Meet Anindita Sen, R&D scientist at DNAiTECH, where she is helping to develop nucleic acid-based point-of-care diagnostics for various infectious diseases.
Anindita moved to Marlborough for her Callaghan funded role, after graduating with a PhD from Victoria University in March last year.
Last month, DNAiTECH won the Cawthron Marlborough Environment Supreme Award (CMEA). Not only were the judges impressed by the innovation and wide range of environmental applications for their work, but also with DNAiTECH’s commitment to engaging young people in science.
2023 Environment Awards Supreme Winner a double win
Anindita knows how to overcome a challenge or two. During her PhD studies she found herself inadvertently stranded in India on a 12 months COVID break while NZ borders were closed.
Anindita Sen, R&D scientist at DNAiTECH
Impressively, during her PhD Anindita created a prototype handheld device for the potential methamphetamine monitoring and detection in-field.
After completing a Bachelor and Master of Technology in Biotechnology in her home country India, gifted Anindita received a fully funded MBIE scholarship to pursue her PhD in New Zealand. She graduated with a PhD in Chemistry from Victoria University of Wellington and the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.
“My PhD work explored the development of gold nanoparticle based colorimetric aptasensors for the detection of methamphetamine in saliva. Aptamers are single stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides that can fold into unique 3-dimensional conformations to bind to targets with high sensitivity and specificity,” Anindita says.
“Taking advantage of the adsorption of DNA aptamer probes on gold nanoparticles, simple, yet highly sensitive and cost-effective sensors can be built. Saliva is a highly desirable matrix for development of diagnostic tests because saliva sampling is minimally invasive and offers drug levels that relate to recent drug use rather than accumulation from historical use.”
“It is challenging to develop a gold nanoparticle based aptasensing assay using saliva as it is a complex fluid presenting a multitude of complexities. My PhD work involved overcoming several challenges related to developing these aptasensors in saliva and eventually allowed me to build a prototype handheld light meter device for the potential application of these sensors for methamphetamine monitoring/detection in-field.”
“The validation trials for the developed methamphetamine sensor were conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) in Wellington.”
Based at MRC’s Grovetown Park, she is enjoying the Marlborough weather a lot more compared to Wellington.
Not surprisingly, she is finding it to be quiet and peaceful compared to other places where she has lived.
“What I like most about working at Grovetown park are the stunning views from our laboratory and office. It's very refreshing to hear lots of different bird sounds/songs throughout the day! “ Anindita says.
The CMEA 2023 Award Winner videos are now available to view on line.
Take a minute to view the video from Supreme Winner DNAiTECH here.