Ms. Sapna Saini is a PhD candidate at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu. Her doctoral research focuses on drug discovery against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, targeting essential enzymes in the electron transport chain. She is engaged in identifying and characterizing novel small-molecule inhibitors with potential activity against drug-resistant tuberculosis. Her work contributes to understanding the mechanism of action of compounds targeting mycobacterial respiration.
Sapna holds a bachelor’s degree in life sciences with distinction from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, and a master’s degree in zoology with a specialization in physiology from Punjabi University, Patiala. She qualified for the National Eligibility Test in life sciences conducted by CSIR (CSIR-NET/JRF) and the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering in life sciences (GATE-XL) through self-study.
As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Sapna is planning to undertake advanced training in ABSL-3 laboratory techniques and in vivo infection models. The acquired expertise will support her long-term goal of contributing to tuberculosis drug discovery and strengthening research capacity about infectious diseases in India.