Akshaya Maria Prasad

Ms. Akshaya Maria Prasad holds an integrated BS-MS (Bachelor of Science and Master of Science) degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India. Through the undergraduate program, she could gain exposure and training in various scientific disciplines, which made her realize her interest in researching and understanding chemistry. During the third year, she chose chemistry, focusing mainly on organic, polymer, medicinal, and biochemistry, but her strongest interests always gravitated toward polymer chemistry. This led her to join the "Synthetic Polymers and Biomaterials Lab" at IISER Pune, under the mentorship of Prof. M. Jayakannan, where she began her research journey. The research focused on developing photo-cross-linked polypeptide nanoparticles via Ring Opening Polymerization Induced Self-Assembly (ROPISA) methodology. The experimental work provides one of the first investigations into how cinnamoyl group functionalization can be used as a photocrosslinking strategy in polypeptides synthesized using water as the solvent. This environment-friendly approach, utilizing water as the solvent and enabling the formation of crosslinked polypeptide-based formulations, holds tremendous potential for various biomedical applications.