Udipta Bohara

Ph.D., Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (GBCB) , Virginia Tech, 2026 Expected

B.S., Biology, Minor in Mathematics, Hollins University, 2021

August 2022 – December 2023, Graduate Research Assistant, Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech

August 2021 – August 2022, Graduate Research Assistant, GBCB, Virginia Tech

Teaching Assistant for Laboratory of Microbiology, August 2023 – December 2023

Teaching Assistant for Laboratory of Immunology, January 2023 – May 2023

Teaching Assistant for Principles of Biological Sciences Lab, August 2022 – December 2022

Program Focus: I work on producing Mycolic Acid (MA) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in Mycobacterium smegmatis (Msm). I am currently focusing on producing methoxy-MAs in Msm by introducing expression constructs of relevant Mtb genes into Msm using plasmid vectors and to purify methoxy-, hydroxy-, and keto-MAs from new and available recombinant Msm strains as well as a-, a’-, and epoxy-MAs from wild type Msm strain. These MA preparations will be tested for their abilities to prevent immune exhaustion in human.

Veraza RJ, Lopez R, Parry O, Sleeter J, Cano I, Bohara U, Merlo J, Jessop I, Weitzel E, Bunegin L. Proof of concept study for a closed ex vivo limb perfusion system for 24-hour subnormothermic preservation using acellular perfusate. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2022 Aug 1;93(2S Suppl 1):S102-S109. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000003688. Epub 2022 May 23. PMID: 35609333. Paper link: available here.