DC03 – Naufia Mohamedzakaria Shibinasbarveen

BRIEF CV

I, Naufia Zakaria come from a small town in Tamil Nadu, South India. In 2019, I secured a position to do my Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Chemistry in Madras Christian College (MCC) (Autonomous) affiliated to the University of Madras, Chennai. During my first year in MCC in December 2019, I was selected by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education – Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (HBCSE-TIFR),
Mumbai for the National Initiative on Undergraduate Science (NIUS) exposure-cum-enrichment camp. During my second year, I did an online internship with IIT Indore faculty, Dr Sampak Samanta on ‘Spectroscopic Techniques (IR, NMR, MS) for the Characterization of Organic Molecules’. I graduated in 2022 with my B.Sc. degree and was awarded Dr. S V Ananta Krishnan Gold Medal for Best Outgoing Student in Chemistry. On completion of my undergraduate program, I cleared the entrance examination and interview in Shiv Nadar Institute of Eminence (SNIoE), deemed to be university, Delhi NCR, where I pursued Master of Science (Research) in Chemistry in 2022-2024. During my masters’, I secured a fellowship from the university and served as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for the undergraduate students of the department. I was part of three research projects during the program: ‘Functionalized Carbazole Based Redox Mediator for Light-Driven Water Oxidation’ under Dr. Animesh Nayak in 2022-2023; ‘Intercalated Donor-Acceptor Self-Assembled System for Light-Driven Water Oxidation’ under Dr. Bappaditya Gole in 2023; ‘Development of an Efficient Strategy for the Synthesis of Pyranocarbazole Alkaloids’ under Dr. Santanu Ghosh in 2023-2024. My academic profile was shortlisted by the European Network on Supramolecular Chemistry of Carbohydrates (ENSCC) and secured a PhD position in the
University of Florence (UNIFI), Italy on the project titled ‘Covalent Podands and Macrocycles for the Molecular Recognition of Carbohydrates’ under the supervision of Prof. Oscar Francesconi.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Carbohydrates are the most versatile tools in nature. In fact, they are the most abundant molecules in biology. Carbohydrate-protein molecular recognition plays a vital role in several physiological and pathological processes, and there is a growing need for new chemical tools for the molecular recognition of carbohydrates. However, saccharides are rather difficult ligands to recognise in water. Nonetheless, several efforts have been made in the long run and synthetic receptors effective in water have been recently appeared in the literature. In this project, we propose to synthesise macrocyclic and acyclic synthetic receptors by varying the different building blocks that fulfil complementarity for efficient binding and high selectivity. This will include aromatic groups for CH-
interactions with the aliphatic backbone of the carbohydrate, hydrogen bonding groups to interact with the polar groups of the sugar and hydrosolubilising groups to ensure water solubility. We would also like to further exploit this by immobilising the receptors on a solid support, thereby developing functionalities including separation of carbohydrate (containing) molecules, sensors for biologically relevant saccharides, and drug delivery systems that actively target carbohydrates.