Academic Credentials:

• Assistant Professor (Feb.2016-Till date): Calcutta University, Kolkata, India
• Postdoc (Apr.2013-Dec.2015): University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (with Prof. Alexander Deiters)  Postdoc (Oct.2009-Jan.2013): University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (with Prof. Andrew Woolley)
• Ph.D. (Aug.2003-Aug.2009): Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), Kanpur, India
• M.Sc. (2000-2002): Calcutta University (Presidency College, Calcutta, India

Teaching:

• Pericyclic Reactions (CHEM-G12)
• Heterocyclic Chemistry (I-III, CHEM-G22 & CHEM-SO41)
• Advanced Organic Synthesis (CHEM-SO43)

Research Interest:

• Light-active small molecules and their applications in biological and material sciences
• Small molecule inhibitors of microRNA
• Organic synthesis

Research Experience:

• Apr, 2013 to Jan, 2016: Postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, Major Topic of Research: Genetical encoding of unnatural amino acids into proteins and microRNA-21 inhibitors for cancer therapeutic development
• Oct, 2009 to Jan, 2013: Postdoctoral research scholar at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Major Topic of Research: Photoswitchable small molecules to reversibly control peptide and protein structures
• Aug, 2003 to Aug, 2009: PhD. at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India, Supervisor: Prof. J. N. Moorthy, Major Topic of Research: Synthetic and mechanistic photochemistry and photochromism

Research Publications:

• “Reversible and Tunable Photoswitching of Protein Function through Genetic Encoding of Azobenzene Amino Acids in Mammalian Cells”- Luo, J.; Samanta, S.; Convertino, M.; Dokholyan, N., V.; Deiters, A. ChemBioChem 2018, 19, 2178-2185. 2
• “Genetic Code Expansion in Zebrafish Embryos and Its Application to Optical Control of Cell Signaling”- Liu, J.; Hemphill, J.; Samanta, S.; Tsang, M.; Deiters, A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 9100-9103.
• “Optical Control of DNA Helicase Function through Genetic Code Expansion” - Luo, J.; Kong, M.; Liu, L.; Samanta, S.; Houten, B. V.; Deiters, A. ChemBioChem 2017, 18, 466–469.
• “Red-Shifting Azobenzene Photoswitches for in Vivo Use”- Dong M, Babalhavaeji A, Samanta S, Beharry AA, Woolley GA. Acc. Chem. Res. 2015, 10, 2662-70.
• “Conditional Control of Alternative Splicing Through Light-Triggered Splice-Switching Oligonucleotides”- Hemphill, J; Liu, Q; Uprety, R; Samanta, S; Tsang, M; Juliano, R; Deiters, A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 3656-3662.