Immunology (Autoimmunity)

• PhD , 2011 , National Institute of Immunology
• M.Sc , 2005 , Hansraj College
• B.Sc , 2003 , Hansraj College

• Assistant Professor in Department of Zoology, Hanraj College from 21st July 2011 till date.
• Working as Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Hematologic Malignancies special section in Frontiers in Oncology.
• Working as an Academic Counselor for BSC programme for courses LSE5, LSE6, LSE7, LSE8L, LSE9, LSE10, LSE11L, FST1 in Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
• Worked as Research Associate in a project entitled “Generation and characteristics of apoptotic-cells specific antibodies” under the guidance of Dr. Rahul Pal in National Institute of Immunology (NII) from 1st  April 2011 to 20th July 2011.
• Awarded Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India from 2005-2011.
• Passed the joint CSIR-UGC Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Eligibility for Lectureship-National Eligibility Test (NET) held on 27th June 2004 and 19th Dec 2004.
• Short-listed for Shayama Prasad Mukherjee (SPM) fellowship written test in 2005.
• Elected in position of RSH (Research Scholar Home) Secretary in National Institute of Immunology (NII) for the year 2008.

Genetics and Genomics

Biotechnology

Molecular Biology

Cell Biology

Immunology

Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

• Guidance to two B.Sc (Zoology) Hons students in work entitled “Phylogenetic basics and Interference” in December 2020.
• Guidance to B.Sc (Life Science) student in project entitled “Role of non-coding RNAs during dengue infection” from March to June 2020.
• Guidance to B.Sc (Life Science) student  in project entitled “In-silico analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes” from March  to June 2020
• Guidance as Mentor to a post-graduate student named Garima Hooda in summer project entitled “Meta-analysis of publicly available HIV-1 studies” from 20th May to 20th July 2019.
• Guidance as Mentor to three B.Sc (Zoology) Hons students in short term research project “Data mining for antiviral database” from December 2017 to March 201

• Guidance as Mentor to three B.Sc (Zoology) Hons students in short term research project “Phylogenetic analysis of Zika virus from North and South America” from December 2016 to March 2017. 

• Successfully completed Innovation project for the year 2015-16 (HRC-308) entitled “Engineered Biocompatible Organic Nano Architectures: A New Paradigm for Disinfections” funded by Research Council, University of Delhi.
• Guidance as Mentor to three B.Sc (Zoology) Hons students in innovation project “Engineered Biocompatible Organic Nano Architectures: A New Paradigm for Disinfections"

Course Co-coordinator

• Worked as a Course Coordinator in the smooth conduct of add-on certificate course in Python Programming for Biology from 20th January 2023 to 18th March 2023.
• Worked as a Course Coordinator in the smooth conduct of add-on certificate course in Machine Learning for Physical Sciences from 6th January 2022 to 18th February 2022.
• Worked as a Course Coordinator in the smooth conduct of add-on certificate course in Innovation, IPR, Start-up and Entrepreneurship (CIISE) from 10th July 2021 to 12th September 2021.
• Worked as a Co-coordinator in the smooth conduct of a two-week add-on course on “Introduction to Machine Learning for Zoology” from 10th July to  24th July 2020 organized under the aegis of Student Learning Centre, IQAC Hansraj College. 

Course Convener

• Worked as a Convener for two weeks online Faculty Development Programme on Introduction to Python Programming (for non-computer Science Faculty and researchers)  from 8th August 2022 to 19th August 2022 in association with Delhi Effective Education & Pedagogy Cluster (DEEP-C).
• Worked as a Convener for one week online Faculty Development Programme on "Intellectual Property Rights" from 10th February 2021 to 17th February 2021.

At Department level

• Convener, Academic audit  (2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21,2021-22,2022-23)
• Member, Library committee (2019-20, 2020-21,2022-23).
• Society-In-Charge in the Zoology Society (2016-17, 2017-18)
• Society Advisor in the Zoology Society (2012-13, 2013-14)
• Convener, one day Hands-On workshop on “Python for Biology” on 7th September 2019 for undergraduate students of Zoology/Botany and life Science courses.

At College level

• Member UGC-Paramarsh Scheme (2019-20, 2020-21)
• Member, Academic audit Committee (2019-20, 2020-21,2021-22)
• Member, Time-Table Committee (2020-21)
• Member, Enactus Committee (2019-20, 2020-21)
• Member, Student Learning Centre (2019-20, 2020-21)
• Member, College Mentorship Committee (2018-19, 2019-20)
• Member, Portal Committee (2019-20)
• Member, Equal Opportunity Cell (2021-22,2022-23)
• Editorial team, HansShodhSudha College inter-disciplinary research Journal(July 2020).

Other Administrative Assignments:

• Worked as an organizer in seven days webinar Series on “NAAC’s Assessment criteria for Accreditation” held from 26th September to 2nd October 2020 organized by UGC-Paramarsh Scheme in association with Internal Quality Assurance Cell.
• Worked as an organizer in the smooth conduct of webinar on “Open Book Examinations:  Issues and Solutions” on 23rd and 24th June 2020 organized under the aegis of Student Learning Centre, IQAC Hansraj College. 
• Worked as an organizer in a webinar on “Basic Documentation for Teachers” held 22nd June 2020 organized by UGC-Paramarsh Scheme in association with Internal Quality Assurance Cell.
• Worked as an organizer in seven days webinar Series on “NAAC’s Assessment criteria for Accreditation” held from 8th June to 14th June 2020 organized by UGC-Paramarsh Scheme in association with Internal Quality Assurance Cell.
• Worked as an organizer in five days webinar Series on “Quality Assurance in higher education – Practices and issues” held from 4th May to 8th May organized by UGC-Paramarsh Scheme in association with Internal Quality Assurance Cell.
• Worked as an organizer in National Leadership Summit on “Excellence in Higher Education: Current Challenges and the Road Ahead” organized by Mahatma Hansraj Faculty Development Centre and Internal Quality Assurance Cell on 6th and 7th December 2019.
• Worked as an organizer in National Seminar on "National Seminar on Draft New Education Policy 2019" organized by Mahatma Hansraj Faculty Development Centre and Internal Quality Assurance Cell on 10th August 2019.
• Worked as organizer in Faculty Development Programme on “Agriculture, Health and Society” held from 15 March to 16th March 2019 organized by Mahatma Hansraj Faculty Development Centre, Hansraj College, University of Delhi.
• Actively participated in organizing a seminar on “Management Skills in office Administration – Practices and Advances” from 22nd November to 23rd November 2016 under the ages of Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) Hansraj College.
• Worked as co-coordinator on the occasion of “Birth Anniversary of Swami Dayanand Saraswati” on 14 February 2016 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium organized by DAV College Managing Committee.
• Worked as volunteer in “India International Science Festival” organized by Vigyan Bharti and DST from 4-8 December 2015 held at IIT Delhi.

• Organizer for seminar on “Management Skills in office Administration – Practices and Advances” from 22nd November to 23rd November 2016 under the ages of Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) Hansraj College.
• Worked as organizer on the occasion of “Birth Anniversary of Swami Dayanand Saraswati” on 14 February 2016 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium organized by DAV College Managing Committee.

Successfully submitted thesis on "Investigations of Anti-self and Anti-anti-Self Autoreactive Antibodies in Systemic Autoimmunity" under the guidance of Dr. Rahul Pal in National Institute of Immunology, JNU in the year 2011.

2020-21

• Identification and characterisation of highly conserved motifs in spike protein of SARS-CoV 2
• Utilizing novel computational approaches  to unfold biological intricacies.

2019-20

• project entitled “Role of non-coding RNAs during dengue infection”.
• project entitled “In-silico analysis of SARS-CoV 2 genomes”.

2018-19

• summer project entitled “Meta-analysis of publicly available HIV-1 studies”.

2017-18

• short term research project “Data mining for antiviral database”.

2016-17

• short term research project “Phylogenetic analysis of Zika virus from North and South America”. 

2015-16

• for the year 2015-16 (HRC-308) entitled “Engineered Biocompatible Organic Nano Architectures: A New Paradigm for Disinfections” funded by Research Council, University of Delhi.

Book Published

• Co-authored a book “Biology Programme for S5” for upper higher secondary schools. Khosla Publishing House, New Delhi, 2016 (ISBN number: 978-93-83996-88-9)
• Able Huten and Pooja Arora. Concise Ecology. Khosla Publishing House, New Delhi, 2014 (ISBN No. 978-93-83996-29-2)

Book Chapter

• Written chapters on “T-cell development” and “T-cell Activation” for E-Pathshala for Post Graduate Courses - An MHRD Project under its National Mission on Education through ICT (NME-ICT), Govt. of India.
• G P Talwar, Hemant Kumar Vyas, Rafi Shiraz Kabeer, Rita Singh, Rahul Pal, Ram A Vishwakarma, Shilpi Purswani, Pooja Arora, Prem Chopra, Lalit Kumar, Ritu Gupta. Targeted therapy of β-hCG expressing cancers. Treatment of Advance Stage Cancer: Current Status and Emerging Frontiers. Edited by Talwar GP, Sood OP. Published by Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi, 2009, pp 90-95.  ISBN Number 8173199329

• Arora P*., Periwal N., Goyal Y., Sood V and Kaur B*. iIL13Pred: Improved prediction of IL-13 inducing peptides using popular machine learning classifiers. Manuscript accepted BMC Bioinformatics. *Corresponding author
• Periwal N., Bhardwaj U., Sarma S., Arora P and Sood V*. In-silico analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes: Insights from SARS encoded non-coding RNAs.. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Nov 28;12:966870.
• Rajput R., Periwal N., Mukherjee C., Verma P., Sharma J., Kaur B., Arora P., and Sood V*. Valuable insights into host response to Japanese Encephalitis Virus infection: Reanalysis of public transcriptome and microRNAome datasets. Virus Res. 2022 Aug 8;320:198887.
• Periwal N., Rathod S.B., Sarma S., Singh G., Jain A., Barnwal R.P., Srivastava K.R., Kaur B., Arora P. and Sood V*. Time series analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes and correlations among highly prevalent mutations. Microbiology Spectrum 2022 Sept. 7:e0121922.
• Periwal N., Sharma P., Arora P., Pandey S., Kaur B and Sood V*. A novel binary k-mer approach for classification of coding and non-coding RNAs across diverse species. Biochimie 2022 Apr 25;199:112-22.
• Lata S., Mishra R., Ravi A., Arora P., Lahon A., Banerjea AC and Sood V*. Where All the Roads Meet?  A Cross Over Perspective on Host Factors Regulating SARS-CoV-2 infection. J Mol Biol. Biology 2021 Dec 13;434(5):167403.
• Sharma J., Rajput R., Bhatia M., Arora P and Sood V (2021). Clinical Predictors of COVID-19 Severity and Mortality: A Perspective. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. Oct 25;11:674277.
• S Sarma , A Singh , P Arora Potential Therapeutics against COVID-19 HansShodhSudha  2021 October; 2:5-17
• Periwal N., Rathod SB., Pal R., Sharma P., Nebhnani L., Barnwal RP., Arora P., Srivastava KR and Sood V*. In silico characterization of mutations circulating in SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins.  Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics 2021 April 2:1-16.
• Rajput R., Sharma J., Nair M.T., Khanna M, Arora P. and Sood V*. Regulation of host innate immunity by non-coding RNAs during Dengue virus infection. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 2020 10:588168. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.588168.
• R Madan, P Arora. Unmasking Host Cell Responses in Severe Dengue Pathogenesis. HansShodhSudha  2020 September; 1:100-109. 
• Arora P., Malik M., Sachdeva R., Sharma L., Das J.,Ramachandran V.G. and Pal R. Innate and humoral recognition of the products of cell death: Differential antigenecity and immunogenecity in lupus. Clinical and Experimental Immunology.2017 Mar;187(3):353-368. PMID 27783388.
• Malik M., Arora P., Sachdeva R., Sharma L., Ramachandran V.G. and Pal R. Elucidation of the potential disease-promoting influence of IgM apoptotic cell-reactive antibodies in lupus. Lupus (9th Jan 2016) 25, 684-698 PMID: 26743320
• Das J., Arora P., Gracias D., Praveen A., Raj B.P., Martin E, Pal R. Endogenous humoral autoreactive immune responses to apoptotic cells: Effects on phagocytic uptake, chemotactic migration and antigenic spread. European Journal of Immunology, 38: 3561-3574, 2008 PMID: 19016523

Acadesmic session 2019-20

• Participated in the International Summit on "Women in STEM – Visualizing the Future: New Skylines" held on 23-24 January, 2020 organized by Department of Biotechnology, India.

Academic Session 2017-18

• Presented a poster in the international conference INSCR on theme “Role of Microbe-Plant-Animal Interactions in Human Health” held on 27th September to 28th September 2017.

Academic Session 2016-17

• Presented poster entitled “Phylogenetic Analysis of Zika Virus from North and South America” in 5th Molecular Virology Meeting held at Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad from 11-12 February 2017.

Academic Session 2015-16

• Actively participated in India International Science festival from 4th December to 8th December 2015 jointly organized by department of science and technology, TIFAC and Vigyan Bharati in IIT Delhi.
• Attended Conference on “Role of Technical Terminology in Higher Studies” organized by Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology at Hansraj College, University of Delhi from 23-24 July 2015.

Academic Session 2012-13

• Participated in symposium entitled: Ramachandran Manifestation : From Peptide to Proteome" on 14-15 March 2013 jointly organised by Department of Biochemistry, Sri Venkateswara College and Department of Biochemistry, University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC).

• Worked as resource person and presented a talk on “Animal cell culture” in Add-On Course organized by Swami Shraddhanand College, University of Delhi on “Culture Techniques in Biology” from 23rd March- 2nd April, 2015.

Acadesmic session 2019-20

• Participated in workshop on “Online Basic Training on Use of ICT in Teaching” organized by Teaching Learning Centre, Tezpur University under the scheme Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching held on 20 and 23 April 2020.

Acadesmic session 2018-19

• Participated in “Bioinformatics Workshop on Genomics, Proteomics, Drug Design and High-Performance Computing” held under the aegis of Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer from 28th May 2019 to 3rd June 2019 at the Supercomputing Facility for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (SCFBio), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
• Participated in one day “National workshop on Voice culture and Voice Modulation” organized by and held at Guru Angad Dev Teaching Learning Centre of MHRD, SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi on 7th March 2019.
• Participated in seven day “National workshop on Introduction to ICT tools” organized by and held at Guru Angad Dev Teaching Learning Centre of MHRD, SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi from 2nd July to 9th July 2018.

Academic Session 2017-18

• Presented a poster in the international conference INSCR on theme “Role of Microbe-    Plant-Animal Interactions in Human Health” held on 27-28 September 2017.
• Participated in the Faculty training workshop on “Introduction to Scilab” organized by Department of Physics and Electronics, Hansraj College, University of Delhi on 22-23 September 2017.

Academic Session 2016-17

• Presented poster entitled “Phylogenetic Analysis of Zika Virus from North and South America” in 5th Molecular Virology Meeting held at Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad from 11-12 February 2017.
• Actively participated in the “STEM Teacher Training Workshop on Research Based Pedagogical Tools” held at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali from 23-25 January 2017.
• Actively participated in the training workshop on “Drosophila and Zebra Fish Model Systems” organized by department of Biochemistry and Zoology, Daulat Ram College from 19-21 December 2016.
• Actively participated in the six day workshop on “Hands on training in Basic Techniques in Genomics and Proteomics” at Department of Biotechnology, St. Edmund’s College, Shillong, held from 20-26 September 2016.

Academic Session 2015-16

• Actively participated in two-day workshop on “Bioinformatics and Biostatistics” held on 25-26 February 2016 organized by Miranda House College, University of Delhi.
• Actively participated in Indo-Portuguese workshop on emerging trends of Nanotechnology in chemistry and biology held from 12-13 February 2016 organized by chemistry department Hansraj College and Deshbandhu College.
• Actively participated in a science-setu workshop on “DNA Fingerprinting” on 22nd January 2016 organized by our College in association with National Institute of Immunology and other north campus undergraduate Colleges.
• Actively participated in India International Science festival from 4th December to 8th December 2015 jointly organized by department of science and technology, TIFAC and Vigyan Bharati in IIT Delhi.
• Attended Conference on “Role of Technical Terminology in Higher Studies” organized by Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology at Hansraj College, University of Delhi from 23-24 July 2015.

Academic Session 2014-15

• Actively Participated in a Single day workshop on “Biochemistry of Metabolic Processes” held on 2nd February 2015 in Kirori Mal College organized by Zoology department, Delhi University.

Academic Session 2013-14

• Participated in hands on training workshop on “Applied Genomics and Proteomics” organized by Deshbandhu College from 12-14 March 2014 and her group was chosen as best team for their sincerity and inquisitiveness.

Academic Session 2012-13

• Participated in workshop "Biotechniques in Biotechnology" held on 9-12 January 2013 in Miranda House College jointly organized by Institute of Life-Long Learning (ILLL) and Miranda House College, University of Delhi.

Academic Session 2011-12

• Participated in workshop in Immunology “IMMUNIS” held from 14-18 May 2012 at Department of Biochemistry in Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi.
• Participated in 2nd training workshop in Drosophila Genetics held from 28-29th January 2012 at Department of Zoology, University of Delhi.

Resource Person

Academic Session 2022-23

• Worked as Resource Person in an add-on certificate course in Python Programming for Biology from 20th January 2023 to 18th March 2023.
• Worked as Resource Person in 3rd workshop on Hands-on Training workshop on Python for Biology & its practical approaches held from 9th January to 13th January 2023 at CIIDRET premises in association with Hansraj College. 

Academic Session 2021-22

• Worked as a resource person in workshop Python for Biology in 6th International Indian Network for Soil Contamination Research (INSCR) 2021 on “Microbes in Sustainable Development”.

Academic Session 2020-21

• Worked as Resource Person for the online workshop entitled “Development of Audio/Video resources based on laboratory manual in Biology at Higher Secondary Stage (Class XII)” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics,National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi from 15th December to 17th December 2020.
• Worked as Resource Person for the online workshop entitled “Development of Audio/Video resources based on laboratory manual in Biology at Higher Secondary Stage (Class XII)” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics,National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi on 17th November 2020.
• Worked as Resource Person for the online workshop entitled “Development of Audio/Video resources based on laboratory manual in Biology at Higher Secondary Stage (Class XII)” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics,National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi on 1st October 2020.

Academic Session 2019-20

• Worked as Resource Person for the workshop entitled “Development of Audio/Video scripts of Biology Modules at Higher Secondary Stage (Class XI and XII)” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics,National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi from 30th December to 3rd January 2020.
• Worked as Resource Person for the workshop entitled “Development of Audio/Video scripts of Biology Modules at Higher Secondary Stage (Class XI and XII)” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics,National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi from 8th July to 12th July 2019.

Academic Session 2018-19

• Worked as Resource Person for the workshop entitled “Development of guidelines for mentoring of Schools by Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) under Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics,National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi from 25th to 28th March 2019.
• Worked as Resource Person for the workshop entitled “Development of guidelines for mentoring of Schools by Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) under Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics, National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi from 18th to 20th March 2019.
• Worked as Resource Person for the workshop entitled “Identification, validation and finalization of QR codes for Science Textbook of class VIII” organized by Department of Education in Science & Mathematics, National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) New Delhi from 27th Feb to 1st March 2019.

Academic Session 2017-18

• Worked as Resource Person and Member of Organizing Committee in the INSPIRE Programme (DST) held at Hansraj College, University of Delhi from 12th December 2017 to 16th December 2017.

Academic Session 2015-16

• Associated as jury member for INSPIRE award National Level Exhibition and Project Competition (NLEPC-2015) organized by Department of Science and Technology on 6th December and 7th December 2015.

Academic Session 2014-15

• Worked as resource person and presented a talk on “Animal cell culture” in Add-On Course organized by Swami Shraddhanand College, University of Delhi on “Culture Techniques in Biology” from 23rd March- 2nd April, 2015.

Academic Session 2012-13

• Worked as resource person in “DST INSPIRE Internship Programme-2012” organized by Hansraj College, from 17-21st December 2012.