My research is in study and design of materials/ methods/ and devices for biosensing and analytical measurements, and spans from fundamental science through engineering to translational activities. 

Research in my group can be divided into three themes, which are described below.

1. Optical biosensing: We are studying interaction of light with light and/or matter to maximise overlap between light and analytes to be measured. We have applied this understanding to develop novel leaky waveguide and interferometric bio/chemical sensing methods and devices. We are interested in measuring proteins, DNA, small molecules, and microbes.
2. Sample preparation: We are developing electrokinetic methods as well as hydrogels for concentrating (and in some cases, fluorescenly labelling) analytes to be measured, and in many cases, removing interferents. One of our aims is to develop our hydrogels as lollipops to enable measurement of salivary biomarkers of diseases such as early cancer detection. Our hydrogels can be adapted to measure a panel of protein biomarkers in diverse fluids including blood, urine, tear fluid and sweat.
3. Fluid manipulation: We are studying shaping of acoustic beams for manipulation of droplets in mid-air and hydrophobic surfaces to perform high-throughput chemical and biological assays.

In collaboration, we have worked on quartz crystal microbalance sensors with electrospun nanofibers and electrochemical sensors with nanoparticles. Other collaborations are on making of hydrogels with tailored physical and chemical properties for improved bioassays and biodevices. Finally, we collaborate with researchers working on biomarkers discovery and clinicians to investigate the applications of our materials/ methods/ devices for clinical diagnostics.

Dr Gupta attended Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for her undergraduate studies on a prestigious SIA-NOL scholarship and subsequently received an IEEE Reliability/CPMT/ED Chapter (Singapore) book prize. She completed her MASc at McMaster University (Canada) where she developed the basic components of generic and programmable microfluidics. This project bridged chemical, biological and computational sciences, and resulted in the award of first runner-up of the Brian L. Barge Award of Excellence in Microsystems Integration. Her MASc thesis won Radisav Stevanoic Book prize.

Her PhD at the University of Manchester (UK) was funded by Syngenta and focused on developing electroseparation methods for sample preparation and analysis of self-digesting bagasse reliably to produce biofuels from waste (rather than food crops). Her PhD research received cash prizes from the RSC including the Electroseparations Group, and the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). 

Dr Gupta’s research as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and later as a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Enterprise Fellow developed optical chemial-/bio-sensors, studied mechanisms of light propagation in hydrogels, as well as investigated their applications.

She was a Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry at University of Hull between 2014 and 2016 before joining University of Birmingham in 2017.