Varun Chopra

MSc Student

Varun is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Biology, focusing on Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology, at Leiden University in The Netherlands. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Vellore Institute of Technology in India. For his undergraduate thesis, he worked on extracting exosomes from Mesenchymal Stem Cells to determine their anti-inflammatory potential. Since then, he has amassed a diverse range of experience in various fields including molecular diagnostics, neurodevelopment, and microbiology.

As part of his Master’s degree, Varun was a member of the Rozen lab, part of the Microbiology cluster at Leiden University. There, he worked on understanding the mutation frequencies of Streptomyces, and its medical relevance. He joined the Loskill Lab in January 2022 for his final internship, on the Brain-on-Chip project. He will be working to help create and optimize a Brain-on-Chip model, supervised by Ning. Working on developing the model, Varun will be part of the chip fabrication process, as well as protocol optimization, to create a reproducible and reliable means to differentiate cells into various neuronal classes, rather than relying on co-cultures. When he’s free, Varun enjoys reading, tabletop gaming, as well as pursuing a revived interest in hiking.