Arkarup Banerjee, Ph.D.

Arkarup Banerjee is a postdoctoral fellow in the Neuroscience Institute at the New York University Langone Medical Center. He received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Delhi. Subsequently, he joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai for his master’s degree, working with Sudipta Maiti on developing nonlinear microscopy techniques to image unlabeled dopamine in live neurons. He did his Ph.D. as a Lindsay-Goldberg fellow at the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the lab of Dr. Florin Albeanu, where he studied computations and neural circuits involved in olfactory sensory processing and was also involved in building a microscope for simultaneous two-photon imaging and photo-stimulation.

Banerjee is interested in understanding neural circuit mechanisms that underlie ethologically relevant behaviors. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Michael Long’s lab, he is working with an exotic rodent species from Central American rainforests, Scotinomys teguina, colloquially called the ‘singing mouse.’ As the name suggests, these animals vocalize, alone as well as socially, even in the lab setting. This offers an exciting opportunity to study the neural dynamics and circuitry that enable a motor behavior to be used flexibly for social communication. Additionally, Banerjee is passionate about science teaching and outreach, for which he has received several awards.