February 2025
Congratulations to first year PhD student, Ananya Grewall for receiving the Best Poster Award at the "First Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Meeting - India 2025" held at JNCASR, Bangalore on February 18-21, 2025. This is the annual meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS) that serves as a "forum for the realization of the Society's mission and goals, to foster academic and industry-based research for the development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. The meeting serves as a continuum for dialogue and discussion among industry, academia and health authorities to educate and share progress on the basic research and therapeutic development of oligonucleotides including antisense, siRNA, immunostimulatory and ap tamer applications, RNA/DNA editing and mRNA therapeutics as well as RNA research. Ananya presented her work of using antisense technology to improve diabetic wound healing and protect against bacterial infections.
Congratulations to first year PhD student, Ananya Grewall for receiving the Best Poster Award at the "First Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Meeting - India 2025" held at JNCASR, Bangalore on February 18-21, 2025. This is the annual meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (OTS) that serves as a "forum for the realization of the Society's mission and goals, to foster academic and industry-based research for the development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. The meeting serves as a continuum for dialogue and discussion among industry, academia and health authorities to educate and share progress on the basic research and therapeutic development of oligonucleotides including antisense, siRNA, immunostimulatory and ap tamer applications, RNA/DNA editing and mRNA therapeutics as well as RNA research. Ananya presented her work of using antisense technology to improve diabetic wound healing and protect against bacterial infections.
Congratulations to Sunny Kataria for the publication of his manuscript "Mindin regulates fibroblast subpopulations through distinct Src family kinases during fibrogenesis" in the Journal of Clinical Investigation: Insight. In this work Sunny dissects how fibroblast heterogeneity contributes to the development of skin fibrosis. Using our mouse model of the skin fibrotic disease scleroderma, Sunny and colleagues found that reticular fibroblasts migrate and express inflammatory cytokines in response to Mindin making them resemble inflammatory cancer associated fibroblasts. Interestingly, Mindin induces collagen contraction and self renewal-inducing properties in papillary fibroblasts reminiscent of myofibroblastic cancer associated fibroblasts.
November 2024
Congratulations to Gaurav Kansagara who won the outstanding oral presentation (Best Junior Scientist Award) at the Skin Physiology International Meeting (SPIM) held on November 21-22, 2024 in Vichy, France.
Sunny Kataria and Colin Jamora presented at the 39th Annual Conference of the Indian Rheumatology Association (IRACON 2024) held in Bangalore, India. IRACON is "a significant event in the field of rheumatology in India. This conference serves as a platform for professional development, education and learning opportunities, discuss recent developments, and collaborate on research for advancing the understanding and management of rheumatic diseases". Sunny gave an oral presentation of his work on "Mindin (Spondin-2) differentially regulates fibroblast subpopulations during fibrogenesis". Colin gave a talk on "Fibroblasts: What Clinicians Should Know".
Congratulations to Tanay Bhatt and KoshKey Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. for being awarded the "Innovator of the Year Award" 2024 from the Smart Bio Award Scheme at the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS). The BTS was held on November 19-21, 2024 with the theme 'Unbound', to "offer a unified platform for the entire tech ecosystem including communities, nations and industries, as well as enablers in Government, Academia and R&D; to find collective technology solutions for the world".
The Smart Bio Award is "designed to acknowledge and honor biotechnology firms that demonstrate exceptional leadership and innovative technologies. These awards aim to recognize companies that have made remarkable contributions in their respective fields within the biotech industry".
Gaurav Kansagara and Colin Jamora attended the GTIPA (Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance) Summit 2024, hosted by Shiv Nadar University in partnership with Institute for Competitiveness from November 15-16, 2024. The meeting "convened global leaders from over 35 countries, including diplomats, bureaucrats, CXOs, startup founders, and investors. This summit focused on critical sectors such as semiconductors and healthcare, highlighting India’s emerging role as a global innovation hub and its impact on the technology landscape. The two-day agenda featured insightful keynotes, dynamic panel discussions, and interactive sessions, designed to address the most pressing challenges and opportunities in trade and innovation policy."
On day 1 (Nov 15), Colin served as a panelist on the Panel on Policies to Drive Innovation in the Life-sciences and Healthcare Delivery.
On day 2 (Nov 16), the delegates came to Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence to learn about ongoing research projects in various different departments.
October 2024
Congratulations to Gaurav Kansagara who was invited to present his work at the EMBO Workshop on "The molecular and cellular basis of regeneration and tissue repair" held on October 7-11, 2024 at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France. Gaurav's travel was supported by a travel award from the Department of Biotechnology (Government of India).
September 2024
Congratulations to Navya Jain, an undergraduate student in our lab, for being recognized for her academic excellence by her inclusion in the Dean's List.
The Jamora Lab had the privilege of joining other colleagues from Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence to serve as delegates at the Global Bio-India 2024 meeting in Delhi from September 12-14. "Global Bio-India 2024 is a mega international congregation of biotechnology stakeholders, including international bodies, regulatory bodies, central and state ministries, SMEs, large industries, bioclusters, research institutes, investors, and the startup ecosystem. This annual event is organized by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Undertaking under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) - Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India showcasing India’s Biotech growth and opportunities to the world." (from https://www.globalbioindia.org/).
August 2024
Congratulations to Abhik Dutta and Colin Jamora for being invited to the Gordon Research Conference on Epithelial Stem Cells and Niches (Intrinsic and Extrinsic Regulation of Tissue Stem Cells) held at the Rey Don Jaime Grand Hotel in Barcelona, Spain. Colin gave a talk on "Deciphering the Impact of Inflammatory Cells and Signals on Stem Cell Behavior in the Skin" and Abhik presented a poster on his research "Understanding the role of gamma-delta T-cells in UV-induced melanocyte stem cell migration"
May 2024
Congratulations to Akshay Hegde for successfully defending his PhD thesis titled "Extracellular Caspase-1 regulates hair follicle stem cell migration during wounding". This body of work solved an almost two decades old question of how stem cells in the hair follicle (that are normally utilized for hair cyclical regeneration) are redirected into the epidermis during skin damage/stress to contribute to epidermal repair. In doing so, Akshay, in collaboration with a former postdoc in the lab [Dr. Subhasri Ghosh], found a novel role for secreted Caspase-1.
Congratulations to Colin Jamora for assuming the position of Head of the Department of Life Sciences at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence effective on May 1st.
March 2024
Congratulations to Dyuti Saha for successfully defending her PhD thesis titled "Understanding the temporal regulation of the phases of the wound healing program and developing therapeutic for associated pathologies". Dr. Saha completed her thesis with a diverse set of collaborators ranging from clinicians, to biotech scientists, to other basic scientists. Her thesis is comprised of three interrelated areas that investigated the mechanisms regulating the transitions between the inflammatory phase and the proliferative phase, as well as the proliferative phase and remodeling phase of the wound healing program. In doing so she identified new regulators of these phase transitions and provided evidence that deregulation of these can lead to various pathological scenarios.
Congratulations to Akshay Hegde and Subhasri Ghosh for the acceptance of their co-first author paper titled "Extracellular Caspase-1 induces hair stem cell migration in wounded and inflamed skin conditions" in the Journal of Cell Biology (https://rupress.org/jcb/article-abstract/223/7/e202306028/276687/Extracellular-Caspase-1-induces-hair-stem-cell?redirectedFrom=fulltext). This work solved a nearly 20 year old question of how stem cells residing in the hair follicle and normally used to regenerate the hair is redirected to the epidermis in cases such as wound repair or UV exposure to the skin. Akshay and Subhasri found a novel role for caspase-1 as a chemotactic factor that induces the hair follicle stem cells to home to the epidermis. Classically caspase-1 is known as a critical component of a cytosolic macromolecular complex, known as the inflammasome, that facilitates the unconventional secretion of various types of cytokines. A reported, but often overlooked, aspect is that caspase-1 itself is released from the cell but its function in the extracellular milieu is not known. Akshay and Subhasri have found a role for extracellular caspase-1 and this will likely open up new avenues of investigation for this protein and its related family members.
Some social media coverage of this work includes:
https://twitter.com/DermalCell/status/1778561439256486153
https://twitter.com/robinsall/status/1777734279658967275
February 2024
The lab has officially moved on February 15th...... We have relocated to the Department of Life Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence (SNIoE) in the Delhi-NCR (Greater Noida). We look forward to contributing to the growth and excellence of this young department and university.
We sincerely thank our colleagues and friends at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) and the larger Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster for 11 years of scientific inspiration and growth and friendships to last a lifetime.
December 2023
Congratulation to Ravindra Zirmire for the acceptance of his paper titled "Bacopa Monnieri phytochemicals regulate fibroblast cell migration via modulation of focal adhesions" in the journal iScience (https://www.cell.com/iscience/pdf/S2589-0042(24)00710-7.pdf). This work was a collaboration with L'Oreal (Namita Misra and Aryasekhar Sanyal) to investigate the effect of natural products on skin physiology. In this manuscript Ravindra deciphers a mechanism by which Bacopa Monnieri extracts promote the cutaneous wound healing response.
October 2023
The Jamora lab was privileged to participate in the inStem Open Day 2023. This event was aimed at the general public (especially school children) to acquaint them with the scientific research carried out at inStem and to instill a sense of excitement for research endeavors and careers in science.
September 2023
Congratulations to Johan Ajnabi for receiving a travel award from the Paeonia Foundation to attend the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) Conference 2023: Mechanobiology in Health and Disease. The conference was held on September 26-29, 2023 at the National University of Singapore. Johan presented a flash talk and poster on his thesis research to understand how the release of mechanical tension in the wounded skin affects the the subcellular localization of the epigenetic regulator DNMT3A. This is an important node of regulation as the nuclear translocation of DNMT3A can drive the cell state switch from homeostasis to repair mode in epidermal keratinocytes.
The laboratory had a strong showing at the 2023 Conference of the Society of Inflammation Research (SIRCON 2023) held at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, September 16-17, 2023. Congratulations to Dyuti Saha who received an outstanding oral presentation award and Gaurav Kansagara who received a best poster award.
Congratulations to Binita Dam who received a travel award to attend the 11th International Symposium on Stem Cells and Cancer in Heidelberg, Germany (September 10-12, 2023). Binita presented a poster on her work to elucidate the mechanism by which the matricellular protein Mindin maintains the stemness of cells. The title of her poster was "Mindin-alphaM integrin mediated signaling maintains cancer stem cells in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma".
May 2023
Tanay Bhatt was part of a delegation representing inStem at the National Technology Week 2023 which took place from May 11th to May 14th, 2023 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi to celebrate India's technological advances
April 2023
Congratulation to Ravindra Zirmire for successfully defending his PhD thesis titled "Bacon Monnieri phytochemical increase cell migration by regulating focal adhesion". Dr. Zirmire pioneered the study of phytochemical in the lab to apply them in understanding and modulating the wound healing response. This work was done in collaboration with L'Oreal.
January 2023
Edries Yousaf Hajam was part of a delegation of students, postdocs and faculty representing inStem at the Indian International Science Festival held in Bhopal January 21 - 24, 2023. "The main purpose of IISF is the celebration of science by all. Engagement of common people with science in a joyful and entertaining manner is essential for the healthy, prosperous and meaningful life. Through its creative programs and activities, IISF provides opportunities to people and scientific fraternity in the country and abroad to come together, work together and experience the joy of doing science for the well-being of India and humanity" (https://www.scienceindiafest.org/about).
Congratulation to Sunny Kataria for successfully defending his PhD thesis titled "Functional heterogeneity of fibroblasts in a mouse model of dermal fibrosis"
December 2022
Congratulation to Isha Rana and Sunny Kataria for the acceptance of their paper titled "Mindin (Spondin-2) is essential for cutaneous fibrogenesis in a mouse model of systemic sclerosis" in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2022.10.011). In this manuscript Isha and Sunny characterize a new mouse model for scleroderma (systemic sclerosis) that recapitulates many of the diagnostic features of the human disease. In particular, this mouse model appears to be more comprehensive in its reflection of the human pathology compared to other animal models. Moreover, Isha and Sunny utilized this mouse model to identify the protein Mindin (aka Spondin-2) as a key driver of fibrosis.
Congratulation to Tanay Bhatt and his company KoshKey for being awarded the L'Oreal prize for most innovative start-up company in the domain of Life Sciences. This award was given at the National Bio Entrepreneurship Competition 2022 (NBEC 2022). According to a press release, "NBEC is organized every year by Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India supported organization, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms under the BIRAC Regional Entrepreneurship Centre (BREC), a C-CAMP – BIRAC joint initiative, to attract, identify and nurture year game-changing deep science ideas with business potential." (https://www.biovoicenews.com/24-winners-awarded-rs-16-crore-at-national-bio-entrepreneurship-competition-2022/). Koshkey aims to design new therapies to treat non-healing wounds and combat antibiotic resistant microorganisms.
Congratulations to Isha Rana for successfully defending her thesis. Isha was registered at SASTRA University and was awarded a PhD for her thesis titled " Role of Mindin in regulating early inflammation for cutaneous fibrogenesis in a new mouse model of systemic sclerosis". The thesis defense was held online as Isha is currently a scientist at Monasterium Laboratory - Skin and Hair Research Solutions in Munster, Germany.
November 2022
Congratulations to Ravindra Zirmire, Sunny Kataria and their company PhytoKosh for placing 9th in the Innopreneurs Start Up Competition that had 500 companies pitching. According to their website (https://www.innopreneurs.in/story): "Innopreneurs is a competition that has been launched by Lemon Ideas as an annual contest in 2014. It has evolved much from the conventional B-plan contest to larger and capable platform for changing the world. It has transformed into a popular national level platform that encourages entrepreneurs/ students/professionals to bring ideas, innovations to a common ground and let ideas turn into reality." This competition has paired them with potential investors interested in supporting their efforts of using phytochemicals to combat pathogens.
November 2022
Congratulations to Ravindra Zirmire, Sunny Kataria and their company PhytoKosh for placing 9th in the Innopreneurs Start Up Competition that had 500 companies pitching. According to their website (https://www.innopreneurs.in/story): "Innopreneurs is a competition that has been launched by Lemon Ideas as an annual contest in 2014. It has evolved much from the conventional B-plan contest to larger and capable platform for changing the world. It has transformed into a popular national level platform that encourages entrepreneurs/ students/professionals to bring ideas, innovations to a common ground and let ideas turn into reality." This competition has paired them with potential investors interested in supporting their efforts of using phytochemicals to combat pathogens.
The Jamora lab was well represented at the Skin Physiology International Meeting held in Vichy, France on November 2-3, 2022 (https://www.skin-meeting.com/). Colin was an invited speaker and gave a presentation on immunosenescence in wound healing. Dyuti Saha, Edries Yousaf Hajam, and Tanay Bhatt were selected to give poster and oral presentations of their work. Dyuti presented her work on the effect of the neuropeptide Substance P in the wound healing response, Edries presented his work on the regulation of cutaneous fat homeostasis by immune cells, and Tanay presented his work on the mechanical and epigenetic regulation of the wound healing response. Congratulation to Dyuti who won the outstanding poster award.
October 2022
Gaurav Kansagara and Dyuti Saha were invited for short talks during the NCRM NICHE 2022 Virtual Symposium organized by Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM) on 16th October, 2022. Gaurav Kansagara presented his work on investigating the role of Mindin in development of tissue fibrosis. Dyuti Saha talked about her work demonstrating hair follicle grafting promotes re-emergence of critical skin components in chronic wounds.
September 2022
Congratulations to Krithika Badarinath for the acceptance of her manuscript in Cell Reports titled "Snail maintains the stem/progenitor state of skin epithelial cells and carcinomas through the autocrine effect of the matricellular protein Mindin" (DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111390). In this work, Krithika and collaborators demonstrate a novel non-EMT function for the transcription factor Snail to maintain the stemmness of epithelial cells. This is accomplished through the autocrine effect of secreted Mindin that activates the STAT3 pathway through Src Family of Kinases.
Congratulations to Edries Yousaf Hajam for the acceptance of his review article in Frontiers in Immunology titled "The expanding impact of T-regs in the skin" (https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.983700). In this review, Edries, Patricia and Harsha, along with our colleagues at Unilever (Amitabha Majumdar and Chung-Ching Chu) describe the unconventional roles that regulatory T-cells play in the homeostasis and regeneration of different compartments of the skin.
Congratulations to Tanay Bhatt on the acceptance of his manuscript in PLoS Biology titled "Initiation of wound healing is regulated by the convergence of mechanical and epigenetic cues" (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001777). In this manuscript Tanay reports on the work in the Jamora lab and Shravanti Rampalli's lab on the discovery that wound-induced release of mechanical tension in the epidermis leads to the nuclear translocation of the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3a. Among the different target genes that are methylated by this enzyme and downregulated is caspase-8. We previously found that simply reducing caspase-8 expression in epidermal keratinocytes is sufficient to induce a wound healing response in the skin in the absence of any injury. Tanay's work fills an important gap in our understanding of how the wound healing program is launched (and provides new insights into diseases such as diabetes, which has a delayed wound healing response).
Tanay Bhatt presented his journey to and through his PhD for inStem's Science Setu series. This webinar is part of the institutional celebration of INDIA@75 Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
August 2022
The Jamora Lab was proud to participate in inStem's 14th Foundation Day commemoration held on August 27, 2022 (https://twitter.com/DBT_inStem/status/1563126392535289857). It was also the first official event for our new director, Professor Maneesha Inamdar.
Sunny Kataria represented the Centre for Inflammation and Tissue Homeostasis (CITH) theme by giving an oral presentation of his work on fibroblast heterogeneity in the context of fibrosis. In addition, Binita Dam, Johan Ajnabi, and Akshay Hegde presented posters of their work. We are particularly grateful to Professor Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado for spending an hour with the lab listening to and providing insightful feedback on the projects presented by Dyuti Saha, Abhik Dutta, and Edries Yousaf Hajam.
July 2022
Congratulations to Abrar Rizvi (https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrar-rizvi-6989b9233/) for the incorporation of his company Matriverse Pvt. Ltd. This company was set up under the auspices of his Biotechnology Ignition Grant (see July 2020 news announcement) to develop novel therapies for fibrosis.
June 2022
Congratulations to Ravindra Zirmire and Sunny Kataria for being awarded a Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG). This grant is the flagship program of BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council), which "provides the right admixture of fuel and support to young startups and entrepreneurial individuals. BIG is the largest early stage biotech funding program in India. Funding grants.....to best in class innovative ideas to build and refine ideas to proof of concept".
Ravi and Sunny's funded proposal is to develop phytochemical that are effective against infectious diseases. They are setting up a company called PhytoKosh to commercialize their discoveries.
Congratulations to Gaurav Kansagara for receiving the 1st place poster award at the 10th International Conference of Laboratory Animal Scientists’ Association (LASA), India, on “Animal Models for One Health Programme: Challenges and Future Perspectives” jointly organized by the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research (NARFBR) and LASA India in Hyderabad during 3rd & 4th June 2022. Gaurav presented some of his work using a mouse model of the fibrotic skin disease scleroderma to understand the mechanism by which the protein Mindin promotes fibrogenesis. Congratulations also to our colleagues at the campus Mouse Genome Engineering Facility who won best oral presentation (Aurilie [Lily] Jory) and third prize for poster presentation (Arpana H)
May 2022
Congratulations to Krithika Badarinath for successfully defending her PhD thesis entitled: "Understanding the role of Snail in maintaining the stem/progenitor state of epithelial cells in cancer." Krithika was an integrated PhD student jointly supervised by Professor Sudhir Krishna (NCBS). We wish her continued success as she embarks on her postdoctoral tenure at Harvard
As part of the iBiology's mission "to convey, in the form of open-access free videos, the excitement of modern biology and the process by which scientific discoveries are made", Edries Yousaf Hajam recorded a video discussing his thesis work. The title of his presentation is "How is the expansion and shrinking of fat cells controlled in our body?" and the video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKLJ4StAhYo.
Congratulations to Tanay Bhatt (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanay-bhatt/) for the incorporation of his company KoshKey Pvt. Ltd. This company was set up under the auspices of his Biotechnology Ignition Grant (see March 2021 news announcement) to develop novel therapies for antimicrobial resistant (AMR) skin infections. Information about his company can be found at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/koshkey/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kosh_key?t=NAWPjI0R2qOZom67b1p0Cw&s=09
Website: https://koshkeybiotech.business.site/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/kosh.key?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
In addition, his journey of commercializing his research can be found in the interview conducted with Innovation Forum: https://inno-forum.org/interview-with-tanay-bhatt-co-founder-at-koshkey/
April 2022
Congratulations to Edries Yousaf Hajam for being selected to attend the Summer School 2022: Immune Regulation of the Skin, organized by the LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center and held on April 25-27, 2022 (https://sic.ku.dk/summerschool).
Another feather in Edries' hat was a Poster Award at the 25th Annual Wood Hole Immunoparasitology Meeting held on April 10-13, 2022 (https://burkclients.com/WHIP/meetings/2022/site/index.html). Edries presented some of his work on the regulation of dermal white adipose tissue by autophagy
Congratulations to Anupam Dutta (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anupam-dutta-8ba33199/) for the incorporation of his company VriVida Private Limited. This company was set up under the auspices of his Biotechnology Ignition Grant (see July 2020 news announcement) to utilize phytochemical approaches to accelerate the wound healing process.
March 2022
The Jamora lab had a strong showing at the Singapore International Skin Conference held on March 23-25 organized by the Skin Research Society and the Skin Research Institute of Singapore (https://www.skinsoc.org.sg/skinconference2022.html). Colin Jamora was an invited speaker and discussed the lab's work on antimicrobial peptides in the skin, Dyuti Saha was selected to give a short talk on her work to understand vascular defects in fibrotic skin, and Edries Yousaf Hajam received a rapid fire talk prize for his presentation on the regulation of skin fat by immune cells.
Our collaborative project with L'Oreal has been accepted for publication in the journal Experimental Dermatology (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/exd.14573). Led by postdoctoral fellow Rania Zaarour (https://gmu.ac.ae/rania-faouzi-zaarour/) and research scholar Dyuti Saha in our lab and Namita Misra from L'Oreal, this work demonstrates how neuropeptides released upon injury from neurons can regulate fibroblast behavior to help terminate the initial inflammation phase of the wound healing program and initiate the proliferation phase.
February 2022
Congratulations to Dyuti Saha for winning a Best Poster Award at the inStem Annual Review of Research 2022 (held on February 22-25, 2022). The poster award was generously sponsored by Unilever.
January 2022
In celebration of Start Up India Innovation Week (January 10-16), Tanay Bhatt's efforts to commercialize his thesis research to implement new strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance and non-healing wounds was featured as a translational activity at inStem. More info can be found at this tweet: https://twitter.com/DBTIndia/status/1482610650262417411?s=20
Abrar Rizvi and Gaurav Kansagara are inaugural members of the BLiSC Early Career Researchers' Council. This is a new initiative on campus to involve the student, JRF, and postdoctoral communities in the day-to-day functioning of BLiSC (Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster). More info about this council can be found at: https://news.ncbs.res.in/community/new-early-career-researchers’-council-instituted-blisc
Congratulations to Colin Jamora for being appointed to the editorial board of PLoS Biology, the PLOS flagship journal in the Life Sciences, that's blazing a trail in support of selective, equitable Open Science and reaching global audiences to help advance science faster. (https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/s/editorial-board)
Congratulations to Tanay Bhatt (for the year 2020) and Dyuti Saha (for the year 2021) for receiving second place in the Professor Obaid Siddiqi Prize for the Best Paper published from the BLiSC campus. The awards for both years were presented at the NCBS Annual Talks 2022 due to the pandemic which caused a pause in the awarding of the Siddiqi Prize.
Congratulations to Gaurav Kansagara for being awarded first prize in the poster presentation competition for the biomedical research category at the ICETBS 2022 conference.
December 2021
Congratulations to Abrar Rizvi for receiving a National Postdoctoral Fellowship from DST-SERB. Abrar will use the fellowship to continue his studies on identifying and developing novel therapeutics to treat fibrosis.
Edries Yousaf Hajam moderated a session of the JKS Outreach 2021 session on "Non-Academic Science Careers: Science Writing"
October 2021
As part of Stem Cell Awareness Month (hosted by Saveetha College of Allied Health Sciences), Colin Jamora gave a talk on "Stem Cells and Wound Healing"
August 2021
As part of the inStem Science Setu Webinar Series, Colin Jamora gave a talk on "How does the skin heal wounds?"
July 2021
Our collaborative project with dermatologists from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (Bangalore Medical College) has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology Innovations. Led by research scholar Dyuti Saha, this work demonstrates that autologous grafting of hair follicle units into chronic wounds can not only close the wound site but leads to the reemergence of critical structures including nerve fibers, blood vessels, and sweat glands. In addition, this treatment substantially reduces the tissue inflammation that is characteristic of chronic wounds and are frequently found in diabetics or with patients with defective vasculature.
June 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Tanay Bhatt for winning the regional Innovation Forum (IF) Bangladesh [see background information on this program in the April 2021 entry below]. Tanay now moves on to the global competition.
May 2021
Congratulations to Dyuti Saha who received a Registration Grant to attend the online meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) Annual Meeting. Dyuti's work was selected for an ePoster talk in the "Tissue Regeneration and Wound Healing" session of the virtual meeting held on May 3-8, 2021. The title of her ePoster talk was "Hair follicle grafting therapy promotes functional regeneration of chronic non healing wounds".
Congratulations to Edries Yousaf Hajam for being named one of the winners of the iBiology Share Your Research (SYR) Competition (https://www.ibiology.org/announcing-syr-2021-winners/). According to their website, "SYR participants will hone their scientific presentations and record a video of their talk with the help of iBiology’s professional science communication trainers, videographers and editors. Our team will train you in storytelling, slide building, delivery, virtual recording and more, and your final video will be shared with our global audience. Beyond improving your own science communication skills, you will develop a toolkit for guiding others in sharing their research. (https://www.ibiology.org/syr-competition/)"
April 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Tanay Bhatt for being selected as a finalist for Innovation Forum (IF) Bangladesh. IF Bangladesh is a branch of the Global Innovation Forum Limited, based in the UK that strives to drive innovative technology development by connecting innovators, industry, and investors locally and globally. Tanay's start-up is called KoshKey and is a venture to commercialize his thesis research in which he discovered how to control the release of antimicrobial peptides from the skin.
Congratulations to Edries Yousaf Hajam for receiving a scholarship to participate in a Virtual Keystone Symposium. Edries presented a poster at the eSymposium on "Innate Immunity: Mechanism and Modulation held on April 12-15, 2021. The title of his poster was "The role of immune cells in dermal white adipose tissue homeostasis"
March 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Tanay Bhatt for being awarded a Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG). This grant is the flagship program of BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council), which "provides the right admixture of fuel and support to young startups and entrepreneurial individuals. BIG is the largest early stage biotech funding program in India. Funding grants.....to best in class innovative ideas to build and refine ideas to proof of concept".
https://birac.nic.in/webcontent/BIG_17_Call_Awardee.pdf
Tanay's proposal is to harness the body's own production of antimicrobial peptides to fight off infections from antibiotic resistant microbes
Congratulations to Abhik Dutta for being selected for a Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Senior Research Fellowship.
Congratulations to Tanay Bhatt for successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled: Understanding the Regulation of Caspase-8 During Wound Healing
December 2020
Congratulations to Edries Yousaf Hajam and Tanay Bhatt for being selected to give an oral presentation of their work at the 6th India International Science Festival, Young Scientists' Conference [https://www.indiascience.in/videos/promo-iisf-2020-young-scientist-conference-e]. They will present their research in the session on "Frontier Areas of Basic and Applied Science - Life Science".
October 2020
Congratulations to Tanay Bhatt who was invited to present at the online kick-off on October 15, 2020 for the AMR Innovation Mission UK (April 2021) [https://www.amr-insights.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AMR-Innovation-Mission-UK-2021_2020.09.18.pdf]
As part of the program 6 companies were invited to pitch their novel technology to help curb antimicrobial resistance. The 6 pitching companies are FluoretiQ Ltd, AmpliGene India Biotech Pvt. Ltd, Oppilotech Ltd, Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, Omnix Medical and Madam Therapeutics. Tanay is one of the two presenters selected from India (https://www.amr-insights.eu/tegel/combating-amr-with-antimicrobial-peptides/).
July 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Abrar Rizvi and Dr. Anupam Dutta for each being awarded a Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG). This grant is the flagship program of BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council), which "provides the right admixture of fuel and support to young startups and entrepreneurial individuals. BIG is the largest early stage biotech funding program in India. Funding grants.....to best in class innovative ideas to build and refine ideas to proof of concept".
- Dr. Rizvi's project aims to identify new therapeutics for fibrosis. Though fibrosis (over-scarring) contributes to ~30% of all deaths worldwide, there is no effective treatment for this pathology.
- Dr. Dutta's project is to develop a new treatment to accelerate wound healing. This is particularly relevant for chronic wounds such as in diabetics where the failure to heal properly can result in loss of tissues and limbs.
Congratulations to Tanay Bhatt for being a winner in the 2020 CCAMP AMR Quest. The objective of this competition is "to identify and reward innovative ideas and solutions" in the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) domain and present opportunities for their development and commercialization. News coverage can be found at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/c-camp-announces-winners-of-amr-quest-2020/articleshow/77031583.cms?from=mdr
June 2020
The Jamora Lab is proud to contribute to the Covid Testing Laboratory at the Bangalore Life Science Cluster (BLiSC). This testing lab was established in the middle of April 2020 in response to the critical need to ramp up testing for the detection, treatment, and control of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. The BLiSC testing lab is run entirely by student, postdoc, staff, and faculty volunteers from the campus. Twelve members of the Jamora lab have offered their time and talent to help with diverse operations including (but not limited to): documentation, data entry, sample receipt and tracking, RNA extraction, and PCR. More information about the testing laboratory can be found at:
- https://www.instem.res.in/content/COVID-19-testing-effort-bangalore-life-science-cluster
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UN_JfKGVzY
March 2020
Congratulations to Edries Yousaf Hajam for being a winner in the 2020 Competition for the iBiology Young Scientist Seminars (YSS). His selection includes an all-expense paid trip to UC San Francisco to attend a multi-day science communication workshop. More info can be found at https://www.ibiology.org/meet-the-2020-young-scientist-seminars-winners/
NB: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Young Scientist Seminar was cancelled and Edries could not travel to San Francisco as planned.
February 2020
Ravindra Zirmire, Isha Rana, and Subhasri Ghosh presented posters of their research at the inStem Annual Review of Research Meeting on February 24-26, 2020. Congratulations to Isha who won an outstanding poster presentation award.
January 2020
Edries Yousaf Hajam gave an oral presentation and Haarsha presented a poster on their work on understanding the mechanisms regulating dermal white adipose tissue homeostasis in the skin at the International Conference on Autophagy and Lysosomes held at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore.
Colin Jamora participated in a couple of outreach efforts. On January 17th, he visited St. Joseph's College, Bangalore where he presented our work on wound healing and later met with undergraduate and master's students. On January 21st he was hosted by the Department of Biochemistry at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda where he gave a lecture and participated in an interactive session with the graduate students from multiple departments of the university
December 2019
Colin Jamora, Edries Yousaf Hajam, Isha Rana and Gaurav Kansagara presented at the "New Insights into the Inflammation, Immunity, and Pathobiology of Diseases" conference held in Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India on December 3-8, 2019.
Congratulations to Gaurav who received the outstanding poster award and to Edries for being selected to give an oral presentation.
November 2019
Colin Jamora, Tanay Bhatt, and Gaurav Kansagara were part of a delegation of faculty and students from inStem to represent the institute at Global Bio India 2019, held in Aerocity, Delhi on November 21-23, 2019.
Dyuti Saha was part of the student delegation representing inStem at the India International Science Festival held in Kolkata on November 5-8, 2019. She presented our work on wound healing.
October 2019
Our collaborative project with Unilever R&D, Bangalore (Amitabha Majumdar, PhD and colleagues) studying the secretion of antimicrobial peptides from epidermal keratinocytes was accepted for publication in Cell Reports. A preprint version can be found at the Cell Press Sneak Peek site at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3322364
The following are examples of coverage of this work in the popular press:
The Jamora Lab participated in two open science days at inStem:
October 14, 2019 - for over 900 elementary and high school students (https://www.instem.res.in/content/outreach-event-school-students-instem-bengaluru)
October 23, 2019 - for 250 college students (https://www.instem.res.in/content/outreach-event-college-students-instem-bengaluru)
We presented a multimedia exhibit on wound healing and the skin
Our collaborative project with Unilever R&D, Bangalore (Amitabha Majumdar, PhD and colleagues) studying the secretion of antimicrobial peptides from epidermal keratinocytes was accepted for publication in Cell Reports. A preprint version can be found at the Cell Press Sneak Peek site at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3322364
The following are examples of coverage of this work in the popular press:
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/breakthrough-fighting-superbugs-using-skin-as-shield/articleshow/72398818.cms
- https://www.biospectrumindia.com/news/58/15304/instem-unilever-team-discovers-way-to-combat-amr.html
- https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/ncfb-sda121019.php
- https://www.biospectrumindia.com/news/58/15304/instem-unilever-team-discovers-way-to-combat-amr.html
- https://theprint.in/science/antibiotic-in-human-skin-can-beat-superbugs-now-scientists-have-a-way-to-put-it-to-use/331406/
The Jamora Lab participated in two open science days at inStem:
October 14, 2019 - for over 900 elementary and high school students (https://www.instem.res.in/content/outreach-event-school-students-instem-bengaluru)
October 23, 2019 - for 250 college students (https://www.instem.res.in/content/outreach-event-college-students-instem-bengaluru)
We presented a multimedia exhibit on wound healing and the skin
Dyuti Saha and Gaurav Kansagara each received the EELS (Edogawa Evolutionary Laboratory of Science) Award to attend the NCRM-NICHE 2019 Symposium at Shibaura University in Tokyo, Japan on October 14-16, 2019. (https://www.ncrmniche.org/award/eelsaward2019.html)
August 2019
The lab contributes an article "How Does the Skin Heal Wounds" to iWonder, a science magazine published by Azim Premji University for middle and high school teachers
(https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/resources-i-wonder-issue-3-how-does-the-skin-heal-wounds.aspx)
The lab contributes an article "How Does the Skin Heal Wounds" to iWonder, a science magazine published by Azim Premji University for middle and high school teachers
(https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/resources-i-wonder-issue-3-how-does-the-skin-heal-wounds.aspx)
May 2019
Dyuti Saha received a travel award to attend the EMBO/FEBS Lecture Course on Molecular Mechanisms of tissue injury, repair, and fibrosis in Spetses Island, Greece on May 23-31, 2019
Dyuti Saha received a travel award to attend the EMBO/FEBS Lecture Course on Molecular Mechanisms of tissue injury, repair, and fibrosis in Spetses Island, Greece on May 23-31, 2019
April 2019
Neha Pincha successfully defended her thesis on April 4, 2019 becoming the first PhD student to graduate from the IFOM-inStem Joint Research Laboratory
Neha Pincha successfully defended her thesis on April 4, 2019 becoming the first PhD student to graduate from the IFOM-inStem Joint Research Laboratory
March 2019
Dyuti Saha and Krithika Badarinath received outstanding poster awards at the inStem Annual Review of Research Meeting in March 2019.
Dyuti Saha and Krithika Badarinath received outstanding poster awards at the inStem Annual Review of Research Meeting in March 2019.
January 2019
Neha Pincha was awarded a Professor Obaid Siddiqi Prize for the Best Paper published in 2018 from the Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster (BLiSC) at the NCBS Annual Talks 2019.
Neha Pincha was awarded a Professor Obaid Siddiqi Prize for the Best Paper published in 2018 from the Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster (BLiSC) at the NCBS Annual Talks 2019.
December 2018
Krithika Badarinath and Neha Pincha were each awarded an American Society for Cell Biology Travel Award to attend the 2018 ASCB-EMBO meeting held in San Diego, California on December 8th - 12th
Krithika Badarinath and Neha Pincha were each awarded an American Society for Cell Biology Travel Award to attend the 2018 ASCB-EMBO meeting held in San Diego, California on December 8th - 12th
November 2018
Edries Yousaf Hajam was awarded an outstanding poster prize at ImmunoCon 2018: "Immunotherapy and Advances in Immunology" (45th Annual Meeting of the Indian Immunology Society) held on November 1-3, 2018 at THSTI Faridabad
October 2018
Krithika Badarinath was awarded a prize for her poster presentation at the 14th Indo-Australian Biotechnology Conference on "Emerging Modalities to Improve Cancer Outcomes", held at ACTREC, Navi Mumbai on October 22-23, 2018
June 2018
Rakesh Dey was awarded a Department of Biotechnology Research Associateship (DBT-RA) to support his postdoctoral training
Rakesh Dey was awarded a Department of Biotechnology Research Associateship (DBT-RA) to support his postdoctoral training
February 2018
Neha Pincha won an Outstanding Poster Award at the inStem Annual Review of Research - 2018 meeting.
Our work on the role of PAI-1 in fibroblast mast cell interactions is accepted in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The role of PAI-1 in fibroblast mast cell interactions in a mouse model of fibrosis (In press).
Some press of this work includes:
Abhik Datta gave an oral presentation of his work at the Stem Cell Biology And Disease Models Meeting in Bangalore February 2-3, 2018 (a satellite meeting of the International Congress of Cell Biology)
Neha Pincha won an Outstanding Poster Award at the inStem Annual Review of Research - 2018 meeting.
Our work on the role of PAI-1 in fibroblast mast cell interactions is accepted in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The role of PAI-1 in fibroblast mast cell interactions in a mouse model of fibrosis (In press).
Some press of this work includes:
- https://instem.res.in/content/slice-pai-–-new-insights-how-immune-cells-promote-over-scarring
- http://www.lastampa.it/2018/06/28/scienza/sclerosi-sistemica-la-malattia-della-pelle-dura-di-cui-mor-paul-klee-ynN3x8Jg7iTGtzsdR49nwL/pagina.html http://www.ilsecoloxix.it/p/magazine/2018/06/27/ADyIzQJ-sclerosi_sistemica_malattia.shtml https://www.glinformati.it/2018/06/28/salute-e-benessere/medicina/fibrosi-e-sclerodermia-il-ruolo-della-proteina-pai-1-e-del-sistema-immunitario/ http://notizieoggi.com/2018/06/28/sclerosi-sistemica-la-malattia-della-pelle-dura-di-cui-mori-paul-klee/ http://www.meteoweb.eu/2018/06/fibrosi-sclerodermia-ruolo-della-proteina-pai-1-del-sistema-immunitario/1115978/
- http://www.ilsecoloxix.it/p/magazine/2018/06/27/ADyIzQJ-sclerosi_sistemica_malattia.shtml
Abhik Datta gave an oral presentation of his work at the Stem Cell Biology And Disease Models Meeting in Bangalore February 2-3, 2018 (a satellite meeting of the International Congress of Cell Biology)
January 2018
Krithika Badarinath won a poster award at the International Congress of Cell Biology (ICCB) 2018 Hyderabad for her poster titled “Understanding the role of Snail in maintaining undifferentiated state of epithelial cells.” Click here for the news link.
The Jamora Lab presented 8 posters at the International Congress of Cell Biology in Hyderabad, January 27-31 2018.
Krithika Badarinath won a poster award at the International Congress of Cell Biology (ICCB) 2018 Hyderabad for her poster titled “Understanding the role of Snail in maintaining undifferentiated state of epithelial cells.” Click here for the news link.
The Jamora Lab presented 8 posters at the International Congress of Cell Biology in Hyderabad, January 27-31 2018.
December 2017
Our work on hair follicle stem cells in wounding is accepted in the journal eLife. Stimulation of hair follicle stem cell proliferation through an IL-1 dependent activation of γδT-cells
Click here for news link.
Our work on hair follicle stem cells in wounding is accepted in the journal eLife. Stimulation of hair follicle stem cell proliferation through an IL-1 dependent activation of γδT-cells
Click here for news link.
October 2017
Neha Pincha presented a poster at the 33rd Ernst Klenk Symposium in Molecular Medicine - Cologne, Germany
Neha Pincha presented a poster at the 33rd Ernst Klenk Symposium in Molecular Medicine - Cologne, Germany
December 2016
Our work on the role of fibulin-5 in fibrosis (Nakasaki et al., 2015) was profiled in the Bangalore Mirror: "Scientist nail culprit that causes fibrosis". (http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/Scientists-nail-culprit-that-causes-fibrosis/articleshow/55841773.cms)
Other discussion of this work in the media can be found at:
Our work on the role of fibulin-5 in fibrosis (Nakasaki et al., 2015) was profiled in the Bangalore Mirror: "Scientist nail culprit that causes fibrosis". (http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/Scientists-nail-culprit-that-causes-fibrosis/articleshow/55841773.cms)
Other discussion of this work in the media can be found at:
- http://sclerodermanews.com/2015/10/20/fibulin-5-potential-therapeutic-target-treatment-skin-fibrosis/
- http://pulmonaryfibrosisnews.com/2016/01/04/fibrosis-study-finds-fibulin-5-contributes-disease-promoting-tissue-stiffening-
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151015114803.htm
- http://thewire.in/14070/protein-identified-as-key-player-in-skin-fibrosis/
- http://ucsdguardian.org/2015/10/26/researchers-discover-fibrosis-related-molecule/
- https://in.news.yahoo.com/researchers-identify-potential-target-treating-scleroderma-115003265.html
- http://www.desimd.com/healthy-living/health-news/new-study-paves-the-way-for-improved-therapies-for-skin-fibrosis
October 2016
Multiple poster awards for the Jamora lab at the International Conference on Advances in Laboratory Animal Science for Modeling Human Diseases held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, Bangalore on October 14-15th:
Multiple poster awards for the Jamora lab at the International Conference on Advances in Laboratory Animal Science for Modeling Human Diseases held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, Bangalore on October 14-15th:
- Akshay Hegde and Tanay Bhatt were awarded co-first prize for their poster "Caspase-8 knockout mouse as a model of atopic dermatitis".
- Edries Yusuf Hajam and Rupali Gund were awarded co-first prize for their poster "A novel mouse model of psoriasis with functionally impaired Regulatory T-cells".
- Neha Pincha and Sunny Kataria were awarded third prize for their poster "Snail transgenic mouse as a model of fibrosis".
July 2016
- Isha Rana was awarded an ICMR SRF fellowship
- Edries Hajam was awarded an ICMR SRF fellowship
June 2016
- Edries Hajam received an outstanding poster award at the IGIB Conference on Genomic Medicine in Skin Research
- Tanay Bhatt was invited for an oral presentation at the IGIB Conference on Genomic Medicine in Skin Research
February 2016
- IFOM -inStem Conference on Inflammation and Tissue Homeostasis. February 3-5 in Bangalore
December 2015
- Rania Zaarour presented a poster at the Annual Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) - San Diego
- Rania Zaarour received Department of Biotechnology Travel Award
- Sunny Kataria received American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Travel Award and Department of Biotechnology Travel Award to attend the ASCB meeting in San Diego, California
October 2015
- Neha Pincha and Colin Jamora both gave oral presentations at The 2nd IFOM-Kyoto University Joint Symposium on "Perspectives in Cancer Biology: Genetic Variations and Host-tumor interactions" held in Kyoto, Japan
July 2015
- Neha Pincha and Tanay Bhatt presented a poster at the annual meeting of the Indian Society for Developmental Biology in Hyderabad
February 2015
- Tanay Bhatt was invited for an oral talk at Gordon Conference on Stem Cells and Cancer, Ventura - California
- Tanay Bhatt was awarded Company of Biologist travel Award, Gordon Research Conference Travel Award, Department of Biotechnology travel award
- Tanay Bhatt gave a research talk at the University of California, San Diego
January 2015
- Tanay Bhatt received best poster award at the Chromatin Asia International Conference, Bangalore
- Subhasri Ghosh awarded NCBS Annual Talks outstanding poster award
December 2014
- Rupali Gund was awarded Department of Biotechnology post doctoral fellowship
- Tanay Bhatt gave an oral presentation at University of Hyderabad
January 2014
- Subhasri Ghosh awarded Wellcome Trust-DBT Alliance Early Career Fellowship
- Subhasri Ghosh won the Eli Lilly Award for Outstanding Graduate Thesis Research
December 2013
- Ravindra Zirmire was awarded Department of Biotechnology Ph.D. fellowship
