Assistant Professor , within the Department of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering at USF, has received the through USF's Internal Awards Program.
The grant supports early-career faculty who are new to USF and do not yet have external or departmental funding. Designed to help launch independent research projects, the program funds pilot or preliminary studies with the goal of producing results that lead to external grant proposals, publications, or other scholarly output.
Samanta鈥檚 project, titled 鈥溾�� focuses on developing computational models to study proteins and their interactions with charged polymers. The research seeks to advance our understanding of how folded proteins form complex coarcervates, a type of liquid-liquid phase separation with charged polymers. These interactions play a critical role in the formation and function of membraneless organelles within cells, contribute to disease pathology and are increasingly leveraged in materials used for therapeutics, biosensors, and food technology.
Samanta joined USF in spring 2024 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. She earned a doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, a master鈥檚 degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and a bachelor鈥檚 degree in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
Her research group, , applies a combination of molecular simulations, mathematical modeling, and machine learning to understand and design proteins and their behavior in different environments ranging from polymers, cellular membrane, and synthetic materials. The project funded by the New Researcher Grant will explore the phase behavior of proteins and polymers, with the potential to influence future work in biomedical engineering and materials science.
The New Researcher Grant is part of USF鈥檚 broader effort to support promising new faculty and foster research that can lead to competitive external funding. Recipients are expected to use the award to generate early-stage results that form the foundation for future grant applications and publications.
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