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Dr Varsha Singh
Assistant Professor

varsha.singh@chitkara.edu.in

Expert Areas : Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Non-communicable diseases, Promoter and regulatory transcriptional elements

Dr. Varsha Singh is presently an Assistant professor from Chitkara University. She has done her Bachelor’s from Kurukshetra University in 2003, Master’s in Biochemistry (Honors) in 2008 and completed a PhD in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry from Panjab University, Chandigarh in 2015.

Dr. Varsha is also the  Founder/Director of faculty-based start-up, incubated at Chitkara Innovation Incubator Foundation, Chitkara University Medzak Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., which recently has been funded by Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG-BIRAC), Govt. of India.

Her academic career spans for over 4.5 years and she has established Centre for Life Sciences, Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics Division at Chitkara University. She has guided one Ph.D. student and presently guiding three Ph.D. students. Her lab focuses on biomarker discovery and network analysis of signaling events in organ cross-talk in non-communicable diseases such as Cardio-Renal and Diabetes/Nephropathy. Her work also focuses on designing machine learning-based algorithms on protein networks. She presently has 3 patents to her credit with one national patent granted. Dr. Varsha was also selected as one of the top 20 delegates from India who presented at the 2nd BRICS Young Scientist forum held at Hangzhou, China.

Dr. Varsha also established her company in the year 2018. Her Delhi based start-up has been funded under the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG)-BIRAC, Govt. of India. Her start-up innovates in portable, cost-effective, handheld medical devices, and presently she is designing an ocular device for rural and semi-urban areas. Her innovations, standing as India’s top 10 finalists, have also been recognized and funded by intel, CII where the batch of young innovators was mentored by CEOs from Silicon Valley. She has also received the prestigious Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award (The GYTI Award) in 2016 for her innovation in neuronal stem cells at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Her innovations have been awarded at various platforms such as the MedTech Challenge at VIT, Vellore, Falling Walls India, Organized by DAAD Germany, and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Govt. of India.

Recently, she has also been awarded the BIRAC-TiE Women Entrepreneur Research Award, March 2020 (WiNER Award).

  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Consulting
  • Awards
  • Patents
  • Education
  • Service
  1. Mohammad Nooruz Zaman, Varsha Singh. Effect of blink rate among Visual display terminals and non-Visual display terminal users. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development. 2019;10
  2. Singh Varsha. Digitized Innovative Solutions to Screen and Diagnose Ocular Health and Thyroid Disorders for the Underserved, 2019, The BRICS Scientist, Science and Technology Papers. 1:1
  3. Zaman Mohammad Nooruz, Singh Varsha. Computer Vision Syndrome in Visual Display Terminal users (VDT), 2018, Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development. 9:12; 1967-71, doi: 10.5958/0976-5506.2018.02278.7
  4. Raj Rani, Varsha Singh, Network-based analysis of inflammatory biomarkers and their role in non-communicable diseases. International Journal of Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences. 5:1, 4-10
  5. Singh, V., & Sherpa, M. (2017). Neuronal-Like Differentiation of Murine Mesenchymal Stem Cell Line: Stimulation by Juglans regia L. Oil. Applied biochemistry and biotechnology, 183(1), 385-395.
  6. Singh, V. (2016). DCoH: A novel biomarker for diagnosing acute kidney injury. Medical hypotheses, 95, 27-30.
  7. Singh, V., & Saluja, N. (2016). Phylogenetic and promoter analysis of islet amyloid polypeptide gene causing type 2 diabetes in mammalian species. International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries, 36(4), 477-489.
  8. Varsha Singh. Poly-cystic Kidney Disease, (2015): A Paradigm in Major Kidney Disorders. Biochem Physiol. 2015;4(161):2.doi.org/10.4172/2168-9652.1000161. REVIEW.
  9. Singh, V., & Panwar, R. (2014). In vivo antioxidative and neuroprotective effect of 4-Allyl-2-methoxyphenol against chlorpyrifos-induced neurotoxicity in rat brain. Molecular and cellular biochemistry, 388(1-2), 61-74.

Field of Specialization: 

  • General skills in research project management and data analysis.
  • Cell and Tissue culture, Gene Cloning, Transformation, Competent cell preparation,DNA/RNA/Plasmid isolations, DNA Transfections, GFP-protein analysis and DAPI staining, Luciferase Reporter assays, ChIP assays, antisense approaches(RNAi),EMSA, RT-PCR, DNA/RNA Gel Electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE electrophoresis,Western Blotting, Site Directed Mutagenesis, Bioinformatics, Computational analysis/Phylogenetic analysis, Signaling and inhibitory studies, Gene Expression Studies, MTT assays, enzyme assays (SGOT, SGPT, ALP, GST, GSH, SOD, GPx,GR, Catalase & Lipid peroxidation).
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biophysical Techniques
  • Cell culture studies
  • DNA-profiling
  • DNA-Protein studies
  • Bioinformatics
  • Phylogenetic analysis
  • Stem cells and Tissue engineering

Young Scientist Awards:

  1. Top 20 in the 2nd BRICS Young Scientist Conclave, 2017, Hangzhou, China.
  2. Travel Award Fellowship supported by UNESCO to 27th FAOBMB Conference & International Meeting-44th MSBMB Conference as Young Scientist applicant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 2019
  3. All IEEE Young Engineer’s Humanitarian (AIYEHUM), Challenge Finalist 2016.
  4. Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award (GYTI) 2016, President’s Estate (Rashtrapati Bhawan), New Delhi.

Entrepreneurial Awards:

  1. Winner of 3rd Edition of BIRAC TiE WInER (Women in Entrepreneurial Research) Award, 2020.
  2. Winner of NOVATE+ Exposition for Innovation, Product development prototype grant, 2019
  3. Winner (2nd Place) MedTech Challenge Entrepreneurship Cell, VITTBI, Vellore, 2019
  4. Top 10 Innovator in Intel-DST Challenge 2.0,Department of Science and Technology, India, 2017
  5. Finalist, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)-8th India Innovation Initiative.

Membership Awards:

  1. Lifetime member: Society of Biological Chemists, India. Member ID: 4213
  2. Full Membership: Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OSWD), Member ID: 7799

Other Awards:

  1. Invited Speaker at 4th Indo-German Convention Lindau Alumni (IGCLA-2018) Meeting at Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal University, Karnataka.
  2. Travel Award Scholarship, Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, 2015 (SB/ITS-Y/05264/2014-2015)
  3. FIRST PRIZE in Oral presentation at 7th Chandigarh Science Congress in Biomedical Sciences category, 2013
  4. FIRST PRIZE in Oral presentation at 43rdIndian Society of Nephrology in “Nephrology in Lab” category, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 2012
  5. United States Presidents’ Award for Service Learning, Chicago, USA 2001-2003
  6. Selected for Summer School Training Program at Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU), Lab Training on Cloning and Isolation of Δ40p53β isoform of p53 Tumor Suppressor gene in pFASTBACHTb shuttle vector (2007)
  7. Highest Team Scorer in US Academic Decathlon 2002, received 13 medals for Speech, Essay Writing, Art, Music and Science, Literature
  8. Chosen as a member of National Honor Society, USA
  9. Awarded Straight A, Perfect Attendance and Honor Roll certificates in high school
  10. Chosen for City level Science Fair competition, Chicago, USA for presenting experiments on Geotropism
  11. 2nd  in presenting Neutrino Seminar organized by Biochemical Association, Kurukshetra University (2004)
  12. 1st in poster presentation representing features of Artificial Heart, organized by Biochemical Association, Kurukshetra University (2005)
  13. Achieved Certificate for Student Science Editor for Kurukshetra University and Panjab University magazines
  • Digital device for measuring thyroid levels in blood and establishing co-relation with thyroid glands malfunction (Patent Filing#201611024911, Date of Filing: 20/07/2016).
  • Multilevel human Simulator based device prediction of type-2 Diabetes(Patent Filing# 201611003236, Date of Filing: 29/01/2016).
  • Neuronal cells produced from Non-Neuronal cell line and method thereof (Patent Filing# 3770/DEL/2015, Date of filling: 18/11/2015)(Won Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award, GYTI 2016, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)-8th India Innovation Initiative, Finalist, 2016.
  • Ph.D. Biochemistry (Spcl. Molecular Biology), Panjab University, Chandigarh
  • Diploma Forensic Science and Criminology, Panjab University Chandigarh,
  • MSc Biochemistry (Honors), Panjab University, Chandigarh
  • BSc Biochemistry, Zoology, and Chemistry, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra

Teaching: July 2015-Present
Research: 6 years


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