Department of Zoology

Dr. Nisha Vashishta (Teacher-in-Charge)

 Dr. Nisha Vashishta, an alumna of Miranda House is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology. Presently she is  also working as a  coordinator for Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) , flagship programme of the Ministry of Education (MoE). Her primary areas of teaching are Physiology and Medical Diagnostics. Her teaching experience spans over two decades. She earned her M. Phil (1993) and Ph.D. (1998) in Zoology from the Department of Zoology, University of Delhi. She was awarded the Australian Leadership Award Fellowship  by AusAID, Australia in April 2013. She has been a recipient of junior research fellowship and senior research fellowship from University Grants Commission. She has organized  capacity building workshops for teachers, non teaching staff and  students and has developed resource material  for students and teachers in association with National Resource Centre for Education, National  Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA). She has co-authored a book on experimental physiology and has published research articles in the domain of muscle physiology. She has been actively reviewing the chapters on physiology for the Institute of Life Long Learning. Presently, she is the Teacher -in -Charge,Department of Zoology,Miranda House and the  Coordinator of  Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), Miranda House . 

Dr. Rekha Kumari holds M.Sc. in Zoology (University of Delhi) and Bioinformatics (University of Edinburgh, UK). Her Ph.D. deals with Genetic Engineering of Microbes for the Biosynthesis of Antibiotic analogs using domain swapping. She specializes in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. Her research interest lies mostly in Environmental Microbiology, antibiotic resistance and metagenomics. She has been teaching courses on Genomics, Biotechnology and Molecular Biology for past 20 years. She has been awarded with various fellowships and awards that include Visiting Scientist at the Department of Genetics, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany (2001); BOYSCAST fellowship: International fellowship by DST, GOI to do research at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. (2009-10); Faculty Training Program to pursue Masters in Bioinformatics from University of Edinburgh, UK. (2011-12); INSA-DGF bilateral scientific exchange fellowship for three months at UFZ Leipzig, Germany (2013); Teaching Excellence Award by University of Delhi for the Innovation Project MH-203. She has various peer reviewed research articles in high impact international journals and has authored chapters on Cell Biology in text book for M.Sc. students and for NISCAIR, GoI. She has been actively involved in running Add-on courses on Medical Biotechnology and Bioinformatics for past more than 10 years. She is involved and organized various capacity building workshops for faculty and students. She is part of innovation projects and been participatig in Flavour of Research, the flagship program of Miranda house and traing more than 50 students. 

Dr. Jyoti Arora did graduation and post-graduation from Miranda House, and M.Phil and Ph.D. from Department of Zoology, University of Delhi.  For M. Phil., she worked on Biodiversity of Rotifers and reported several new records from India.  In Ph. D., she investigated two shallow, man-made Lakes in Delhi and formulated strategies for the proper management of these lakes.  She joined Miranda House in 2006.  Her teaching interests include Ecology, Environmental Management, Wildlife Conservation and Management, Zoogeography, Non-Chordata, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry. She has been a principal investigator in two innovation projects and a star innovation project.  Her research activities are focused on the use of eco-friendly approaches for the natural dyeing and antimicrobial finishing of textiles, the development of azo-free handmade paper, and the application of 4R’s for sustainable management of waste at Miranda House. She received the Teaching Excellence Award for Innovation on the 93rd Foundation Day of the University of Delhi in 2015.  She has won several awards for best poster and platform presentations at various conferences.   She has been actively involved in activities organized every year by the DSKC. This includes workshops, designed summer programs for undergraduate students, symposiums, lectures, capacity-building workshops, and INSPIRE program.  She has created resource material for different workshops and also contributed an E-chapter on Biodiversity for ILLL.   She has several publications in journals of repute and in conference proceedings.  She has been associated with different journals for editorial ventures. 

Dr. Sadhna Sharma has done all her higher studies from University of Delhi specializing in Molecular Immunology. Her Research activities are focused towards finding new vaccine and drug targets for tuberculosis and cancer. She is a recognized PhD supervisor with 4 Ph D Students currently working with her and 6 students having got their Ph D degree. She was awarded the Australian Leadership Award Fellowship by AusAID, Australia in April 2013 and Bill & Melinda Gates Global Health Travel Award, USA in January, 2020. She was also a recipient of Department of Science and Technology 'Young Scientist' and 'Women Scientist' projects. She has received sponsored research grants of Rs.5.73 Crores from various Government funding agencies since joining the College in 2006. She has 39 publications in high impact refereed journals and 54 publications in International and National Conference Proceedings. She has been invited for talks at both international and national forums. She has been organizing various activities in the college like Add on Course in 'Medical Biotechnology' and ‘Animal Cell Culture and its applications’, capacity building workshop for teachers and domain specific workshops for students. She has actively mentored students at all levels-UG, PG, Ph.D in DSKC Summer Schools/ Training Programmes run by the college every year. She was the Coordinator of DBT Star College Project at Miranda House and a member of Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), Miranda House. She is the Chairperson of Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) at Miranda House.

Dr. Monika Sharma, M.Sc. (Delhi), Ph.D. (Delhi)

• Designation:  Associate Professor, Department of Zoology, Miranda House
• Specialization: Molecular Immunology and Microbiology
• Educational Qualifications: Ph.D. (Medical Microbiology): Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi (2010). Passed CSIR NET LS: 2001, CSIR JRF:2002 and ICMR JRF:2002. B.Sc. Zoology (H) and M.Sc. Zoology from University of Delhi in 1999 and 2001 respectively.
• Thesis on “A study of effect of  Mtb  infected macrophages on T cell viability”
• Teaching Experience:15 Years
• Research Experience:14 Years (after Ph.D.)
• Research Guidance:
• Two students completed Ph.D and three students are pursuing Ph.D (2 as supervisor and 1 as Co-supervisor)
• Publications: 30 in refreed international journals
• Total citation: 624
•  h-index= 13 (Google Scholar);
• i10-index= 15 (Google Scholar)
• Research Interests:
• Immunopathogenesis of tuberculosis.
• Understanding the  role of Proline- Proline-Glutamic acid (PE/PPE) proteins of  Mtb in modulation of host immune response, host cell apoptosis and potential of these proteins in targeting host mitochondrial functions and integrity. Finding potential vaccine candidates for TB using immunoinformatics approach.
• Ongoing Projects:

1. PI : ICMR - EMR intermediate grant, 2024-2028.

Grant amount Rs. 2.39 Crores. Title: Evaluation of immunogenicity and protective efficacy of an epitope-based vaccine designed from late-stage-specific, antigenic PE/PPE proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human PBMC and mouse model. 

2. Co-PI: DST-SERB POWER. 2022-2025.

Grant Amount Rs.27.87873 Lakhs. Title: Immunological validation and protective efficacy of multiepitope vaccine constructs designed from Mycobacterium tuberculosis dormancy associated proteins Rv2627c and Rv2628 in mouse model of tuberculosis.

3. Co-PI: ICMR. 2023-2024. Grant Amount Rs.32.28763 Lakhs.  Title:  Rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis based on detection of mycobacterial antigens within serum/urine samples by immuno-PCR assays.

•  Completed Projects
• DST SERB Project as Project Investigator at DS Kothari Centre for Rese arch and Innovation in Science Education(DSKC), Miranda House. April, 2018- September, 2021. Grant Amount: Rs. 69.56 Lakhs.
• DBT Project  as Co-Project Investigator at DSKC, Miranda House, April, 2013-17. Grant Amount: Rs. 66.48 Lakhs.
• CSIR OSDD Project  as Co-Project Investigator at DSKC, Miranda House. September, 2012-15. Grant Amount: 21.79 Lakhs.
• DU Innovation Project MH308 as Co-Project Investigator at Miranda House, Grant Amount Rs. 5 Lakhs.

Assistant Professor

Year of Joining Miranda House: July 21, 2011 as Adhoc Faculty; Permanent Faculty since July 20, 2015.

Educational Qualifications:

Ph.D., 2011, Department of Zoology, University of Delhi. 

Qualified Joint CSIR-UGC JRF-NET Examination, December 2005 

Qualified Joint CSIR-UGC LS-NET Examination, December 2004  .

M.Sc. Zoology (2005), University of Delhi.

B.Sc. Hons. Zoology (2003), University of Delhi.

Thesis Title: Evaluation of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) contamination from the last lindane production plant operating in India and resolving HCH degradation and toxicity issues: A step towards HCH bioremediation.

Total Publications: 11

Area of Research: Environmental Biotechnology.

Total Teaching Experience: 11 Years

Dr. Deepak currently working as Assitant Professor in Miranda House, University of Delhi. He holds Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biotechnology, specializing in Nano-biotechnology as drug delivery system for cancer drugs from Banasthali University, Rajasthan, India. Currently working as Assistant professorin Miranda house. After completing his Ph.D. degree, he joined as Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine at Hamdard University, India and developed various types of polymeric nanoparticles for herbal drugs. Then Dr. Yadav joined as an Assistant Professor at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut, India. During his short carrier he published 03 books, 02 book chapter, 01 patent, more than 30 research and review papers in different peer review journals including International Journal of Nanomedicine, Spectrochemica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular spectroscopy, Protoplasma, Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention etc. He is FMERC, FIAZ, FI2OR, FIGER, Life member in International Society of Infectious Diseases, Honorable member of EC Gastroenterology and Digestive System and Editorial member of Indian Journal of Research in Pharmacy and Biotechnology. He also reviewed many research articles of peer review journals. He has given speech as a speaker several conferences and oragised various conferences, workshops and symposia.

Dr. Pooja Suman received her Ph.D from Department of Zoology, University of Delhi in Environmental Toxicology. She has experience in working on analytical instruments like Gas Liqiud Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid chromatography and Mass Spectroscopy. She has done M.Sc in Zoology, also in Agro-chemicals and pest Management. She has qualified UGC-NET in Life Science. She has also received Post doctorate fellowship from UGC. Her research articles have appeared in reputed peer-reviewed journals and she has presented her work at several National conferences. She has also mentored DSKC summer workshop on Blog writing and Drosophila melanogaster culture, a renowned program of Miranda House and trained students from Miranda house and other colleges as well. She has been associated with other science departments in organizing the Baseline Science test for graduate students at the college level. She teaches courses like Non- Chordata, Chordata, Comparative account of Chordata, Apiculture, Medical Diagnostics, Developmental Biology, etc. She has also worked as member of organizing committee for workshops and Symposiums and as a resource person in the bridge course for undergraduate students. 

Ms Saba Zulfiquar completed her graduation in Zoology (Hons) in 2014 from Zakir Hussain Delhi College, University of Delhi and M.Sc in Zoology subject from Department of Zoology, University of Delhi in the year 2018.She has also done B.Ed form Jamia Millia Islamia.She qualified CSIR-UGC JRF/NET (Life Sciences). She has also worked in past in Government School where she mentored Learning of Biology Experiments at district level. Attendend  various seminar, workshops and symposium. Attended various memory training and skill development programmes organized by Delhi Government. Currently she has been working as an Assistant Professor in Miranda House College since 2019 and teaching courses on Animal Diversity, Non-Chordates, Diversity of Chordates, Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates, Developmental Biology, Apiculture, Medical Diagnostics, Biochemistry, Animal Behaviour and Chronobiology. She has also worked as member of organizing committee for workshops and Symposiums and as a resource person in the bridge course for undergraduate students. She has been associated with MH Vatavaran Society of the college .Attended  various webinars organized by NIEPA to understand educational policies and enhancement in teaching skills.

Hello Everyone, 

This is Dr. Shivani Kumari, serving as the Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology,  Miranda House(NAAC Grade A++ with CGPA 3.64 ) since Feb 2022, which is affiliated with the prestigious University of Delhi.

I have completed my Bachelor of Sciences ( B. Sc.) and Master of Sciences (M. Sc.) from the University of Delhi. I have done my Ph.D. under the supervision of Senior  Professor Dileep Kumar Singh from the Soil Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Delhi.

Research Indices: Total Impact Factor: 44.40, H-Index: 07, i10 Index: 07, Total Citations: 279

Research Publications: 12 (Original Research papers:09; Review papers:03)

Area of Interest

Environmental toxicology, Microbiology, Xenobiotic Compounds, Bioremediation, Phytoremediation.