June 2023 Spotlight
Dr. Moirangthem Kiran Singh
I am a Research Scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas, USA and working with Prof. Linda J. Kenney. I earned my doctoral degree in 2016 from the School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India under the supervision of Dr. Sobhan Sen. My doctoral research was mainly focused on design and synthesis of suitably tailored fluorescent probes and utilizing them to study depth-dependent static and dynamic properties of lipid/water interfaces and DNA/water interfaces using various spectroscopic and simulation techniques. I extensively worked on Femtosecond Fluorescence Up-conversion, Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) techniques. Molecular dynamics simulations were also performed on lipid and DNA systems, and the results were compared to experiments. Prior to joining Professor Kenney’s lab in Singapore, I worked as research associate at Advance Instrumentation and Research Facility (AIRF), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for a short period, where I built a fully functional Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) set-up from scratch for the use in the central research facility of JNU.
I started my postdoctoral stint at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS, Singapore in 2017, and worked in Professor Linda Kenney's laboratory, where I switched gears and explored signal transduction in bacteria and bacterial pathogenesis using single molecule imaging techniques. During this tenure, I also developed and optimized a genetic code expansion-based platform for labeling and visualization of bacterial secreted effectors and secretion components into host cells. The platform I developed also provides an alternative for labeling proteins which do not tolerate N- or C-terminal tags or fluorophores. In 2019, I moved to the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston to continue my postdoctoral work with Prof. Linda Kenney. In the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, I continue to work on genetic code expansion where we employed genetic code expansion to track the entry and uncoating of ZIKA virus into host cells. Currently, I am working on high-resolution structural re-organization of the bacterial genome and its interplay with signal transduction, in collaboration with Dr. Guy Nir. My research goal is to develop and utilize advanced fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy to understand how bacterial cells sense their environment; how bacterial genomes are organized; what determines genomic structure and how that structure impacts gene expression, lifestyle switches and bacterial pathogenesis. My ultimate career objective is to pursue a career as a professor, and I am actively exploring all possibilities at UTMB to achieve this goal. Specifically, I am actively seeking a faculty position. Outside of lab work, I enjoy running, and I am currently dedicated to improving my fitness. Twitter Handle: @MoKiranS