Education
Bio
For her PhD, Rachana studied the bacterial cell division protein, FtsZ as a target for anti-bacterial therapy. She elucidated the mechanism of several FtsZ-targeting agents against a respiratory pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae, one of the many bacteria that is rapidly developing resistance to antibiotics. In pursuit of studying pathogens and their antibiotic responses in a complex natural environment (i.e., a microbiome) she joined Dr. Michael Manhart’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow. She aims to study the response of microbial communities to antibiotics and their role in the development of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria.
· Sun Pharma Science Foundation Science Scholar Award 2022 – Pharmaceutical Sciences, for the work titled “Exploring the bacterial cell division protein, FtsZ from the respiratory pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae as a target for anti-pneumococcal therapy.” Citation: https://sunpharmasciencefoundation.net/latest_winners_of_science_schola….
· Best Poster Award for the poster titled “BT-benzo-29 binds to the catalytic site of FtsZ from Streptococcus pneumoniae to exhibit its anti-FtsZ and consequently, anti-pneumococcal action” at the 36th Annual Symposium of The Protein Society held in San Francisco, USA from July 7-10, 2022.
· The Protein Society’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Travel Award 2022
· Conference travel support from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India
· Protein Science cover image (Volume 30, Issue 3) (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1469896x/2021/30/3)
· ASBMB 2019 Graduate/Postdoctoral Travel Award
· Endocrine-Related Cancer cover image, May 2018 (Volume 25, Issue 5)
· “Highly-read author” - Battaje, R. R., & Panda, D. (2017). Lessons from bacterial homolog of tubulin, FtsZ for microtubule dynamics. Endocrine-Related Cancer, 24(9), T1-T21. https://doi.org/10.1530/ERC-17-0118.