

I got my PhD in Biochemistry from the National Institute of Immunology at New Delhi (India). My thesis was about delineating the biochemical properties of sickle cell haemoglobin in a specific context. Subsequently, I joined the Fink lab at University of California in Santa Cruz (UCSC, USA) as a postdoctoral fellow where we were characterizing α-synluclein’s role in Parkinson’s disease. An unplanned set of events led me to my current field of Astrobiology. My love for this field was nurtured at the Deamer lab in UCSC. I finished my postdoctoral stint with a post doc at the FAS Center for Systems Biology at Harvard (Cambridge, USA) prior to joining IISER Pune in 2012. In our lab, we are working to help discern the series of events that might have led to the origin and evolution of early life on prebiotic Earth.
Principal Investigator
Prof. Sudha Rajamani
Current Lab Members

Souradeep Das
Graduate student
I completed my bachelors from University of Calcutta and masters from Maulana Azad College, under University of Calcutta, both degrees are in zoology. Now, I became a member of COoL Lab family at IISER, Pune in the new year of 2020. I am interested in understanding, functionalization and evolution of protocell membranes, towards transition from non-living to living chemical systems.

Abhishek Barua
Graduate student
After earning my Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Microbiology from the University of Calcutta and my Master's in Chemical and Molecular Biology from IIT Kharagpur, I became part of the Cool lab to engage in intriguing research on the origin of life.

Rashi Raj
Graduate student
Fascinated by the universe's refusal to make sense, I earned my B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Life Sciences from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, and NIT Rourkela. Since August 2024, I've been exploring how RNA monomers might have shielded themselves from Earth's volatile environment to form structures that sparked life. When not unraveling life's origins, I immerse myself in creative arts and recharge myself by feeding my brain the most unhinged ideas from fantasy novels.

Raya Roy
Graduate student
For PhD, IISER Pune seemed the best fit for me and thus have joined the COoL lab as a PhD grad student in Jan 2021. I am primarily interested in understanding the role amino acids and peptides might have played in the early evolution of life. In this regard, I am currently trying to understand how amino acid and nucleotides might have reacted in a one pot experiment and how this could have led to the modern-day emergent properties such as translation.

Krishnapriya Yadav
Graduate student
I have completed my BSc in Chemistry and MSc in Organic Chemistry from Nowrosjee Wadia College, Pune University. I am now associated with the COoL lab due to a collaboration project between Dr. Smita and Dr. Sudha that was made possible by SERB-TARE.

Sadhana P Yelamali
Graduate Student
I am an M.Sc. Organic Chemistry graduate from St Joseph's university, Bengaluru. At COol lab, I am working on a project pertaining to Synthesis and characterization of nucleolipids using canonical and non-canonical nucleobases. After synthesis, we aim to characterize supramolecular assemblies these molecules form using various techniques. Besides work, I like meditating, gardening, dancing and mumma's rasam rice!

Udita Bandyopadhyay
Graduate student
I have completed my Master’s in Zoology from Maulana Azad College, affiliated to The University Of Calcutta. I joined the COoL lab in January 2023. I am very enthusiastic about the translational approach of prebiotic chemistry towards synthetic biology. I am trying to understand how non-enzymatic template-directed replication may have happened in the prebiotic milieu. Apart from academics, I love trekking, listening to music, singing, and maybe cooking!!!

Daksh Barad
Graduate student
I have completed my BSc in biotechnology from St. Xavier's college Ahmedabad, joined IISER Pune as an Int-PhD student in August 2023. At COoL Lab I am working on carrying out the chemical reactions involved in extant biology translation but in a prebiotic context.

Aditi Dudhane
Project Assistant
I hold a Master’s degree in Astrobiology and Space Science, with a current research focus on prebiotically relevant reactions in natural waters from planetary analog sites. Additionally, driven by the question "What Is Life?", I am interested in understanding how life emerged and sustained itself under non-equilibrium conditions as a complex dissipative system, and how early Earth geochemistry may have played a role in these processes. I also enjoy communicating science with a wider audience, especially making astrobiology and amateur astronomy fun and welcoming for everyone.
Alumni

Dr. Niraja Bapat
Current position: DST-WOSA, University of Hyderabad.

Dr. Manesh Prakash Joshi
Current position: Scientist at CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad

Dr. Chaitanya Mungi
Current position: Project Coordinator, STEM Ready Project, SAC, IISER Pune.

Dr. Anupam Sawant
Ex-PostDoc
Current position: Director of Chemhelix pvt. ltd.

Dr. Sikha
Dagar
Currently Post-doc at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Gauri Patki
Ex-Graduate student

Dr. Susovan Sarkar
Currently Post-doc at University of Texas at Austin.
