Prinicipal Investigator
Dr. Sunita Ghimire Gautam is a Principal Investigator in the Department of Biomedicine and Translational Research at Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology (RIBB), Kathmandu, Nepal. She has received the prestigious OWSD Early Career Fellowship 2024 to conduct her research on the development of snake antivenom to benefit local Nepalese communities. She was also honored with a young scientist award by Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) in 2020 for her excellent contribution in S&T research and development in Nepal. She was the recipient of Return Home Fellowship 2019 by International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) to set up her research lab at Department of Biotechnology in Kathmandu University.She is a highly skilled molecular biologist with a strong background in gene editing and Adeno Associated Virus production. She completed her Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Molecular Biotechnology from Saitama University, Japan. After PhD, she worked as Research Scientist at Center for Brain Science in RIKEN, Japan. She took on the challenge of generating a conditional knock-out mouse, using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology that was cutting edge at the time. Before that, she worked as a Researcher at Saitama University, where she focused on the development of drug seeds against Alzheimer’s disease.
- Astrocyte GluN2C NMDA receptors control basal synaptic strengths of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons in the stratum radiatum
- DNA-based mutation assay GPMA (genome profiling-based mutation assay): reproducibility, parts-per-billion scale sensitivity, and introduction of a mammalian-cell-based approach
- Astrocytes regulate heterogeneity of presynaptic strengths in hippocampal networks
- Strong Inhibition of Beta-Amyloid Peptide Aggregation Realized by Two-Steps Evolved Peptides
- Peptide-Modulated Activity Enhancement of Acidic Protease Cathepsin E at Neutral pH
- Exploration of fluorescent protein voltage probes based on circularly permuted fluorescent proteins
- April 2023 - Present: Principal Investigator, Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology (RIBB), Kathmandu, Nepal
- April 2023 - Present: Chairperson and Chief Technical Officer, Novala Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Kathmandu, Nepal
- March 2019 - Present: Research and Development Manager, Shikhar Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Lalitpur, Nepal
- February 2019 - January 2021: Postdoctoral Research fellow (under IBRO return home fellowship), Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal