Meet our team!
Dr. Shweta Patil
Dr. Shweta Patil joined Prof. Gross research group in February 2023 as a Post-doctoral research associate. Before joining the group, she was associated with an industry Advanced Enzymes Technologies ltd as Fermentation Scientist since July 2020. She Received her PhD (Tech) in Bioprocess Technology from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai in March 2022. Before joining for doctoral research, she was holding a Research Scientist B position (2010 – 2014) in flavor and fragrance Industry Privi Organics ltd, Navi Mumbai. She has total of 6 years of industrial experience in fermentation and being a major contributor of 1 granted US and Europe patent from one of her Industrial tenures. In Gross group she would be working on core fermentation strategies for different biomolecules as well as PET degradation using enzymes.
Dr. Ashmeet Singh
Dr. Ashmeet Singh joined Prof. Gross’s research family at RPI as a Post-doctoral fellow in June 2022. Taking a look at his educational background, he received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry (H) from SGTB Khalsa College (2011) and Master’s degree in Chemistry from Hindu College (2013), University of Delhi. Dr. Singh completed his Doctoral degree in Chemical Sciences (2020) from Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) Mohali, and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali (IISERM), Punjab, India. Subsequently, he joined Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea as a Post-doctoral research fellow (2021-22). Currently, he is engaged in an RPI-Industry project for encapsulating flavor ingredients using peptides. The last 8 years have seen him developing expertise in short peptide-based self-assembly towards structural control, self-healing hydrogels, artificial enzymes, functional inorganic-organic hybrids, the role of microfluidics in dictating the self-assembly process, and peptide-microalgae drug delivery systems, etc. His research findings have been published in various international journals of repute such as Angewandte Chemie, Chemistry of Materials, Applied Materials and Interfaces, Nanoscale, Chemical Communications, etc comprising a total impact factor ~120.
Dr. Anarul Hoque
Anarul joined the group as a postdoctoral research associate in April 2021. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2017, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), Shanghai, China. After graduation, he obtained a postdoctoral innovative talent scholarship (Nov 2017-Oct 2019), SJTU, China.
His Ph.D. research interest is centered on the development of a novel strategy for enzyme active site loop engineering by insertion/deletion. He developed a method “Stepwise loop insertion strategy (StLois)” in which random residue pairs are introduced in a stepwise manner, efficiently collating mutational fitness effects on active-site loops, ACS Chemical Biology, 12(5), 1188-1193 (2017). He has experience in multiple protein expression in E. coli and yeast cells and in designing synthetic gene circuits for biosensing purposes.
In the Gross group, his research focuses on proteolytic enzyme engineering and expression for peptide synthesis.
Location: CBIS 4141
Recent Graduate Student Alumni
Dr. Gayathri Subramanian, July 2023
Dr. Sarah P. Black, July 2023
Dr. Rebecca T. Miceli, June 2023
Dr. Cody Edson, Aug 2022
Dr. Anna-Christina Amason, Dec 2021
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Dr. Filbert Totsingan
Dr. Totsingan received his Master degree in Industrial Chemistry cum laude (2004) and his PhD in Organic Chemistry (2008) from the University of Parma (Italy) focusing on designing new probes (peptide nucleic acids, PNAs) for nucleic acid recognition. After spending a year (2008-2009) at NYU-Poly as postdoc working with Prof. Mark Green on amplification of chirality in PNAs, he moved to NYU-Chemistry where he spent 5 years on designing new antimicrobial peptides against multidrug-resistant bacteria. He joined Prof. Gross group at RPI in March 2014.
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Location: Cogswell 209C
Kavita Ramnath
3rd Year Graduate Student
Kavita joined the group in fall 2020 She received her B.S. in biochemistry and minor in environmental engineering from UCLA in 2018, and did research in metabolic engineering for biofuels production at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO before coming to RPI. In the Gross group, Kavita is engineering an enzyme to depolymerize poly(ethylene-terephthalate) plastic.
Location: CBIS 4143
Martins Iji
2nd Year Graduate Student
Martins is a doctoral student in Prof. Gross' research lab, joining in 2023. He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial chemistry, which he obtained in 2012 from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Nigeria. Building upon this, Martins earned a master’s degree in Polymer Science and Technology from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria in 2021.
Before joining Prof. Gross' research lab, Martins worked as an assistant lecturer at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria where he contributed to the development of novel polymer materials for industrial applications.
In Prof. Gross' research group, Martins is carrying out research in the field of biocatalysis and functional materials. He is exploring protease-catalyzed synthesis of peptide materials for potential application in tissue engineering.
Location: Cogswell 308
Evan O'Berg
Undergraduate Researcher
Evan O'Berg is a senior BCBP major, after graduation he is hoping to go into medical school as well as join the armed forces. Here at RPI besides research, he runs varsity track and field as a sprinter, he is a member of Global Medical Brigade, and does photography for RPI Athletics. Evan works with Cody Edson.