Mayur Manoj Bajaj

Mayur Manoj Bajaj joined our lab as a postdoctoral fellow in July 2026. He completed his PhD at IISER Tirupati, India, where he investigated how plants maintain protein homeostasis during acquired thermotolerance using Arabidopsis as a model system. His work showed that the coordinated activation of protein folding and clearance pathways enables plants to survive severe heat stress, whereas disruption of these processes, together with translational arrest, leads to the accumulation of protein aggregates and ultimately to cell death.

In our lab, Mayur studies the role of evolutionarily conserved AAA proteases in mitochondrial protein homeostasis. He is also developing sophisticated mitochondrially encoded reporter systems for genome‑wide screens to identify novel components and modulators of the mitochondrial protein quality control machinery.

Outside the lab, Mayur enjoys hiking, exploring nature, photography, and experimenting in the kitchen.