Mahmuda Akter Popy is currently pursuing her BSc in Marine Sciences at the University of Chittagong. Her research interests lie in the field of marine biotechnology to promote the blue economy of the country. Particularly, she is interested to explore the marine resources focusing macro- and micro-organisms and their secondary metabolites, which have been structurally optimized by environmental pressures and exert particular functions due to chemical interactions between the host, its microbiome and the ecosystem.
Popy is currently investigating the taxonomy, habitat dynamics, and bioactive secondary metabolites of marine sponges, found along the southeastern coast of Bangladesh. She is applying advanced techniques such as HPLC, NMR, and different bioassays for her research. She is also involved with OiLAB marine biotechnology research team who are exploring the microbiome from different coastal, marine and deep sea habitats using meta-genomics tools to discover novel bioactive compounds for pharmaceutical and other industrial applications. She was one of the active members of an oceanographic survey with R.V. Pelican to Sundarban coast, where she was