Quality Control Engineering

ASHKA PATEL

**** ******* **** **. #****, Dallas TX 75254 817-***-**** ***********@*****.***

www.linkedin.com/pub/ashka-patel/26/b6/b56/

OBJECTIVE

Seeking a challenging full time position in the pharmaceutical industry where my experience and skills will significantly

contribute to the overall success of the organization, available immediately.

EDUCATION

Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering Aug 2013

The University of Texas at Dallas GPA - 3.86/4.0

Bachelor of Engineering in Biotechnology June 2010

Visvesvaraya Technological University, India University Rank - 07

RESEARCH/ WORK EXPERIENCE

Jan 2013 - Present & Sept 2011 – May 2012

Macromolecular Structure & Engineering Research Lab, UT Dallas

Role: Researcher

Bacterial cell culture (E. coli) and bacterial transformation to express the recombinant protein of interest.

Medium scale protein extraction. Determination of protein concentration.

Protein purification- Affinity chromatography, Ion exchange chromatography (IEC), Size Exclusion

chromatography (SEC), AKTA HPLC, FPLC & Gel filtration, SDS PAGE.

Crystallographic studies- crystal set up under various conditions using the hanging drop method.

GlaxoSmithKline, PA June 2012- Dec 2012

Role: Co-op, Screening and Compound Profiling Department

Hit to Lead Optimization: As a part of the Epigenetic Drug Discovery team, I performed mammalian cell

culture and transduction, in vitro assays for determining target efficacy and minimizing toxicity.

Compound profiling carried out using different assays (alpha screen, lantha screen, cytotoxicity assays,

luciferase based assays, reconstitution assays, etc) and detection technologies - Viewlux and Envision.

Key validation experiments and raw data analysis to determine dependence of the protein of interest.

Transcriptomics- New capability development: high throughput transcriptomic analysis using RTqPCR-

LightCycler 480 and LightCycler 1536.

Liquid handling quality control using Multidrop Combi nl.

Lysate dispensing optimization using Echo 555.

Quality control experiments for LightCycler 1536 to perform RTqPCR with major goals of minimizing

reaction volumes and expenses, multiplexing, maximizing throughput and standardizing procedures.

Jan 2010 – June 2010

Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biological, India

Role: Research Intern

Standardization of RT- PCR for VP5 gene amplification using Bluetongue Virus-23.

Primer design for amplification of VP5 gene of BTV-23 and RT-PCR standardization using the set of primers.

Conclusion- RT-PCR is a reliable & sensitive diagnostic test in routine identification of the virus in clinical samples.

TECHNICAL SKILLS/ TECHNOLOGIES

Cell & Molecular Biology Bacterial cell culture, Mammalian cell culture, Isolation of plasmid and genomic

DNA/RNA, Agarose gel electrophoresis, Molecular Cloning, Sub cloning, Midiprep,

Miniprep,, Nanodrop, Sonication, Restriction digestion, Ligation, Viral transduction, SDS

PAGE, PCR, RT-PCR, RTqPCR, Antibiotic susceptibility testing, ELISA.

Genetic Engineering DNA amplification- primers/probes, Gene transformation, Agglutination techniques,

Western blot.

Bioinformatics Pairwise & Multiple sequence alignment, Restriction mapping, Secondary structure

prediction, Primer design, Molecular modeling, structure visualization, analysis, Docking.

Protein Engineering Primer design, Restriction mapping, Column chromatography, HPLC, AKTA purifier,

FPLC, Gel filtration, Bradford Assay - Protein estimation, Enzyme activity assays.

Other Instruments & Inverted microscope, UV/VIS Spectrophotometry, Fluorescence Spectrophotometry,

Techniques Multidrop Combi dispenser, Combi nl, Centrifuge 5810, Cedex HiRes (Innovatis), CyBi-

well, Turbocapture, Real time cell lysis, Echo 555, Viewlux 1430 ultra HTS, Envision

2104 Multilabel Reader, LightCycler 480, LightCycler 1536

COURSEWORK

Techniques in Cell and Molecular Biology, Modeling and Simulation, Systems Biology, Protein Engineering, Biostatistics,

Bioinformatics, Biomedical Microdevices, Metabolic Pathways, Human Physiology for Bioengineers, Proteomics.

PUBLICATION

“Influence of Ore tailings on growth of plants by enhanced uptake of nutrients” in the Journal of the

Electrochemical Society of India (ISSN: 0013-466x), IIScBangalore, India. Vol. No. 59, Issue No. Jan & Apr 2010

ACTIVITIES

Recipient of the Jonsson School Graduate Scholarship for Graduate studies from Fall 2011- Summer 2012.

Research work under Dr. Hyunjoo Nam in Macromolecular Structure and Engineering Research Lab.

Active member of the “Crick Club”, the Journal Club of the Department of Bioengineering at UT Dallas.

REFERENCES – Available on request

Contact this candidate