Tanya Narahari

Tanya Narahari has a wealth of work experience in the field of fluidics and microfluidics. Tanya began their career in 2009 as an Undergraduate Student Researcher at RV College of Engineering, where they studied the natural predator to Colletotrichum falcatum, a fungal pathogen which causes the ‘Red Rot Disease’ in sugarcane. In 2010, they completed an Internship at Abexome Bioscience Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, where they purified mouse monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies from ascites, characterized the isotype and binding kinetics of antibody reagents meant for commercial supply using ELISA, and accomplished screening at a high capacity (~11 ELISA plates/day). That same year, they also began working at Achira Labs Pvt. Ltd. as a Design Engineer (Chip Fabrication). Here, they were part of a team of four that pioneered the use of fabric weaving as a low-cost, scalable manufacturing method for microfluidic platforms and sensors. This work resulted in a Lab on a Chip cover article and a patent application.

In 2012, Tanya began working at Northeastern University as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, where they guest lectured Chemical Engineering Process Control and taught Unit Operations laboratory. Tanya also worked as a Graduate Research Assistant, examining the use of ultra-low cost, woven and knit fabric (cloth) substrates for electrophoresis. In 2016, they became a Visiting Scientist and Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, where they managed a team developing a digital microfluidics (DMF)-based, molecular sample processing platform for Zika viral RNA extraction and amplification. Tanya also optimized RNA extraction and isothermal amplification (via NASBA) on DMF and advised device design.

In 2019, Tanya began working at Myant Inc. as a Senior Biochemical Engineer. Here, they conceived of a wearable, flow-through immuno-sensor to detect bacterial Urinary Tract Infections and secured OCE VIP I - NSERC funding for sensor development in collaboration with Wheeler lab at University of Toronto. Tanya also spearheaded the design and development of a sensor prototype and manufactured a prototype using craft cutting and stereolithography techniques.

Tanya is currently employed at Nicoya as a Staff Engineer, Fluidics and Senior Engineer (Microfluidics and Assay Translation).

Tanya Narahari has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University, obtained between 2012 and 2016. Tanya also has a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Biotechnology from RV College of Engineering, obtained between 2006 and 2010. In addition, they have two certifications, a Global Health Diagnostics certification from McGill University obtained in June 2017, and a Qualitative Methods in Global Infectious Diseases certification from McGill Summer Institute for Global Infectious Diseases obtained in June 2017.