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Neloy Kumar Chakroborty

Also known as: Dr. Neloy Kumar Chakroborty

Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Adamas University, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, University of Calcutta University College of Science Technology and Agriculture

ORCID iD 0000-0001-8616-955X
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About

My academic career has offered me the unique opportunity to learn microbiology, molecular biology, and cognitive neuroscience, which makes me a holistic thinker of scientific problems, helping my knowledge to get translated to various dimensions. I completed my Ph.D. in 'Neurobiology' with Randolf Menzel of Freie Universität Berlin, Germany in 2012, during which I studied the olfactory learning and memory processes in the European honeybee (Apis mellifera).
My research showed that like vertebrates, the gradually increasing group-averaged learning curve does not represent the learning behavior of individual honeybees. Behavioral sequences of individuals are rather characterized by a process of rapid and stable acquisition of learned responses (an all-or-none process) during conditioning, i.e., once animals start or stop responding to a stimulus in a particular conditioning trial, they respectively again respond or do not respond to the same stimulus in the next trial with high probabilities. I explored this issue even further and found that ‘speed of odor learning’ among other behavioral parameters is the best predictor of the overall performance in individual bees, trained in a complex behavioral design. Interestingly, the gene expression study of these animals revealed high correlations between overall performance scores and expression levels of learning-related genes in their brain neuropils, especially in the mushroom body neuropile. In the alley of neurophysiology, in vivo Ca2+ imaging of projection neurons (PNs) in the honeybee brain was performed to examine the effects of adaptation on odor representation. I found that adaptation either increased or decreased the strength of calcium responses of PNs to the test odors as well as either increased or decreased the discriminability between test odor identities in the PN space depending on the identity of the adapting stimulus.
My doctoral and postdoctoral trainings ('Cognitive Neuroscience', using other animal models) have given me the required confidence to stay in academia and it's been more than 5 years that I am teaching and doing my research. Currently, I am working as an Assistant Professor (AP-III) at Thapar University (​Thapar School of Liberal Arts & Sciences), Patiala, India since August 2020. My research group is particularly interested in investigating the toxicity mechanisms of agrochemicals, especially the pesticides in Apis mellifera as well as the possible detoxification pathways elicited by various herbal formulations to ameliorate pesticide-induced toxicity. The long-term goal of the lab also encompasses the investigation to describe the roles of gut microbiota of A. mellifera in manifesting the systemic toxicity mediated by agrochemicals and their possible recovery during the process of detoxification.

Employment

  • Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology Assistant Professor (Senior)
    2020 - Present
  • Adamas University Assistant Professor
    2017 - 2020
  • Indian Statistical Institute Visiting Scientist (Postdoc)
    2015 - 2017
  • National Brain Research Centre Research Associate-I
    2014 - 2015
  • Freie Universität Berlin Visiting Scientist
    2013 - 2013

Education

  • Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Doctor of Natural Sciences
    2008 - 2012
  • University of Calcutta University College of Science Technology and Agriculture Master of Science (M.Sc.)
    2003 - 2005
  • Barrackpore Rastraguru Surendranath College Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)
    2000 - 2003
  • Barrackpore Government High School Higher Secondary (H.S.)
    1996 - 1998
  • Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission Vidyabhawan - Barrackpore Matriculation (Secondary School Final Examination)
    1991 - 1996

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (16)