Good day, Dr. Dipita Guha. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Yes, I'm ready to start.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

Thank you. First of all, thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'm Doctor Dipita Guha and currently I'm working as an assistant professor senior grade at the School of Chemical and Biotechnology at Shastra University, Tamil Nadu, India. My academic training includes a BSc degree in Zoology, Botany and chemistry from St. John's College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh. This was followed by an MSC in Biotechnology. In from Vit University Vellore, followed by a PhD in Cell and Molecular.

In again the same vit university Vellore after my PhD, I went to US specifically Oregon State University for pursuing my post doctoral experience and thereafter I came back to India to pursue my academic as well as research journey where I'm currently employed in the same institution that is Shasta University. So over these many years, I have constantly trained myself not only in academic responsibilities but also.

Research mentorship and garnering research projects funded by the Government of India and publishing high impact research work.

Thank you.

Yes.

Let us begin with your expertise in **Biomedical Genetics**. Professor, could you explain the potential applications of CRISPR-Cas9 technology in the treatment or prevention of genetic disorders? How would you approach explaining these applications to a group of undergraduate students?

Right. So first of all, thank you for the question. So CRISPR as we all know is one of the most promising technologies in the field of genetic engineering. And the concept of CRISPR is where this is kind of you trying to tailor made genes as per the convenience in context to health or therapeutic interventions. Now the concept of CRISPR could be very layered starting from having some basic fundamental concepts to going to very higher scales.

In terms of research, so when I would want to explain this concept to my students, probably when they are at the UG level. So I might start by talking about the fact that if you have genes and you know there is a particular gene which is malfunctioning, science has given us tools by which we can manipulate that defective gene in order to either replace or just to rectify it in order to normalize the function of the Organism in which the.

Gene is defective. Starting with that, I will give them the purpose of CRISPR, the methodology, how CRISPR strategy is executed and followed by which I can just say that it can range from having impact where it can affect or it can really be of good potential in intervening diseases. So there are a lot of genetic diseases where it all boils down to mutations in the genes and thanks to CRISPR, those genes could be easily knocked out and replaced with.

Healthy ones. So that would be my easy way of telling them how to take up CRISPR CAS. And the applications, or rather the paradigm of applications which are there with CRISPR is beyond imagination. We are just scratching the surface and yet we have still a long way to go ahead with how we manipulate our genes for the ease and the betterment of human health overall.

That'll be my answer.

Thank you, Professor. Your explanation demonstrates a clear understanding of CRISPR and its potential, as well as an effective approach to simplifying complex concepts for undergraduates. It’s impressive how you focus on breaking down the concept into its purpose, methodology, and applications while emphasizing its transformative potential. Let me ask a follow-up. Considering CRISPR's power to edit genes and its profound implications, what ethical considerations do you believe should be emphasized when teaching students about this technology?

Absolutely, the power of editing gives us the ability to be able to manipulate almost anything and everything. And that is exactly why ethics should play a defining role in it and especially when we are dealing with things which are pertinent to life, which can alter life. So the ethical concerns need to be doubly reassured. I would tell my students about the institutional ethical policies, the overall govern.

Political policies in working with samples that are dealing with live organisms, live tissue sections or potentially harmful or hazardous segments of any Organism part. So I would introduce them to the the different rules which exist in context to ethical policies and how if we do not comply to them, there could be serious consequences which would deter not only our career, but it could.

Also proved to be very, very derogatory in the overall scenario of human welfare.

Thank you.

Sure.

Please go ahead, Professor.

OK. Thank you.

When we start with molecular biology and genetics per se, we focus on the the nitrogenous bases which form a nucleotides and we're just mostly concerned ourselves with genes. But we often misread 1 aspect that all that we do, all that happens to us is not only the genes, but the external factors which are working on these genes that are beyond inheritance. So that is where comes a wonderful.

Strategy or wonderful field of life sciences which is epigenetics. Now epigenetics is something which through different patterns like it could be methylation, somoyation, ubiquiti, annihilation, different rearrangements of the existing bases tend to change the chemistry of the protein or the gene products that are developed and thereby have a huge role in deciding how. Are different functions are going to get pursued so despite having a perfect gene.

Such chemical changes or alterations could actually alter the normal Physiology of an Organism and that is how epigenetics is extremely important. We cannot focus exclusively on genetics, but rather epigenetics happens to be one of the most important aspects that starts or kind of makes certain diseases way more aggressive. A best example in that case would be cancer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Your explanation of epigenetics in gene regulation is thorough and insightful, particularly highlighting how modifications like methylation and ubiquitination can influence gene expression and physiology. It's commendable how you tied it to practical examples like cancer, making the concept both relevant and impactful. To probe further—how do you think epigenetic markers could be leveraged in the development of personalized medicine, especially for complex diseases like cancer?

The major problem with cancer starts with the fact that it is extremely heterogeneous. The same type of cancer affecting 2 individuals might have completely different genetic constitution, etiology and thereby different responses to intervention. That is exactly why epigenetics come in comes into play because that could be a tailor made in individual specific response where through the use of genetic markers, say for example we have Sam. That is S adenosine methyl cytosine which helps in epigenetic modifications of certain genes by seeing whether these genes are getting upregulated, downregulated or is there any significant mutation which we can figure out through NGS. That is next generation sequencing, we can individually identify whether the known tumor suppressor or rather oncogenes are getting manipulated in individual once we can establish that our intervention strategy.

Would be very thorough, keeping in mind that it needs to be target specific for that particular individual.

That'll be my answer.

Thank you, Professor. Your response underscores the critical role epigenetic markers play in tailoring intervention strategies for cancer patients, as well as the value of next-generation sequencing in identifying those markers. It's evident you have a profound understanding of the intersection between molecular mechanisms and advanced diagnostics. Let us now shift towards your **teaching** contributions. How do you design theory and laboratory courses to engage students while ensuring they develop both foundational and advanced skills in Biomedical Genetics?

Thank you. So first, I would like to take the theoretical part of it, where As for the syllabus that has been prescribed by the university in alignment with the National Education Policy 2020. And of course, keeping in mind the course outcomes and program outcomes, I would like to design the syllabus in such a way that one, it gives fundamental understanding to the students. Second, it empowers them to be relevant with the current setup in the industrial area.

As well as the relevant things which are going up in research. So I do not trust that only rotor memory should work, rather it should not work. Rather I focus that my students should be able to critically analyze concepts and should be able to use the concept in applying to different contexts in their future career. So on that basis, my syllabus would be a nice combination of the different levels of Bloom's taxonomy where starting from.

Remembering to understanding, to analyze and to applying all the aspects would be integrated, of course, aligning with the course and the program outcome and followed by this. Once I'm sure that the students have got a thorough grip of the theory itself, the relevant topics as per the available resources in the lab facility would be taken up so as to make sure that the students do not understand only books, but they do the experiments or they do the theory part.

Hands on so that tomorrow when they apply for a further or for a higher degree, they are not absolutely clueless about the connect between theory and practical. So my designing of practical courses will be based on the theory they are studying and it should be able to match up with the advanced requirements of the current society, current science podium and current industrial requirements so that they do not fall prey.

To fall prey to not knowing what they have studied in theory in a real life scenario. So that would be mighty.

Thank you for the detailed response, Professor. It's clear that you are deeply committed to aligning your courses with both academic rigor and practical relevance. Your emphasis on tying Bloom’s taxonomy to the curriculum design and fostering critical thinking and practical application demonstrates a thoughtful and student-centric approach. To follow up—how do you evaluate whether your teaching methods are effective in achieving these course and program outcomes?

Yes, my teaching approach is always outcome driven education or outcome based education for which I can only evaluate how effective my teaching is by the output that my students are generating. So most of the time my approach to this outcome based education would be to 1st explain complex topics using real life examples to my students and then have assessments which are.

Not testing rotor memory, but rather giving them scenarios and asking them to interpret under the purview of the topics that they have read. Now these assessment techniques could start from quizzes. They could go as far as having creative design experiments where they create models using very minimal resources to be able to be creative. Because creative knowledge or creative understanding kind of really triggers the.

Deep seated knowledge that a student can have and eventually analyzing them or assessing them for their critical thinking ability and not for the ability to be able to mug up a sentence and reproduce it as it is on the answer sheet. So that will be my take.

That is an excellent methodology, Professor. Your focus on outcome-based education, coupled with emphasizing real-life applications, creative assessments, and critical analysis, reflects your commitment to preparing students for real-world challenges. It's a commendable and forward-thinking approach to pedagogy. Let us now discuss your engagement with **student evaluation and exam responsibilities**. Could you elaborate on how you structure assessments to evaluate not just knowledge retention but also higher-order thinking in the subject of Biomedical Genetics?

Yes. Let me start by giving you an example. So this was a particular course which was on molecular biology and genetics. And in that after teaching the theory for the assessment purpose, what I had asked my students is not to write questions and answers, but rather I asked them to choose any topic of their wish which was a part of their syllabus. And I had given them a budgetary constraint and that was an extreme constraint that is within the.

Combination of rupees 100. They had to build a model, remind you a working model without the use of electricity, which could explain the concept to a layman. And by the use of the term layman, I define somebody who's not from science and is absolutely clueless of what the topic means. And to my surprise, the students. Students did fabulous. None of the students used more than ₹100 because that was the budgetary constraint.

And I saw really innovative strategies where just to show that how one molecule is going to the other, they use simple stick and ball methods to move things from one corner of their model to the other corner. And finally, the understanding which they had of that particular topic when I evaluated them with a series of quizzes. I could see by far at least a 60% improvement in their conceptual understanding.

So that is one of the examples which I would like to really mention over here. Thank you.

Yes, definitely. So I would specifically like to give you an example of one of the YouTube project students which was relevant to molecular biology and cell biology as well. And where they had the student had to juggle between the courses. That is the subjects they had taken for their degree program as well as certain experiments which would take long hours because they would have incubation and several other steps which would take them to invest long time.

Thank you, Professor. That is an innovative and inspiring example of how you effectively combine hands-on creativity, conceptual learning, and constraints to challenge students and deepen their understanding. It's impressive how you designed an assessment that bridges academic learning with practical application while fostering both resourcefulness and communication skills. Now, let’s turn our attention to your experience in **guiding student projects and research activities**. Could you provide an example of a student research project you oversaw in Biomedical Genetics and how you mentored the student through it?

So my objective for my student was very clear. I had broken. I had broken down the entire concept into very simple steps starting with what exactly is the research objective and to address that, what should be the research question. So once the student could figure out what exactly was the research question, the student did a thorough critical review of the literature which is available and could hand pick the specific.

That could be used or slightly modified to be able to answer the research question that was slated for us. And post this, there was proper scheduling so to do the experiments and there were regular meetings with me so that in case they had or the student had any kind of failure, fail in the experiment or a failed experiment, there could be troubleshooting. And this periodic meetings could also help me analyze.

That what was the progress that was being made in the project and also it gave a real time check to the student that whether he or she was getting into the right approach or not. So usually speaking, if I generalize the entire scenario, my strategy for mentoring my research students would be to 1st be objective about what exactly we are looking at. Then follow it up with the research question. Build a hypothesis, do the critical analysis of literature review, design your.

Elements that might end up giving results to the question or the hypothesis and then work in a methodological way. If there is a failure, troubleshoot by the failure. If this is there is a success, proceed to the next step. That is how I would like to continue my research mentorship. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Your structured and methodical approach to guiding research projects is remarkable. Breaking down the process into clear steps from establishing research objectives to troubleshooting failures not only provides direction but also instills critical research skills in students. It's evident that you’re committed to their growth not just as students but as emerging researchers. Next, let’s explore your approach to **effective communication and structured teaching**. How do you tailor your communication style to effectively engage and educate students from diverse backgrounds and varying levels of understanding?

Sorry to interrupt, we're down to the last 5 minutes.

OK, right. I'll try to keep it really short. So the fact is I do strongly believe, and I do practice the fact that effective communication is one of the key aspects to be able to tell yourselves or to describe your thought process to the outer world. So my experience over the years has also trained me to be a very good communicator. And in my current institution, I do carry out workshops where I teach my students good verbal communication skills.

And this not only helps them to be able to face interviews but also it improves my communication abilities to be able to explain complicated topics to them in simpler forms. And also a point I would want to mention that in India there is an intercology at competition called Voice of BT And in my current institution, I am the mentor who coaches students to be prepared for Voice of BT.

Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Let us move on to your **academic qualifications and expertise**. You hold a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology. Could you highlight one of the most significant findings from your doctoral research and its potential impact on the field of Biomedical Genetics?

Absolutely. So my doctoral research involved exploration of a particular plant called Morinda tinctoria, which is popularly or in the native aspect in the IK system is used for yielding natural dye. Now this dye I had integrated with molecular biology by trying to use it as a DNA intercalator. Now the conventional DNA intercalator which is ethedium bromide is a toxic one and through my research I could figure out that.

Particular die which was yielded by the plant which was under my doctoral investigation yielded the dye which could intercalate DNA and it was safe as was evidenced by in vivo studies. So this in the long run with further exploration can prove to be an extremely promising DNA intercalator which can aid the entire scientific world not only with a molecular diagnostic to evaluate nucleic acids but also be a therapeutic intervention where.

Intercalators could be a promising future, say for example in case of cancers. So I'm keeping my answers short because of the want of time. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. That’s an intriguing area of research with significant implications, particularly in advancing safer alternatives for DNA intercalation and their applications in diagnostics and therapeutics. Your work demonstrates an innovative approach by integrating traditional knowledge with modern molecular biology. Finally, let’s touch upon your **research publications and industry projects**. Could you share the title and a brief overview of one of the research papers you’ve published in a reputed journal and its contribution to the field?

Yes, so far I have published 3033 research papers with a cumulative impact factor of 270 which brings my average impact factor to a good 8.1. I have h-index which is 22 and 27 is my ITIN index. And the fact that my research has implications is testified by the fact that I have more than 8400 citations. And to specifically mention there is this one particular paper which.

Talks about centrosomal homeostasis and the role of microtubule motors in it, which was a review article established in one of the most esteemed journals in the area of cancer biology, which is BBA Reviews in cancer. And this is a particular journal where you cannot submit reviews rather than you will be asked for reviews and getting an opportunity to be able to submit that one was extremely good because we know that centrosomal homeostasis is one of the most.

Not yet one of the most significant arena, which has a decisive role in deciding why cancer cells evade most of the cellular surveillance mechanisms. And we giving strategies to be how to be able to, you know, kind of narrow it down by targeting the specific centrosome dys homeostasis is what I think in the long run and with further exploration is going to do wonders in the field of cancer.

Dr. Guha, to begin our discussion, you have an extensive background in molecular and cancer biology. Could you share with me which aspect of teaching these subjects you find most rewarding?

The most rewarding the fact is the real time response of the students. I teach a concept and immediately they bombard me with questions and after the syllabus is over when I get their feedback where they say that how I intrigued their interest in this field and how they would want to pursue a career with the same field I think is the most. Rewarding outcome based education system that any teacher could experience.

Professor Guha, as part of this section, I want to delve deeper into your academic research and how it influences your teaching. Your role as the Principal Investigator of the Cellular Dyshomeostasis Laboratory caught my attention. Can you elaborate on your research work there and its primary focus?

Yes, my primary focus is looking into the molecular aspects of breast cancer and more specifically triple negative breast cancer, with a keen interest on how centrosomal dyshomeostasis tends to empower the cancer cells, which are just abnormal cells of our body, to escape all.

Available cellular surveillance machineries. So with a core understanding of the mechanisms involved, my research is bifurcated into two aspects. One which is the basic aspect where I try to deduce the molecular mechanisms which empower centrosomal dys homeostasis to be so fruitful for cancers. And the second is I also prospect novel compounds as good or promising intervention strategies.

For tackling triple negative breast cancer, in addition to that, I also look into overall molecular signatures associated with cardiovascular diseases. And in the purview of this, I have completed 2 government-funded projects, one by DSD, CERP where I was the principal investigator. This project was worth 27.2 lakhs and this was on triple negative breast cancer and centrosomal dysomusasis just as I spoke. And the other project was.

Provided by DB, DBT again Government of India for a total of approximately 50,00,000, which was exactly 49.99 lakhs. And this was about investigating how cancer chemotherapeutics are a potential cause of cardiovascular diseases in patients receiving the therapy and what could be the strategy to bring down those fatal incidences.

So that is how I would like to summarize my research journey.

Yes. So I prefer going for a structured approach where if the entire complex topic I present at once, the students are not going to understand anything. So my strategy is simple breakdown the complex concept into simpler aspects, then align them with the objectives which are expected out of the course and the program and then taking real life examples, examples which a student of.

Professor Guha, your research is both comprehensive and impactful. How do you integrate the findings from these extensive studies into your teaching methods to enhance student engagement and understanding, particularly for complex topics like centrosomal dyshomeostasis or cancer chemotherapeutics?

Your age will more relate to I try to integrate the concept, make those simple concepts clearly understandable and eventually integrate them. And using my own research example, I can very well tell them the failures and the success stories that I have had and how the failures could be converted into success and the successes, how they could be taken forward for further intervention or further promise in the scientific world.

So my research experience gives me a quite a good backup to be able to provide my students with simple pedagogical approaches which can help them actually undertake outcome based education.

That approach is both thoughtful and effective, Professor Guha. How do you measure or evaluate the success of these teaching strategies, particularly in ensuring that students can translate these simplified concepts into applied knowledge or research capabilities?

Right. So starting with the fact that the outcome is how we can justify that whether our teaching is correct or not. So my ways of assessing the outcome would be 3 to 4 prompt for the simple fact, first is whether there is actually an increase in the overall score that the students are achieving at the end of their analytical assessments. Second, whether the student is actually eager to pursue a further career, be it in research or education or in industry.

They are really wanting to take forward the concepts that they have learned and apply them. And 3rd, by the kind of feedback which I get from my students, from the fact that this particular topic had piqued their interest, they tried something out-of-the-box and they just want me to figure out whether they are going in the right approach or not. So the students have. The brightest minds in the entire diaspora and in that context.