Pallabi Sengupta is a Cancerfonden post-doctoral fellow in Nasim Sabouri's research group. She investigates the structural organization and biological implications of i-motif DNA in the cells.
Pallabi Sengupta completed her PhD at Bose Institute in India in 2021. Her doctoral investigations centered on exploring the structural properties of G-Quadruplex (G4) nucleic acids present in the promoter regions of oncogenes and long non-coding genes. She elucidated the intricate cross-talk between G4s and various transcription factors, shedding light on their pivotal roles in regulating cellular homeostasis and crucial processes such as apoptosis, cancer stemness, and metastasis. Notably, her PhD work underscored the structural prerequisites of G4s, unraveling the key determinants that govern the interaction between ligands and target G4s—a fundamental aspect for designing successful drug strategies.
Following the completion of her doctoral degree, Pallabi joined the research group led by Dr. Nasim Sabouri as a Wenner-Gren postdoctoral fellow in November 2021. Building upon the foundation laid during her PhD, her current post-doctoral research revolves around unraveling the structural organization of intercalated-motifs (i-motif), a relatively nascent secondary DNA structure that manifests in the complementary strand of G4-forming domains. In her ongoing project, Pallabi investigates the structural properties and spatiotemporal dynamics of i-motif DNA in conjunction with their G4 partners. Given the infancy of i-motif DNA in the field of nucleic acid research, she is involved in developing and refining methodologies to discern the physiological factors driving their formation in vivo, as well as identifying the proteins that regulate their cellular dynamics.
In 2023, she received a prestigious postdoctoral grant from Cancerfonden to continue her research on i-motif and its relation with cancer.