WE ARE COMMITED TO

In August 2020, as part of the Track-I public engagement of India’s Science and Technology Policy (STIP) 2020, the “Vision 2040” Ideathon was organised. Eight IBAB students participated in this competition, the results of which were announced on April 1, 2021. To IBAB’s immense pleasure and pride, the entries by four MSc09 students have made it to the “Top 10 Performers” and “Top 50 Entries” categories. Harshita Agarwal, with help from Neeraj Sharma and Yasha Nirati, won the “Top 10 Performer” prize for her animation video “My Dream Village”. Ankita Venkatesh, Chondamma Bollachettira Vijaya and Shweta Shrotri put together two comic strip-style entries addressing Gender Gaps in STEM and the Gap between Idea and Innovation: the former made it to the “Top 10 Performers” category and the latter to the “Top 50 Entries” category. We heartily congratulate the winners and look forward to many more such achievements by IBABians!https://thesciencepolicyforum.org/ideathon-result-announcement/

Dr. Karishma Kaushik, an Assistant Professor and DBT-Ramaligaswami Fellow in the Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology of Savitribai Phule Pune University, was the most recent speaker in IBAB’s Research Seminar series. It was eye-opening to hear about Dr. Karishma’s career trajectory, especially because she is one amongst few MD-PhD scientists in India, and the hurdles that she faced to set up her independent lab upon returning to India from the US. Dr. Kaushik also discussed her exciting research on developing human-relevant wound healing models, which resulted in an engaging Q&A session.

On March 16, 2021, The IBAB Research Seminar series was honoured to host Prof. Arun Shukla of IIT-Kanpur, a Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Senior Fellow & EMBO Young Investigator. Talking about “‘Structure, function and modulation of G Protein-Coupled Receptors”, Prof. Shukla presented his lab’s seminal work on understanding the interaction between beta-arrestin and G Protein-Coupled Receptors, and the identification of select receptors that appear to function in a G protein-independent manner. Prof. Shukla’s lab uses state-of-the-art cryo-EM, biochemical, and cell biological assays to dissect the function of this protein family, which contains the largest number of proteins that are targeted by approved drugs. The talk was followed by an engaging discussion with Prof. Shukla.