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Portrait of Dr. Sanchita Das
Sanchita Das, MBBS, MD, D(ABMM)

Staff Microbiologist
Director of Molecular Microbiology


Laboratory Medicine


MBBS Calcutta University, MD PGIMER, Chandigarh India


Email: sanchita.das@nih.gov
Phone:301-827-2642

Portrait of Dr. Sanchita Das
Sanchita Das, MBBS, MD, D(ABMM)

Staff Microbiologist
Director of Molecular Microbiology


Laboratory Medicine


MBBS Calcutta University, MD PGIMER, Chandigarh India


Email: sanchita.das@nih.gov
Phone:301-827-2642


Dr. Sanchita Das is a medical microbiologist with expertise in diagnosing infectious diseases using conventional microbiology tests and novel molecular methods; as well as understanding the epidemiology of infections using next generation sequencing.


Dr. Das earned her medical degree from Calcutta University in 1993 and completed her residency in Medical Microbiology in 1999 from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India.

In 2003, Dr. Das joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA as an OakRidge Institute of Science and Education fellow. At the Mycotic Diseases Branch of the CDC she worked on developing assays for rapid detection of fungal infection. She continued her work in diagnostic development at Weill Medical College of Cornell University as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a research associate.

In 2011, Dr. Das joined NorthShore University HealthSystem as a Medical Microbiologist and Molecular Epidemiologist. She was appointed Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and served the institution directing the Molecular Microbiology section of the laboratory. She is board certified by the American College of Medical Microbiology.

Dr. Das’ professional and research interests include developing diagnostic assays for infectious diseases and understanding the molecular epidemiology of pathogens. She is especially interested in use of molecular methods for investigating viral evolution. She is also involved in investigating resistance in bacterial pathogens and in developing novel technologies to define etiology of resistance in bacteria .

Veronique Nussenblatt, Allison E Roder, Sanchita Das, Emmie de Wit, Jung-Ho Youn, Stephanie Banakis, Alexandra Mushegian, Christopher Mederos, Wei Wang, Matthew Chung, Lizzette Pérez-Pérez, Tara Palmore, Jennifer N. Brudno, James N. Kochenderfer, Elodie Ghedin. Year-long COVID-19 infection reveals within-host evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in a patient with B cell depletion. J Infect Dis. 2022 Apr 1;225(7):1118-1123.

Ernst, Linda M., Mithal, Leena B., Mestan, Karen, Wang, Vivien, Mangold, Kathy A. Freedman, Alexa, Das, Sanchita. Umbilical cord miRNAs to predict neonatal early onset sepsis. PLoS One. 2021; 16(5): e0249548.

Ni Huang, Paola Perez, Takafumi Kato, Yu Mikami, Kenichi Okuda, Rodney C. Gilmore, Cecilia Domínguez Conde, Billel Gasmi, Sydney Stein, Margaret Beach, Eileen Pelayo, Jose O. Maldonado, Bernard LaFont, Shyh-Ing Jan, Nadia Nasir, Ricardo Padilla, Valerie Murrah, Robert Maile, Will Lovell, Shannon Wallet, Natalie M. Bowman, Suzanne L Meinig, Matthew C Wolfgang, Saibyasachi N. Choudhury, Mark Novotny, Brian D Aevermann, Richard Scheuermann, Gabrielle Cannon, Carlton Anderson, Rhianna Lee, Julie Marchesan, Mandy Bush, Marcelo Freire, Adam Kimple, Daniel L. Herr, Joseph Rabin, Alison Grazioli, Sanchita Das, Benjamin N. French, Thomas Pranzatelli, John A. Chiorini, David E. Kleiner, Stefania Pittaluga, Stephen Hewitt, Peter D. Burbelo, Daniel Chertow, NIH COVID-19 Autopsy Consortium# , HCA Oral and Craniofacial Biological Network#, Karen Frank, Janice Lee, Richard C. Boucher, Sarah A. Teichmann, Blake M. Warner & Kevin M. Byrd. SARS-CoV-2 infection of the oral cavity and saliva. Nature Medicine 27: 892–903 (2021).

Benirschke RC, McElvania E, Thomson RB Jr, Kaul KL, Das S. Clinical Impact of Rapid Point-of-Care Polymerase Chain Reaction Influenza Testing In An Urgent Care Setting: A Single Center Study. J. Clin. Microbiol. 57 (3): e01281-18.

Aashiq H.Mirza*, Sanchita Das*, Maneesh R. Pingle, Mark S. Rundell, George Armah, Ben Gyan, Richard L. Hodinka, Davise H. Larone, Eric D. Spitzer, Francis Barany and Linnie M. Golightly. A Multiplex PCR/LDR Assay for Viral Agents of Diarrhea and use in Genotyping of Rotavirus in Ghana. Scientific Reports 8, Article number 13215 (2018) * Equal Contribution

Patricia Simner, J. Johnson, William Brasso, Karen Anderson, David Lonsway, Virginia Pierce, April Bobenchik, Zabrina Lockett, Angella Charnot-Katsikas, Lars Westblade, Brian Yoo, Stephen Jenkins, Brandi Limbago, Sanchita Das, and Darcie Roe-Carpenter. Multicenter Evaluation of the Modified Carbapenem Inactivation Method and the Carba NP for Detection of Carbapenemase-Producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. J Clin Microbiol. 2017 Dec 26; 56(1) e1369-17.


  • Investigator Initiated Pilot Award, NorthShore University HealthSystem, 2012
  • Silver Medal of First Order for Academic Excellence (Medical Microbiology), Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, 1999

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This page last updated on 06/16/2022

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