Dr. Antara Das is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology where she works with Dr. Diane O’Dowd. Antara completed her PhD at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bangalore, India where she investigated how environmental temperature cycles can influence circadian clock neuronal circuit via heat-sensitive TRPA1 ion channels in genetically tractable fruitflies, drosophila melanogaster.
She arrived at UCI in August 2016 and now studies sodium ion channel associated genetic epilepsy models in mice using behavioural assays and physiology. In particular, she is studying a seizure disorder known as GEFS+ which causes fever-induced (febrile) seizures in early childhood, persists in adults and can result in generalized seizures in later life. Her work focuses on understanding the cellular mechanism of sodium channel mutations in seizure development, i.e. to join the dots from how a mutation in a sodium ion channel modifies neuronal firing and causes hyper-excitation in the brain leading to seizures. In collaboration with Dr. Robert Hunt (Anatomy and Neurobiology), Antara is evaluating seizure load and cognition deficits in mice models via EEG (electroencephalogram) and behavior assays. To dissect the underlying mechanism, she is examining sodium channel function and neuronal firing properties via electrophysiological approaches. Antara won third place for her research talk at our Fall UCI Postdoctoral Research Symposium.