Shanta was born in West Bengal, India. She received her Ph. D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Her graduate work was in the area of bioinorganic chemistry with the overall goal being to develop copper(II) complexes to effect photocleavage of double stranded DNA at longer wavelengths. In 2006, she came to this side of the globe and joined Johns Hopkins University as a postdoctoral fellow where she worked in the area of bioorganic chemistry with Prof. Marc M. Greenberg developing fluorescent sensors for the detection of various DNA lesions. In 2007, Shanta joined the group of Prof. Stephen J. Lippard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her postdoctoral studies were focused on nanocarrier-mediated delivery of platinum-based drugs for their potential applications in cancer. Shanta was an Assistant Professor in the chemistry department, University of Georgia during August 2010- 2016. She joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in June 2016.