Devika sirohi biography

Left to right: Thomas Klose, Colton Forrest, Shishir Poudyal, Richard Kuhn, Jerry Kovey, Abayomi Adegboyega, Chloe Lee, Xueyong Xu, Jacqueline Anderson, Andrei Fokin, Geeta Buda, Abhishek Bandyopadhyay, Mercy Orukpe Moses, Sherik-fa Anang, Eduardo Suarez Lopez, Melanie Lindsay, Kyra Forsyth, Ryan Peters, Venkat Are, and Devika Sirohi.

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11-18-2016

Devika Sirohi was invited to serve as the 2017 Trainee Councilor for the American Committee on Arthropod-Borne Viruses a division of the American Society for Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. She was also awarded a travel award for the ASTMH annual meeting, which she just attended along with about 4,000 other scientists, clinicians, and others. There she presented two invited talks on her research.

“The ACAV executive council chooses a Trainee Councilor from the pool of travel award winners.  The Trainee Councilor attends ACAV and ASTMH council meetings, participates in ACAV decisions, and prepares and implements student training and mentorship activities.  The term of the position is one year, although in practice Trainee Councilors are asked to attend meetings at the start and end of their terms.  The  ultimate goal is to create a pool of talented junior researchers who will eventually take positions of leadership in ACAV and ASTMH.

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Devika Sirohi, 29, a doctoral student at Purdue University in the United States, is the youngest member of a team of seven researchers which has, for the first time, determined the structure of the Zika virus. The breakthrough is revealing insights crucial for the development of effective treatments for the deadly disease.

Sirohi, born and brought up in Meerut, spoke to TOI about the intense work that lay behind the breakthrough. "It took us four months to identify the structure of the virus. Out of the seven-member team, three were professors and four students, including me. During the period of the research, we barely slept for two to three hours a day, but our hard work finally paid off. This discovery will help doctors and researchers to find a cure for the deadly disease that has been reported in 33 countries," she said.

Determining the structure of the virus was a major hurdle for researchers, and the team's find, Sirohi said, would now make it possible to create effective anti-viral treatments and vaccines. The seven-member team included Sirohi, postdoctoral research associates Zhenguo Chen, Lei Sun and Thomas Klose; biological sciences professor Michael G Rossmann, Purdue Institute for Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Diseases director Richard J Kuhn, and Theodore C Pierson, chief of the viral pathogenesis section of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"When I first arrived in the US, I never expected to achieve this much. It has been five years now since I started my doctoral research and I will submit my thesis by the end of this year. The entire journey of discovering the structure of Zika was full of challenges, but all is well that ends well. Now that the structure has been determined, it will be easier to research further and combat the spread of the disease," said Sirohi, based in West Lafayette near Chicago and pursuing PhD in 'Structure and Matur

The deadly wrath of Zika might soon be at rest and more treatments could be pouring in to cure it and more methods at its way to control its spread. It could be achieved now as the most gruelling task of decoding the entire structure of the virus has been achieved by a group of researchers from Purdue University.

The issue not only covers how the virus structure was unveiled but also the proud moment of an Indian being the part of this extraordinary finding.

Ms. Devika Sirohi, a PhD scholar at Purdue, was the youngest member of the team who decoded Zika virus structure. Read the exclusive coverage on this young scientist, the findings of the research and what it could hold in the future.

Other features included in the issue are “Super 13: the world of X-men and superhumans is here”, “GMO special article: Would losing on GMO take a toll on environment, economies too?”, “Why are billionaires investing if BT has no scope?” and more.

Special thanks to Mr. Ketan Zota, Director, Zota Healthcare and Mr. Robert Balderas, VP, Market Development, BD Biosciences, USA who took out precious time from their busy schedule to interact with Biotecnika magazine

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