Seminars and Talks

National

• October 15, 2022 (Proteus Talk)

  • The Model Organism Mouse in research

  • Dr. Poonam Thakur, IISER TVM
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• August 08, 2022

  • Biosafety Training Seminar
    Dr. Poonam Thakur, IISER TVM

  • This training seminar conducted by Dr. Poonam Thakur for students of biology focussed on management of bio-waste and the general precautions to be followed while working in bio-labs.
• July 28, 2022

  • Cholesterol, amino acids at lipid-water-interface and molecular evolution of TRPV ion channels

  • Dr. Chandan Goswami (NISER Bhubaneshwar)
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• July 06, 2022

  • Epigenetic regulation of leukemia pathogenesis & targeted therapy

  • Dr. Amitava Sengupta (CSIR-IICB, Kolkata)
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• April 07, 2022

  • The Centromere Code Hypothesis

  • Prof. Kaustuv Sanyal, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR)
  
• February 11, 2022 (Proteus – Panel Discussion)

  • Strides of Women in Science

  • This panel discussion was in celebration of the International day of Women and Girls in Science

  Panellists

  1. Prof. Hema Somanathan (IISER TVM)
  2. Dr. Poonam Thakur (IISER TVM)
  3. Dr. Nisha N Kannan (IISER TVM)
  4. Dr. Sandrea Maureen Francis (IISER TVM)
  
• October 23, 2021 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Drosophila: A versatile model organism in biology

  • Talk by Dr. Nisha N Kannan, IISER TVM
• October 08, 2021 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Regulating pluripotency in stem cells through the action of intracellular trafficking pathways

  • Talk by Dr. Deepa Subramanyam, National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS)
• June 05, 2021 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Elimination of single-use plastic and efficient ways of managing wastes

  • Amita Deshpande, reChakra EcoSocial
• April 09, 2021

  • Gene-dietinteractions in longevity assurance

  • Dr. Arnab Mukopadhyay, National Institute of Immunology.
• March 17, 2021 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Genomics for All

  • Dr Gautam Das, miBiome Therapeutics LLP, Mumbai
• January 23, 2021 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • The Circuits of Sensation: How We Perceive the World

  • Prof Shubha Tole, TIFR, Mumbai
• December 04, 2020 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Whole-body metabolic modelling: scope for personalised medicine

  • Dr. Swagatika Sahoo, IIT Madras
• November 28, 2020 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • On model organism: Arabidopsis Thaliana

  • Dr. Ravi Maruthachalam, IISER TVM
• November 27, 2020

  • Tigers on islands

  • Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS)
• October 30, 2020

  • Blood cell development: Lessons learned from Drosophila

  • Dr. Lolitika Mandal, IISER Mohali
• October 20, 2020 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Nobel Prize Talk

  • Dr. V Stalin Raj, IISER TVM
• October 16, 2020

  • New answers to old Questions regarding DNA Synthesis by DNA Polymerases

  • Prof. Deepak Nair, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad
• October 08, 2020 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Tweaking Longevity Pathways in Stem Cells

  • Prof. Maneesha S. Inamdar, JNCASR, Bengaluru
• September 18, 2020 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Research Experiences

  • Prof. S Murty Srinivasula, IISER TVM
• February 05, 2020

  • Integrating mathematical models with experiments to elucidate the mechanisms of cellular plasticity during cancer metastasis

  • Dr. Mohit Kumar Jolly, Assistant Professor, Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
• January 17, 2020

  • Computational Gastronomy: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Data-driven Food Innovations

  • Dr. Ganesh Bagler, Associate Professor, IIIT- Delhi
• December 09, 2019

  • The hsromega lncRNAs in Drosophila coordinate multiple regulatory pathways

  • Prof. S.C Lakhotia, Banaras Hindu University
• October 17, 2019

  • Why Science? Why Biology?

  • Prof. B.J. Rao, School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati
• August 14, 2019

  • Data analysis of Omics datasets

  • Dr. Deepalakshmi Putchen, Founder Director, MaSHT Consulting Services, HE 373, Indian Institute of Science on Omics-data analysis and hands-on training on mass spec data analysis
• June 14, 2019

  • Emerging roles of Long Non-coding RNAs in Cellular Differentiation and Cancer

  • Padma Shri Prof. M.R.S. Rao, Honorary Professor, SERB-YOS Chair Professor, JNCASR, Bangalore
• May 17, 2019

  • Whether cells die or stay protected is dictated by the cellular protein-switches: A mechanistic perspective

  • Prof. B. J Rao, IISER Tirupati
• May 15, 2019

  • Plants Have Many Strategies to Deal with an Increasingly Saline World

  • Prof. M.K. Mathew, NCBS, Bengaluru
• May 14, 2019

  • From Holes in the Head to a Sense of Where You Are

  • Prof. M.K. Mathew, NCBS, Bengaluru
• May 06, 2019

  • Gut reactions and gut instincts: receptor guanylyl cyclases and cGMP

  • Prof. Sandhya S. Visweswariah PhD, Chair, Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
• May 06, 2019

  • Revitalizing food science requires interdisciplinary approaches: The design of novel peptides for food preservation.

  • Prof. Balaji Prakash, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore.
• April 24, 2019

  • Overview of Neurophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder using Snygap Heterozygous Mutation as a Model

  • Dr. James Premdoss Clement Chelliah, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India
• April 16, 2019

  • Antibody specificity & promiscuity

  • Dr. Dinakar M. Salunke, Director, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi
• March 01, 2019

  • The evolution of multicellularity

  • Prof. Vidyanand Nanjundaiah, Centre for Human Genetics, Bangalore. (Former Professor, MRDG, IISc)
• December 18, 2018

  • Repurposing Cell Adhesion Receptors for Actomyosin Cortex Regulation – The curious case of non-junctional E-cadherin

  • Anup Padmanabhan Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance IF, Department of Biological Sciences, Ashoka University

International

• September 29, 2022

  • Interplay of autophagy and RNA metabolism: Effects of the disease factors implicated in C9-ALS/FTD on macromolecular homeostasis.

  • Dr. Varun Bhaskar (Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Switzerland)
• August 31, 2022

  • Quantifying the origins and future of tetrapod evolutionary diversity

  • Dr. Gopal Murali (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)
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• May 16, 2022

  • Structural and Aggregation Properties of Amyloid Proteins Associated with Neurodegenerative Diseases

  • Dr. Sandhill Kumar Thangaraj (EPFL, Switzerland)
• March 22, 2022

  • Engineering approaches to studying protein machines and biological systems

  • Dr. Ajit Joglekar, University of Michigan - Dr. Ajit Joglekar’s research in cell biology interfaces with biophysics and biochemistry. His team studies how eukaryotic cells ensure stable genome inheritance during cell division. Their ultimate goal is to reverse engineer a complex protein machine, known as the kinetochore, to segregate synthetic chromosomes.

  Multiscale studies of membrane traffic from molecules to tissuesDr. Mara Duncan, University of Michigan - Dr. Duncan’s lab works on identifying proteins that function in the movement of proteins between organelles, their interaction with one another and how this process of membrane traffic contributes to global cell functions - nutrient responses, signal transduction, and morphology at the cellular and tissue level.

  
• March 14, 2022 (Online) (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Transposons-Molecular parasites tamed for genome engineering

  • Talk by Prof. Zoltan Ivics, Paul Ehrlich Institute, Germany
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• January 27, 2022 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Evolution-guided study of host- Viral arms race

  • Talk by, Prof. Harmit Malik, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, USA
    Prof. Harmit studies genetic “arms race” and how it guides evolution. The immune system in vertebrates suppresses viral infections by both innate restriction factors and adaptive immunity. Viruses mutate to escape these defences, forcing the host immune system to further evolve to counter the viral mutations. Viruses evolve faster than the vertebrate hosts but their proteins face numerous functional constraints, limiting their adaptability. Dr. Malik’s research is interdisciplinary and draws from evolutionary biologists and molecular biologists to explain the why and how of rapidly evolving genes.
  
• November 25, 2021

  • Interactive session on HFSP postdoctoral fellowships

  • The mandate of HFSP is fundamental interdisciplinary research across Biology, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Computer Science to address biological questions. HFSP supports competitive postdoctoral fellows across disciplines. This interactive session with Dr. Barbara Pauly, Director of Fellowships, Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) was organized by IISER TVM, and benefitted students and postdocs from across IISERs.
• February 19, 2021 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Evolution of centromeres: Conserved function, yet diverse architectures

  • Dr Innes Anna Drinnenberg, Institute Curie, Paris, France
• February 11, 2021(Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Human Performance Education and Sports Science

  • Dr Andy Galpin, California State University, Fullerton
• January 15, 2021(Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Heterogeneity of astrocytes in glycogen content and GPCR-driven dynamics

  • Prof Hajime Hirase, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• January 08, 2021 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Exploiting divergent biology of two fission yeasts to understand membrane function

  • Prof Snehzana Oliferenko, Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
• November 14, 2020 (Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • The Smooth-Coated Otter: Ecology, Behaviours and Field Methods

  • Dr. Katrina Fernandez, Director, Wild Otters Research
• November 13, 2020

  • Functional neuroimaging in small animals with high-field fMRI

  • Dr. Basavaraju G. Sanganahalli, Yale University
• October 24, 2020(Proteus – Faculty Talk Series)

  • Modelling triplet repeat expansions using genome engineering and pluripotent stem cells

  • Dr. Poulodi, National University of Singapore
• September to November 2020

  • Indian pollinator initiative: webinar series

  • The Indian Pollinator Initiative presented the first of a series of online seminars every Friday evening between September and November 2020. The webinar series included an exciting line up of talks on basic and applied pollination biology, from across the world.
• February 25, 2020

  • Evolution of the eye

  • Prof. Dan Eric Nilsson, Lund University
  
• February 25, 2020

  • Physiology of butterfly color vision

  • Prof. Kentaro Arikawa, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Sokendai, Japan
  
• February 24, 2020

  • Thermal Plasticity enhances gametic form and function in a model insect

  • Dr. Ramakrishnan Vasudeva, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
• February 24, 2020

  • Engineering new assays to reveal the biological design of chromosome segregation machinery

  • Dr. Ajit Joglekar, University of Michigan
• February 21, 2020

  • Innate color preference of Papilio butterfly - Interaction between vision and olfaction

  • Prof. Michiyo Kinoshita, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Sokendai, Japan
  
• February 12, 2020

  • Protein-based BioNanoMaterials for Sustainable Development

  • Prof. Vijaya K Challa, Professor & Fullbright-Nehru Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut
• January 27, 2020

  • The many facets of cytokinin action in Arabidopsis and crop plants

  • Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmülling, Institute of Biology, Applied Genetics/Molecular Developmental of Plants, Dahlem Centre of Plant Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
• January 08, 2020

  • Structural and functional studies of host-pathogen interactions

  • Dr. Sissy Kalayil, EMBL Grenoble
• December 12, 2019

  • AP-DV patterning synergy in cell shape change and tissue morphogenesis

  • Dr. Matteo Rauzi, Group Leader, Morphogenesis and Mechanics of Epithelial Tissues, IBV - Institute of Biology Valrose
• September 09, 2019

  • Waging chemical warfare on microorganisms: Drugs and drug-resistance

  • Prof. Kiaran Kirk, Australian National University
• April 12, 2019

  • Human RAD51 paralog, SWSAP1, promotes RAD51 assembly by regulating the anti-recombinase, FIGNL1 AAA+ ATPase in recombination

  • Prof. Akira Shinohara, Osaka University, Japan
• January 14-15, 2019

  • 1)Molecular mechanisms of microtubule formation
    2)The timing of mitotic spindle formation - regulation by NEK2 kinase and a minus end directed motor protein

  • Dr. rer. Nat. Elmar Schiebel, Group Leader, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Professor of Molecular Biology at the ZMBH, University of Heidelberg
• December 18, 2018

  • Understanding the rejection / repair decision during homologous recombination

  • Eric Alani Ph.D., Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
• December 18, 2018

  • Msh2-Msh3: a tipping point between genome stability and instability

  • Jennifer A. Surtees Ph.D., Co-director, UB's Genome, Environment and Microbiome (GEM), Department of Biochemistry, University of Buffalo, New York, USA
• November 22, 2018

  • Unexpected basophil activation by immuno suppressor cells

  • Dr. Jagadeesh Bayry, Director of Research, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Sorbonne Université, Centre De Recherche des Cordeliers, Paris, France

Colloquium and Symposia

National

• August 20, 2021

  • Biology across kingdoms - How dispersal evolves and why we should care

  • Human activity has destroyed ecosystems and brought about large scale environmental changes. Organisms have adapted to these changes using various strategies, dispersal being a key strategy. Prof. Sutirth explained how survival of many species could become dependent on their ability to evolve better dispersal strategies. The talk mainly focused on investigating the effects of dispersal evolution on natural populations using populations of Drosophila melanogaster as a model.

  Speaker - Prof. Sutirth Dey, IISER Pune
• August 06, 2021

  • Biology across kingdoms - Structure function and modulation of G Protein-coupled receptors

  • G Protein coupled receptors (CPCRs) are the largest class of cell surface proteins in our body. Dr. Arun Shukla explained how knowledge of the structure, function and regulation of this class of proteins can be exploited to design and discover novel therapeutics with minimal side-effects

  Speaker - Dr. Arun Shukla, Associate Professor, IIT Kanpur
• February 15, 2020

  • Biology across kingdoms

  • ‘Biology across kingdoms’ this 3rd Chapter of the symposium series was part of IISER TVMs celebration of the International Day for Women and Girls in Science. The symposia covered topics in areas of immune responses, cancer and stem cell research, interactions in natural microcosms, cholesterol level disorders and emerging viral pathogens. There were interesting talks by women scientists from IISER Pune and IISc Bangalore, as well as students and faculty of IISER TVM. The symposium concluded with a panel discussion on “Women and Girls in Science”.

  Speakers

  1. Dr. Vineeta Bal (IISER Pune),
  2. Dr. Kavitha Babu (IISc Bengaluru),
  3. Dr. Annapoorni Rangarajan (IISc Bengaluru
  4. Dr. Rennes Borges (IISc Bengaluru).
  5. Dr. V Stalin Raj (IISER TVM)
  6. Dr. Sadananda Singh (IISER TVM)
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• November 09, 2019

  • Biology Across Kingdoms

  • This half day symposium included 2 sessions comprising of talks on metabolic enzymes in tumorigenesis, cell biology, drug discovery and cardiac gene regulation.

  Speakers

  1. Dr. Sanjeev Das (NII, New Delhi),
  2. Dr. Deepa Subramanyam (NCCS, Pune),
  3. Dr. Upendra Nongthomba (IISc, Bengaluru)
  4. Dr. Rakesh Laishram (RGCB, Thiruvananthapuram)
• September 23, 2019

  • School of Biology Symposium and Department Day

  • ‘Biology across kingdoms’ the 2nd Chapter of the symposium series consisted of inspiring talks by scientists from IISc Bangalore, NII New Delhi, IISER Pune, IIT Kanpur and IISER TVM. The symposium included talks covering different aspects of Cell biology, Developmental Biology, Circadian rhythms, Evolution in bees and adeno associated viruses. The event included a poster session and concluded with a dinner, hosted by the department, for all the participants.

  Speakers

  1. Dr. Sathees Raghavan (IISc, Bengaluru)
  2. Dr. Sagar Sengupta (NII, New Delhi),
  3. Dr. Sanjeev Galande (IISER Pune)
  4. Dr. Jayandharan Rao (IIT Kanpur)
  5. Dr. Hema Somanathan (IISER TVM)
  6. Dr. Nisha N Kannan (IISER TVM)
  7. Dr. Ravi Maruthachalam (IISER TVM)
  8. Dr. Satish Khurana from (IISER TVM)
• January 11, 2019

  • Worm wars: control or eliminate?

  • Prof. Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, Translational Health Science Technology Institute, (THSTI), Faridabad, Haryana, India.
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International

• December 3-4, 2021

  • Synapse 2021 – A Neuroscience Symposium

  • This online symposium was organized in collaboration with IISER Tirupati on December 3 & 4, 2021. Neuroscience, is one of the fastest-emerging interdisciplinary areas of science that allows scientists across different fields to work together. This symposium brought together neuroscientists from India, Germany and Australia to share research findings and explore new opportunities for collaboration. The symposium was declared open by Prof. J. N. Moorthy, Director, IISER TVM at 3:00 pm on December 03, 2021 followed by a short introduction to the symposium by Dr. Poonam Thakur and Dr. Vasudharani Devanathan. More than 600 participants registered for this symposium.

  Speakers

  1. Dr. Vladimir Sytnyk, UNSW, Sydney, Australia; Topic: The role of the neural cell adhesion molecule 2 in regulating the function of the beta-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1
  2. Prof. Shubha Tole, TIFR, Mumbai, India; Topic: How to make a hippocampus
  3. Dr. Hiyaa Ghosh, NCBS, Bangalore, India; Topic: Maintaining order in the adult brain: Making new neurons and keeping well the adult ones
  4. Dr. Phalguni Alladi, NIMHANS, Bangalore, India; Topic: Parkinson’s disease: Our two windows to explore the neurobiological basis for etiopathogenesis
  5. Dr. Rishikesh Narayanan, IISc, Bangalore, India; Topic: Heterogeneities in neural circuits: Origins and implications
  6. by Prof. Nixon Abraham, IISER Pune, India; Topic: Smelling the force: Mechanosensation through rodent nose
  7. Prof. Sowmya Iyengar, NBRC, India; Topic: Brain-behaviour interactions in the ‘Shining Raven’
  8. Prof. Jay Gopalakrishnan, HHU, Düsseldorf, Germany; Topic: Human brain organoids to decode human-specific biology and disease mechanisms

  In addition to these talks there were two sessions of Lightning Talks, one session on each day of the symposium, by Ph. D. Scholars and Postdoc fellows. Each participant was given 5 minutes to present their research work, that was judged by a panel of experts. A total of 16 Lightning talks were presented during the symposium, that included speakers from both national and international institutes. The best six presentations ( 1 first prize, 2 second prizes and 3 third prizes) received cash awards that was sponsored by Authorcafé and a Certificate from the organizers of the symposium. Jervis Fernandes, a PhD scholarinDr. Jishy Varghese’s lab won the 2nd prize for the best lighting talk.

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• August 10 – 18, 2021

  • Synbio Conclave

  • The Synbio Conclave, an initiative by iGEM IISER TVM, was a threefold effort at bringing together expert exposition on current trends, techniques, and applications in the field of Synthetic Biology, to boost fresh curiosity and initiate helpful interaction. Prof. J. N. Moorthy, Director, and Professor of Organic Photochemistry at IISER TVM delivered the opening remarks on August 10, 2021 and laid open the event. The event consisted of a series of five talks in Synthetic Biology by academicians from Harvard, MIT, Stanford and University of South California.

  Speakers

  1. Dr. Drew Endy, Associate Professor, Bioengineering faculty at Stanford University, President of the BioBricks Foundation and the Co-founder of the iGEM Competition; Topic: Synthetic biology in the context of biodiversity conservation
  2. Dr. Ming-ruwu, Assistant Professor, DFCI, Harvard Cancer Center, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Topic: Synthetic gene circuits for cancer immunotherapy: turning cancer cells against themselves.
  3. Dr. Edward Boyden, Professor of Neurotechnology, MIT, Leader, Synthetic Neurobiology Group, MIT; Topic: Tools for analysing and controlling complex biological systems
  4. Dr. Leonardo Morsut, Asst. Professor, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California; Topic: Learning to program tissue development w/artificial gene circuits
  5. Dr. Pamela A. Silver, Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Founding Core Faculty, Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Co-founder of the iGEM Competiton; Topic: Designing biology for detection and control
• July 19 – 23, 2021 (Proteus)

  • Rhetor 2.0 The Symposium, interdisciplinary Biology

  • The Biology Club of IISER TVM, Proteus, organized this interdisciplinary symposium, Rhetor 2.0. It included a series of ten talks covering a range of topics from quantum effects, therapeutic benefits of dance, wiggle and shape-shift in proteins, use of nano fertilizers for revolutionizing agriculture, animals in crime detection, ethical issues of biomedical research and NMR. Subject matter specialists, provided an insight into the world of interdisciplinary sciences.

  Speakers

  1. Prof. Anil Shaji, IISER TVM, Topic: Are quantum effects relevant in Biology?
  2. Dr. C.N. Ramchand, Saskin Lifesciences, Topic: Drug discovery and Synthetic Biology, Development of Anti-VEGF antibodies Fab against eye diseases like Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Diabetic Retinopathy (DR)
  3. Dr. M K Mathew, NCBS, Bengaluru; Topic: Electrical signals in the nervous system: The nuts and bolts of the machinery
  4. Dr. Vina Vaswani, Center of Ethics, Yenepoya University; Topic: Ethical issues of biomedical research involving human participants
  5. Dr. Vinesh Vijayan, IISER TVM; Topic: Disorder to order, an NMR perspective
  6. Dr. Gregory Youdan, Columbia University; Topic: Dance for health: therapeutic benefits of dance
  7. Dr. Manu Johns Chowallur, Govt. Medical College, Thrissur; Topic: Detective beasts: Animals in crime detection
  8. Ms. Mala Thapa, Jadavpur University; Topic: Role of zinc sulphide nanoparticle as a nano-fertilizer for revolutionizing agriculture
  9. Ms. Chinmaya Ghanekar, Wildlife Institute of India; Topic: Learning on the go
  10. Mr. Anand Ojha, University of California, San Diego; Topic: Proteins do wiggle and shape-shift : How we know they did it correctly?
• January 31 - February 01, 2020

  • The 1st Frontier Symposium in Biology (FS-BIO 2020)

  • The symposia included series of exciting talks by eminent scientists from all over the world, especially in the area of molecular biology, electron microscopy and cell signalling. A Poster Session was also organized at the end of the lecture series.

  International Speakers

  1. Prof. Michael X. Zhu (University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Houston, USA)
  2. Dr. Aldebaran M. Hofer (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA)
  3. Prof. Donald Gill (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
  4. Prof. Natalia Prevarskaya (University of Lille, France)
  5. Prof. Khaled Machacha (Weill Cornell Medicine, Qatar)
  6. Prof. Colin W Taylor (University of Cambridge, UK)
  7. Prof. Grant J Jensen (HHMI, CalTech, USA)
  8. Dr. Brent L Nannenga (Arizona State University, USA)
  9. Prof. Elizabeth R Wright (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA)

  National Speakers

  1. Dr. Roop Mallik (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai)
  2. Prof. Kumaravel Somasundaram (IISc Bengaluru)
  3. Dr. Ranjan Sen (CDFD Hyderabad)
  4. Dr. Ullas Kolthur Seetharam (TIFR, Mumbai)
  5. Dr. Rakesh Kumar Mishra (CCMB, Hyderabad)
  6. Prof. Tapas K Manna, (IISER TVM)
  7. Dr. Ullasa Kodandaramaiah, (IISER TVM)
  8. Dr. Ramanathan Natesh (IISER TVM)
  9. Dr. Ravi Maruthachalam (IISER TVM)
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• March 15, 2019

  • From chemical screening to global biotech: how can we understand the changing patterns and putative crisis of drug innovation

  • Prof. Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Senior researcher at Inserm, (National Institute for Medical Research — France); Professor at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris)
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• February 08, 2019

  • Quantitative insights into cells at work

  • Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Michael Knop, Professor, Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH, Bridging affiliation with the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg
    In this presentation Dr. Knop discussed different microscopic methods that have been developed in his lab in recent years, such as specialized light sheet microscopes and techniques for ultrafast imaging of fluorescence, which can be used to image the diffusion and interactions of molecules in vivo.
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Workshops

• March 21-25, 2022

  • Genome Biology Workshop (2nd edition)

  • The 2nd edition of the Genome Biology Workshop on computational analysis of whole genome sequence data, jointly organized by IISER Thiruvananthapuram and Heidelberg University, Germany, under the SPARC program was held between March 21 - 25, 2022 as an online course. The course content included, computational analysis of genetic differences among yeast genomes sequenced using Oxford Nanopore and Illumina Technology. The Course Organizers included faculty from IISER TVM, University of Heidelberg and Stanford University.
    
    Organizers
    Dr. Nishant K.T, IISER TVM
    Prof. Michael Knop, University of Heidelberg
    Prof. S. Murty Srinivasula, IISER TVM
    Prof. Lars Steinmetz, Stanford, USA
    
    Course Coordinators
    Prof. Michael Knop, University of Heidelberg
    Prof. Joseph Schacherer, University of Strasbourg
    Dr. Simon Anders, University of Heidelberg
    Dr. Nishant K.T, IISER TVM
    Prof. Lars Steinmetz, Stanford, USA
    Dr. Ioannis Papaioannou, University of Heidelberg
    
    Technical Assistants
    Dr. Ajith V.P, IISER TVM
    Nikilesh Vijayan, IISER TVM
    Sameer Joshi, IISER TVM
    Esther von der Weth, Heidelberg University
    
    Prof. J. N. Moorthy, Director IISER TVM delivered the welcome address on March 21, 2022, followed by an introduction of the Course Coordinators. The workshop consisted of five sessions, one session per day of the program.
    
    Workshop Sessions
    March 21 - Working with Linux /Bioinformatics software
    March 22 - Genome alignment
    March 23 - Variant calling
    March 24 - Annotation
    March 25 - Interpretation of variant
    
    Students who attended the course learnt how to perform genome sequence alignment, variant calling, annotation and interpretation of variant data.
• January 25-26, 2019

  • Workshop on Proteomics and Data Analysis

  • The workshop included lectures on proteomics by experts in the field, and practical sessions on sample preparation and LC MS data analysis.

  Speakers

  1. Prof. K. Dharmalingam & Dr. Jeya Maheswari, Aravind Medical Research Foundation, Madurai
  2. Dr. Mahesh Kulkarni, NCL Pune
  3. Dr. Chitra Tangavel, Ganga Research Centre, Coimbatore
  4. Dr. Suman Thakur, CCMB, Hyderabad
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Collaborative Meetings

International Collaboration

• October 17-18, 2019

  • Tropical Pollination Biology Meeting

  • This meeting at the School of Biology was supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and was jointly organized by Prof. Hema Somanathan (IISER TVM) and Prof. Almut Kelber (Lund University, Sweden). The meeting brought together scientists, organizations, and pollination biologists from India and Sweden, and served as a platform for exchange of ideas, renewing research collaborations and forging fresh partnerships in pollination ecology, behavioural ecology of pollinator species in the tropics, and conservation of pollinators and their habitats.
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Training Programs

National/State level Training Programs

• December 6-8, 2019

  • Higher Secondary Level Teachers’ Training Program at IISER TVM

  • This 3-day Teachers’ Training program was conducted jointly with the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK) for about 224 teachers from across the state. Lectures by subject matter specialists were attended by teachers of respective subjects, while the general lectures were attended by all the teachers. The training program helped raise awareness among school teachers about new resources, tools and methods of teaching. They also became conscious of the need to make teaching and learning a more interactive, engaging and enjoyable experience.
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Collaborative Training Programs

• January 10-17, 2020

  • Genome Biology - 2020

  • The first 2 days of this 7-day event featured talks by eminent scientists in the field of genome engineering and dynamics, systems biology and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). The course included a one-week experimental and computer lab module, where participants learnt how to perform full genome assembly and analyse genome variation from NGS data. The workshop was co-organized by Dr. Nishant KT (IISER TVM), Prof. Srinivasa Murty Srinivasula (IISER TVM), Prof. Lars Steinmetz (EMBL/Stanford), Prof. Michael Knop (University of Heidelberg), with support from SPARC, MHRD.
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Proteus Talks

Student Talks

• 09/03/2021

  • Journey from IISER to Scientific Illustration

  • Rafeeque Mavoor, Science Media Center, IISER Pune
• 30/09/2020

  • Research and Internship Experiences

  • Siddhartha, PhD Graduate, Indiana University Bloomington
• 05/11/2020

  • Lab experiences in India and Universität Kassel, Germany

  • Nadi Dixit, PhD Graduate, Universitat Kassel, Germany

Symposium

National

• July 20-22, 2022

  • 5th National Postdoctoral Symposium

  • The 5th National Postdoctoral Symposium, was jointly organized by the School of Biology, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, thePost-Doctoral Fellows’ Association and Bangalore Life Science Cluster. This served as a unique platform to facilitate the exposure and transition of PhD scholars and early-career scientists to diverse career tracks.Proof J. N. Moorthy, Director, IISER TVM inaugurated the symposium with a welcome address. The Keynote address was delivered by Prof. VijayRaghavan, Professor NCBS and Former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. The sessions included talks, panel discussions, parallel workshops and interactive sessions.

  Speakers

  1. Mr. Prasenjeet Yadav, Natural History & Science Photographer & Contributing photographer - NatGeo Magazine; Topic: Science storytelling with photography
  2. Dr. Cheryl Travasso, Health & Science Communications Professional and Author; Topic: The HeArt of Science Communication
  3. Dina Mukherjee, Director Marketing, Cactus Communications; Topic:Empowering Researchers: The CACTUS way
  4. Dr. Santosh Podder, Senior Technical Officer, IISER Pune; Topic: A non-traditional challenging career track: Essential for the science and research excellence of the country.
  5. Dr. Madhankumar Anandhakrishnan, Grants Manager, Centre for Brain Research, Indian Institute of Science; Topic: From bench to desk: Embarking on a 'research management' journey
  6. Dr. H.S. Sudhira, Director, Gubbi Labs; Topic: Science culture in society: Taking theory to practice and practice to theory
  7. Dr. Shantala Hari Dass, Executive Director, IndiaBioscience; Topic: Exploring international opportunities for mobility and career advancement as a postdoctoral fellow in India
  8. Dr. Gerlind Wallon, Deputy Director, EMBO (15 mins) (virtual); Dr. Samrat S. Kumar, Country Coordinator, EURAXESS India (15 mins)
  9. Dr. Lipika Sahoo, Founder & CEO, Lifeintelect Consultancy Pvt Ltd; Topic: Science, Creativity and IPR
  10. Dr. B. Chagun Basha, Senior Tech. Specialist, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India; Topic: How to shape policy with your science?
  11. Dr. Neelanjana Janardan, Program Lead - Funding and Early stage entrepreneurship (C-CAMP); Topic: Taking science from lab to market – Entrepreneurship opportunities at C-CAMP
  12. Dr. Rajarshi Pal, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Eyestem Research; Topic: From impact factor to making an impact
  13. Dr. Bindu Nishal, Vice President, Agri-Innovation, Sustainability Innovation Centre, IKP Knowledge Park; Topic: Experience and learnings from Academia, Industry to an Innovation Ecosystem
  14. Dr. Sriram Parameswaran, Senior Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific
  15. Dr. Prajwal Bhat, Programme Manager, Entrepreneur First
  16. Professor S. C. Lakhotia, Distinguished Professor, Banaras Hindu University; Topic: Good ethical practices in research & publications and the pleasure of research
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• April 29- May 01, 2022

  • Second edition of the Frontier Symposium in Biology FS-BIO 2022

  • The second edition of the FS-BIO was held at IISER TVM campus from April 29, 2022 to May 01, 2022. The three-day Symposium focussed on cutting edge research in all fields of Biology and consisted of nine sessions with 23 presentations from scientists working in several specialised areas of biological sciences. Prof. Hema Somanathan, HoD, School of Biology, welcomed the speakers and audience to this 2-day symposium. Prof. J. N. Moorthy, Director, IISER TVM inaugurated the Symposium and laid open the meeting for meaningful deliberations, discussions and potential collaborations. 14 Ph. D. scholars presented their research work during the flash talks, and several young researchers explained their research through posters. Cash prizes were awarded for the best flash talks and poster presentations.

  Speakers

  1. Prof. Upinder Bhalla, NCBS, Bengaluru; Topic: Memories in Molecules, Brains, and Machines
  2. Prof. Gaiti Hasan, NCBS, Bengaluru; Topic: Regulation of Neuronal Gene Expression and Function by ER Calcium Signals
  3. Prof. Gautam Menon, Asoka University, Sonepat; Topic: Phase Separation, Activity and the Nucleolus
  4. Prof. K N Balaji, IISc, Bengaluru; Topic: Pathogen-elicited Enhanced Host Lipids Contribute to Mycobacterial Survival: An Intricate Role for Epigenetic Regulators
  5. Prof. Dipshikha Chakravortty, IISc, Bengaluru; Topic: Salmonella's Life in a Vacuole and their Strategies to Live Happily in Studio Apartment
  6. Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan, NCBS, Bengaluru; Topic: Revealing Secrets about Tigers throughMolecular Ecology
  7. Dr. Kavita Isvaran, IISc, Bengaluru; Topic: The Emancipation of Sexual Selection
  8. Dr. Vinita Gowda, IISER Bhopal; Topic: Using Evolutionary Features of Plant Communities to Understand Generation and Maintenance of Plant Biodiversity in India
  9. Dr. Maria Thaker, IISc, Bengaluru; Topic: Agamid Adaptation to Suburban Selection
  10. Prof. L S Shashidhara, Asoka University, Sonepat; Topic: Evolution of Developmental Mechanisms behind “Endless Forms, Most Beautiful”
  11. Dr. Amit Singh, IISc, Bengaluru; Topic: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Requires SufT for Fe-S Cluster Maturation, Metabolism, and Survival in vivo.
  12. Dr. Soumen Basak, NII, New Delhi; Topic: Intestinal Inflammation Gone Awry – A Role of NF-KappaB Crosstalks
  13. Dr. Bushra Ateeq, IIT Kanpur; Topic: Mechanistic Underpinnings of DLX1-Mediated Tumorigenesis and Its Potential Utility as a Drug Target in Prostate Cancer
  14. Dr. Aravind Penmatsa, IISc, Bengaluru; Topic: Ion-Coupled Antibacterial Efflux in a Superbug
  15. Prof. S Murty Srinivasula, IISER TVM; Topic: Endosomes: At Crossroads of the Golgi and Mitochondrial Homeostasis
  16. Prof. Manidipa Banerjee, IIT Delhi; Topic: Asymmetry and Quasi-Symmetry in Icosahedral Virus Capsids
  17. Dr. Sourav Datta, IISER Bhopal; Topic: Regulation of Early Seedling Development by BBX Proteins
  18. Dr. P V Shivaprasad, NCBS, Bengaluru; Topic: Epigenetic and Small RNA mediated processes in crop plants
  19. Dr. Jyothilakshmi Vadassery, NIPGR, New Delhi; Topic: Plant Perception of Insect Herbivory and Role of Ion Channels in Immune Response
  20. Prof. Shikha Laloraya, IISc, Bengaluru; Topic: The Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes Complex, Cohesin, and Its Roles beyond Cohesion
  21. Dr. Jishy Varghese, IISER TVM; Topic: Mechanisms that Help in MaintainingNutrient Homeostasis
  22. Dr. Devender Singh, India Alliance; Topic: Innovative Funding Opportunities for Biomedical & Health Research
  23. Dr. Shantala Hari Dass, IndiaBioScience; Topic: Let’s talk careers in science
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Conferences

National

• August 19 & 20, 2022

  • 4th BioGroup - India Meeting

  • Prof. S. Murty Srinivasula, Deputy Director, IISER TVM, inaugurated the 4th meeting of BioGroup-India. In his inaugural address, Prof. Murty welcomed all the distinguished speakers and participants and set the tone for the entire conference. Dr. James Clement, JNCASR, and Dr. N. Sadananda Singh, IISER TVM, in their opening remarks, outlined the origin and the research activities of the BioGroup. The meeting included two keynote lectures, by Prof. D.N. Rao, IISc, and Prof. S. Murty Srinivasula, IISER TVM.There were 12 chaired sessions that included 21 talks by invited speakers, in various fields of biology,two student talks, and one industry talk. A significant addition to the BioGroup meeting was the introduction of a special “G.N. Ramachandran Lecture” to be delivered by an accomplished early to mid-career researcher, at all future meetings of the Bio-Group India. The inaugural lecture was delivered by Dr. Ravi Manjithaya, JNCASR, who spoke on the significance of autophagy in normal and diseased cells. The meeting concluded with an official valediction by Saravanan Matheshwaran & Sabari Sankar Thirupathy.

  Keynote Address

  1. Prof. D.N. Rao, IISc; Title: cetylome analysis reveals diverse functions of lysine acetylation in Helicobacter pylori..
  2. Prof. S. Murty Srinivasula, IISER TVM; Title: Organelle homeostasis and inter-organelle crosstalk..

  Chaired Sessions

  1. Anjana Badrinarayanan, NCBS; Title: Imaging bacterial DNA damage response and repair.
  2. Garima Khare, University of Delhi; Title: Unraveling the role of the transcriptional regulator VirS in low pH–induced responses of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
  3. Sivasurender Chandran, IIT Kanpur; Title: NaCl Triggers the Sessile-to-Motile Transition of Bacillus subtilis.
  4. Dhiraj Bhatia, IIT Gandhinagar; Title: DNA based programmable nanodevices to instruct biological systems.
  5. Mahipal Ganji, IISc; Title: Quantifying the DNA base-stacking interactions using DNA-PAINT.
  6. Appu Singh, IIT Kanpur; Title: Cryo-EM structure of human orphan receptor GPR158 illuminates new biology of GPCRs.
  7. Satish Khurana, IISER TVM; Topic: Outside-in integrin signaling in hematopoiesis: The journey so far and the way forward.
  8. Sona Rajakumari, IISc; Topic: Adipose tissue: Friend or foe in obesity and associated metabolic disease?
  9. Sai Prasad Pydi, IIT Kanpur; Title: Pancreatic islet transcriptional and epigenetic changes at the single cell resolution during the progression of insulin resistance.
  10. Abdur Rahaman, NISER; Topic: Expanding the Nucleus: Role of a dynamin related protein.
  11. Kushagra Bansal, JNCASR; Topic: Transcriptional regulation in the immune system.
  12. Ravi Manjithaya, JNCASR, Topic: Role of Autophagy in health and disease.
  13. V. Stalin Raj, IISER TVM; Topic: Characterizations of Emerging Coronavirus Spike Proteins to understand Viral Entry and Development of Vaccine Candidate.
  14. Dharmaraja Allimuthu, IIT Kanpur; Topic: Nitroisobenzofuranone, a small molecule Staphylococcus aureus inhibitor targets cell wall biosynthesis.
  15. J. Rajendhran, Madurai Kamaraj University; Topic: Genomic insights into the Brucella spp.
  16. B. Ashokkumar, Madurai Kamaraj University; Topic: Rare genetic disorders associated with water-soluble vitamins.
  17. Sabarinathan Radhakrishnan, NCBS; Topic: Cis-regulatory effect of Human papillomavirus (HPV) integration in cervical cancers.
  18. Sivaprakash Ramalingam, CSIR-IGIB; Topic: Rewinding the internal clock of hemoglobin synthesis; Development of model systems to therapeutics for beta-hemoglobin disorders.
  19. Poonam Thakur, IISER TVM; Topic: Physiological factors underlying Parkinson's disease.
  20. Muruga Poopathi Raja, Madurai Kamaraj University; Topic: To Fold or Not to Fold: Structure and Aggregation Probing of ShortPoly-Glutamine Peptides.
  21. Vinesh Vijayan, IISER TVM; Topic: Disparate functional proteins related to memory: Defining the self-assembly of prion domain of CPEB3 and Tau protein

  Student Talks

  1. Manpreet Kaur, IISER TVM; Topic: New insight on the repair of Doxorubicin-induced DNA damage.
  2. Malhar Atre, IISER TVM; Topic: Replication-directed constrained evolution of genome organization.

  Sponsor’s Talk

  1. Rohit Mishra, miBiome
  

Lecture Series

• May 04 - May 06, 2022

  • Microbiology and Pathogenesis Lecture Series

  • Prof. Dipshikha Chakravortty, Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc, Bangalore
    Prof. Hema Somanathan and Dr. Sandhya Ganesan, School of Biology, organised a three-day Lecture Series by Prof. Dipshikha, an expert in the field of infectious diseases and host-pathogen cross-talk. The lectures series consisted of 6 lectures spread across the 3 days. The program allowed for informal discussions and students who attended the lectures learnt about fundamental and emerging concepts in microbiology and host pathogen interactions.
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