Professor of Biomedical Engineering, IIT Delhi & AIIMS New Delhi
My areas of interest include Non-invasive clinical biosensors; capillary electrophoresis microchip devices for clinical, environmental and biopharmaceutical applications; microfluidic Lab-on-a-chips for PCR and on-chip cytometry; on-chip COD analysis; biosensors for pathogen detection, on-chip neurochemical analyzer.
Our Centre for Biomedical Engineering (CBME) is a joint venture between Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi and we are now having collaborations with AIIMS New Delhi, Clemson University USA and Queensland Univ. Australia amongst other places.
This website highlights my group’s research areas, publications, teaching and laboratory facilities
We work on Microfluidic chip and biosensors based point-of-care technologies for Biomedical and other applications and our lab is amongst forefront of microfluidics research in India, with multiple such technologies near commercial launch.
Our group primarily work under four verticals:
1) Microfabricated chips with microfluidic setup for complex analysis – e.g. on-chip PCR; on-chip CTC detection; capillary electrophoresis microchips for separation and analysis of chemicals in a mixture, e.g. neurochemicals, pesticides etc.; impedimetric estimation of proteinic biomarkers on chip; droplet microfluidics. These work also involve hardware development wherein our group have expertise in taking these technologies to TRL6+.
2) Paper fluidics – involving low-cost solutions, including LFA technology in a multiplexed setup. We were first in India to have demonstrated Smartphone based biosensing and hold product patent on Saliva based Glucometer (priority date 2015 and 2018) that encompasses paper microfluidics as well.
3) Handheld devices, e.g. glucometer with saliva as test medium, in which we have undertaken complete hardware integration with optical components, etc.
4) Assay development, including SELEX based novel aptamer generation. Our group was amongst first in India to have developed the indigenous SELEX process way back in 2017. Currently we offer custom aptamer generation through my Startup Gunsutra.
News and accomplishments from my Lab
2025 A Biosafety Level 3 Lab that was being developed by me have been inaugurated in August this year. This is the only BSL3 facility in any of the IITs till now. This is funded and available for booking by Central Research Facility IIT Delhi. With this, my group has the Labs for Microfabrication, Wet Chemistry/Biology, Electronics fabrication, BSL2+, and access to BSL3 now. Images of BSL3 available here.
2025 Dr. Shweta Panwar (graduated from my lab in 2025) received FITT Award for best Industry relevant Ph.D. Thesis in Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. This award is given to only one out of about 600 Ph.D. scholars graduating in any year at IIT Delhi, by Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) IIT Delhi and carries cash award and citation to Ph.D. scholar and Supervisor both.
2025 My graduated Ph.D. scholar Dr. Shweta Panwar received Dogra Educational Endowment Award by IIT Delhi for best scientific publication in Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
2024 My Ph.D. scholar Ms. Shweta Panwar Won Best Poster Award in the National Conference “Emerging Trends in Implants and Diagnostics”, Organized by NIPER–Ahmedabad, India, 1-2 February 2024.
2023 We founded a startup Gunsutra Pvt. Ltd. with mandate to scale-up, manufacture and bring our technologies to market. It is incubated at FITT IIT Delhi and currently under fundraising cum scale-up operation mode with two direct employees. We have also received Startup India Seed funds from GoI to support the process.
2022 Intel Corp. and DST India supported project under Indo -US (IUSSTF) umbrella where 30 scientists along with their team were involved from India and USA was acknowledged by IUSSTF
See Link to the Video at IIT Delhi’s Linkedin Page or at IUSSTF site (project video#4):
2021: Dr. Sandeep Jha receives DST SERB-STAR Award for outstanding performance of Principal Investigators (PIs) of SERB Projects
2020: Tanu Bhardwaj receives Dogra Educational Endowment Award by IIT Delhi for best scientific publication in Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
2020: Tanu Bhardwaj receives Best scholar award in Biomedical Engineering by International Multidisciplinary Research Foundation.
2019 Appan Roychoudhury Received Distinction in Ph.D. thesis for 2019 submission by IIT Delhi
Research/Projects positions open (June 2024)
Open positions till get filled:
4 SRF Positions available in my lab. Candidates can apply directly by email to sandeepkjha [at] gmail.com while highlighting their previous research and research interest aligning with my lab (Biosensor/POCT/Microfluidics etc.).
Vacancies are for either hardware designer (3D prototyping, Arduino, Optomechanics, PCB related setup etc.)
Second category is for Molecular biologist and biochemists capable of developing assays for sensor detection
Third category is for photolithography based microfabrication, hands-on microfluidics based sensing.
It’ll be difficult for me to accommodate summer trainee or intern due to scarcity of space and high cost associated with our research. Rather, candidates who are interested to join our group for minimum 1 year duration can mail me and those who wish to pursue Ph.D. can apply at IIT Delhi Website through Centre for Biomedical Engineering. Forms are active in March-Apr and Sep-Oct each year.