After completing her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in University of Toronto, Dr. Senjuti returned to Bangladesh from Canada in 2016 with a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics. During her PhD, she studied and developed novel antimicrobials against infectious agents such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Since 2016, Dr. Senjuti has been working at the intersection of Clinical Microbiology and Global Health at the Child Health Research Foundation in Bangladesh.
In 2020, Dr. Senjuti Saha and her team were the first to sequence the genome of SARS-CoV-2 in Bangladesh. Her team was also the first in the world to show with unbiased metagenomic next-generation sequencing, that the chinkunginya virus can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause meningitis in Bangladeshi children. Dr. Senjuti’s pioneering work in Bangladesh has brought her national and international recognition. She was appointed a member of the Polio Transition Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020. In 2020, Bill Gates blogged and voiced a short documentary on the work of Dr. Senjuti Saha and her father Professor Samir Saha, and termed them as his ‘Heroes in the Field’. The blog was titled, ‘Bangladesh’s dynamic duo battle global health inequity’. In 2021, Bill Gates also highlighted the work of Dr. Senjuti Saha and her team at the Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) in fighting the COVID19 pandemic by sequencing and monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants since the very start.
Currently, Dr. Senjuti Saha is a Director & Scientist at the Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF). Her work is grounded in advancing health and research equity in Bangladesh, and beyond. Being a relentless advocate for equal access to scholarly literature and science education, she hopes to inspire others to join her movement with the motto, ‘science by and for the many, not the few’.
