Dr Shilpa Deshpande Kaistha is currently serving as Associate Professor in the Department of Life Sciences & Biotechnology, CSJM University, Kanpur. She completed her Masters and Bachelors in Microbiology from University of Pune, Pune. She received her PhD (Microbiology) for her work on “Bystander Activation as immunoinflammatory mechanisms in Herpetic Stromal Keratitis” from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. She served as Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, CSJM University Kanpur (2004-2021). She has successfully completed SERB DST Young Scientist research project, Young Scientist DAE BRNS research award, CSJMU Minor research projects and is currently running two Uttar Pradesh Government funded research projects. She has over 50 publications in the area of viral immunology, bacterial biofilms, microbe enhanced phytoremediation and phage based control of biofilm forming multiple drug resistant pathogens.