WE ARE COMMITED TO

Ever since the Covid-19 outbreak, researchers at IBAB have been using a variety of in silico strategies to discover drugs against SARS-Cov-2. Along these lines, IBAB Faculty Scientist Dr. S. Thiyagarajan has applied his expertise in structural bioinformatics to find potential lead compounds against the molecular machines of SARS-Cov-2. In collaboration with NIMHANS, Bengaluru and CFTRI, Mysuru, in a major breakthrough published in the Journal of Biosciences, Dr. Thiyagarajan and colleagues have shown that a laxative compound ‘bisoxatin’ can inhibit the interactions between the spike protein, also called as S-protein, and the human angiotensin converting enzyme-2 named ACE2. The authors suggest that bisoxatin provides a promising repurposable scaffold to develop new chemical libraries for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 entry into the host.
The paper can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/ST_JB

Graduates of the 2018-2020 batch of IBAB’s MSc programme in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (the MSc08ers, as we fondly call them) have secured prime positions in a variety of organizations, including Novartis, GSK, Eli Lilly, Syngene, IISc, NCBS, JNCASR, IISERs, IIT and Harvard Medical School, to name a few. Once again, IBAB placements are at 95%! We congratulate the MSc08ers and wish them every success in their chosen career path.

IBAB welcomes Dr. Rajani Battu as an adjunct faculty member. Dr. Battu, who obtained a medical degree from Bangalore Medical College prior to obtaining her PhD from the Netherlands, is the founder of Eyestem, a frontrunner in retinal stem cell research. She also manages the non-profit organization ‘Centre for Eye Genetics and Research’, which is engaged in discovering therapies for eye genetic diseases such as inherited retinal dystrophies. We are thrilled that Dr. Battu has joined the IBAB family and we look forward to actively collaborating with her and benefitting from her expertise.