Krishnan invented an electrostatic fluidic trap which permits the spatial control and manipulation of nanoscale materials.
She moved to the United States for her graduate studies, where she joined the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to work on genetic testing.
Krishnan was an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow at TU Dresden, where she developed new techniques to trap colloidal nanoparticles and stretch DNA.
[3] In 2012 Krishnan was appointed an Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry at ETH Zurich, where she was eventually made a Swiss National Science Foundation Chair.
[4] Krishnan investigates single-molecule imaging, making use of electrostatic fluid traps to suspend nanoscale materials.