays & determined IC50 to assess potency. Work presented at Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research 2019, received best International Speaker award.
Technologies Used: Cell culture techniques, cloning, bacterial work