Orpita Das


I completed my undergraduate, a B.Tech. degree in Biotechnology, from India.
I first became interested in plant research, when as a summer undergraduate lab student I worked on some tissue culture and agrobacterium mediated transformation. I was amazed at how a little bit of leaf could give me a whole plant, with roots, flowers, everything, in just a month. The next year, as a summer student at McGill University, I gained some international lab experience and was introduced to research on biofuel crops. 

My present Master’s
position at UBC, as part of the NSERC CREATE “Working on Walls” program helps me further develop my undergraduate research interests. I am co-supervised by two brilliant plant researchers, Dr.Carl Douglas and Dr.Brian Ellis. My thesis topic deals with understanding the physiological significance of positive and negative regulation of secondary wall formation, by the knat7 transcription factor in Arabidopsis Thaliana.  I am very excited about my project. 

When I am not pondering over all the mysteries of plant physiology, my favourite past-time is to go to random restaurants and experience new cuisines, hence keeping my taste buds mesmerised and happy. I also love being able to walking out of my house and looking down the street at the sea, that gives way to the magnificent snow-capped mountains around beautiful Vancouver.