Our Team
TEAM LEADER
Dr. Indrani Datta
Dr. Indrani Datta is an Additional Professor in the Department of Biophysics, NIMHANS, Institute of National Importance, Bengaluru. Her research focuses on understanding, characterizing and modifying the neuronal niche under pathological conditions.
After completing her PhD from NIMHANS, Dr. Indrani Datta joined the pioneering Stem Cell company of India, Stempeutics, at Bangalore as a Research Scientist. She was a founding faculty member of the Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine (MIRM), the first institute in Asia to offer a master’s program in Regenerative Medicine. She has served as adjunct faculty at Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo for their stem cell program, and is an IYBA fellow and BIRAC-PACE grant awardee. Her research work has been funded by prestigious National funding agencies like DBT, SERB, DST, ICMR and CSIR, and her group (working with the eminent neurologists Dr. Pramod Pal and Dr. Ravi Yadav at NIMHANS) recently generated the first iPSCs from Parkinson’s Disease patients in India with a genetic modification specific to Indian ethnicity. She is also a member of the international LUX-GIANT Consortium for Parkinson’s Disease.
CURRENT
Aishwarya Raj
Aishwarya is a Ph.D student (SRF) in the lab supported by a DST-INSPIRE scholarship. Her work focuses on the effect of α-synuclein on the pathophysiology of astrocytes in the context of Parkinson’s Disease. She completed her masters in Medical Biotechnology from RGITBT, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune, Maharashtra and B.Tech. in Biotechnology from Alva’s College (Mangalore University), Karnataka.
Soham Jagtap
Soham is a Ph.D student. He has completed his Int. M.Sc./M.Tech. from the Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, University of Pune. He is currently working on patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and iPSC derived neuronal cells to investigate the cellular pathophysiology of Parkinson’s Disease.
Chandrakanta Potdar
Chandrakanta is a Ph.D student and a recipient of the Young Scientist Scholarship from DHR. She had completed her M.Sc. in Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Bengaluru. She is currently working on a-synuclein phosphorylation and the contribution of different kinases to the same, as well as its effect on sporadic and familial models of Parkinson's Disease.
Roon Banerjee
Roon is currently working as a PhD scholar. He works with patient specific iPSC-derived astrocytes carrying the LRRK2 I1371V mutation (prevalent in India), and their role in the neurodegeneration of Parkinson’s Disease. He completed his M.Sc. in Human Physiology from the University of Calcutta with specialization in Neurophysiology, and his B.Sc. in Physiology from Surendranath College (University of Calcutta), Kolkata. He qualified through the Joint CSIR-UGC NET JRF examination in December 2019 with an All India Rank of 69.PhD
Khushboo
Khushboo is a 1st year Ph.D. Scholar and earned her M.Tech. from IIT-Roorkee in Biotechnology. She completed her B.Sc. from Acharaya Narendra Dev College, Delhi University in Biomedical Sciences. She is a Joint CSIR-UGC NET qualified candidate. Her Ph.D work focuses on evaluating the effect of G2019S and I1371V variants of LRRK2 on dopaminergic neuron function, such as vesicular dopamine release and intracellular calcium response to physiological stimuli.
Kallolika Mondal
Kallolika is a PhD student and a recipient of the Young Scientist Scholarship from DHR. She earned her M.Pharm. in Pharmacology from PES College of Pharmacy, Bengaluru. She is currently working on generating DPSC exosomes, loading them with drug targets and administering them in PD rat models intranasally. She is also studying their in vivo bio-distribution and the efficacy of the drug delivery through behavioral and biochemical parameters.
Rituparna Ghanty
Rituparna is currently working as a Junior Research Fellow. She earned her Master’s Degree in Human physiology from University of Calcutta with specialization in Molecular cell biology and her Bachelor’s degree in physiology from Triveni Devi Bhalotia College, Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol. She qualified the joint CSIR-UGC NET JRF June 2020 Examination with all All India Rank of 87.
ALUMNI
Kavina Ganapathy, Ph.D
Kavina was the first student to get a Ph.D from this lab on a Manipal Ph.D fellowship. Presently she is a Senior Scientist at ONNSA Research Innovations Pvt Ltd, Bangalore.
Sowmithra, Ph.D
Sowmithra is the second Ph.D graduate from this lab with an ICMR Senior Research Fellowship. She has just joined Yale University as a post-doctoral research fellow.
Pradnya Sahani, Ph.D
Pradnya is the third student to get a Ph.D from this lab.
Debanjana Majumdar
Debanjana was a Senior Research Fellow in an ICMR funded project and is presently a Ph.D. student at the Department of Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine (GTRM), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
Sunitha Pulikkot, Ph.D
Sunitha was the second JRF in the first extra-mural project of this lab from DBT. She is presently a Research Associate at Research Core facility, Kuwait University, Kuwait.
Swati Mishra, Ph.D
Swati was the first JRF in the first extra-mural project of this lab from DBT. She is presently a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington state, USA.