Cholera toxin is an AB5 multimeric protein complex secreted by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. CTX is responsible for the massive, watery diarrhea characteristic of cholera infection. It is a member of the heat-labile enterotoxin family.
Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) are a group of prestigious autonomous institutions for teaching and research in natural science established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Education to provide collegiate education in Basic Sciences integrated with research at the undergraduate level. The institutes were formally established by the Parliament of India through the Science Education and Research (Amendment) Act, 2010. Seven IISERs have been established across the country, namely IISER Pune in Maharashtra, IISER Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, IISER Mohali in Punjab, IISER Kolkata in West Bengal, IISER Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, IISER Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, and IISER Berhampur in Odisha. All IISERs were declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India in 2012, to promote them as leading institutions in the country in the field of basic sciences along with its sister institutes like Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The financial outlay for each IISER is around ₹5 billion (US$63 million) for the first five years of establishment.
Cytolysin refers to the substance secreted by microorganisms, plants or animals that is specifically toxic to individual cells, in many cases causing their dissolution through lysis. Cytolysins that have a specific action for certain cells are named accordingly. For instance, the cytolysins responsible for the destruction of red blood cells, thereby liberating hemoglobins, are named hemolysins, and so on. Cytolysins may be involved in immunity as well as in venoms.
Pore-forming proteins are usually produced by bacteria, and include a number of protein exotoxins but may also be produced by other organisms such as apple snails that produce perivitellin-2 or earthworms, who produce lysenin. They are frequently cytotoxic, as they create unregulated pores in the membrane of targeted cells.
Hemolysins or haemolysins are lipids and proteins that cause lysis of red blood cells by disrupting the cell membrane. Although the lytic activity of some microbe-derived hemolysins on red blood cells may be of great importance for nutrient acquisition, many hemolysins produced by pathogens do not cause significant destruction of red blood cells during infection. However, hemolysins are often capable of lysing red blood cells in vitro.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali is an autonomous public research university established in 2007 at Mohali, Punjab, India. It is one of the seven Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), established by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India, to research in frontier areas of science and to provide science education at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. It was established after IISER Pune and IISER Kolkata and is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. Institute focuses on pure research as well as interdisciplinary research in various fields of science.
Somdatta Sinha is an Indian researcher and professor of biology, who is one of the earliest to start working in the area of theoretical biology in India. Her expertise is in the interdisciplinary fields of mathematical & computational biology, nonlinear dynamics and complex systems with a view to understand the logic and design of biological processes. She studies spatio-temporal organization in biological systems – from biological sequences to spread of disease in populations – using mathematical and computational methods. She has played a central role in the development of mathematical and computational biology in her country through research, organization of scientific meetings, training programs, conferences, and teaching interdisciplinary courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her research encompasses patterns, interactions, and dynamics of biological systems using mathematical and physical methods to understand complex multi-scale biological systems. Sinha's research contributions focus on modelling a variety of biological systems, such as, circadian rhythms, pattern formation, biochemical pathways, synthetic biology, single and meta-population ecological models, epidemiology, and controlling spatiotemporal dynamics. She has also carried out computational analysis of genomes for classification of organisms using Chaos Game Representation (CGR) and Multi-fractal analysis, protein structure function analysis using graph theory, and network analysis of large biochemical pathways. Her publications have made important contributions in the respective fields and are highly cited. Her seminal contribution to the development of the interdisciplinary field of Mathematical and Computational Biology in India was acknowledged by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India with the National Senior Woman Bioscientist Award in 2013 and the J C Bose National Fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. She is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences. She was elected Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin for 2000-2001 and International Visiting Research Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in 2018. She has traveled widely across the globe and has given many invitational talks in universities and conferences.
Avadhesha Surolia is a glycobiologist at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He was born in Kishangarh, Rajasthan, India. Presently, he is an honorary professor at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc and holds the Bhatnagar fellowship of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He is known for his work on lectin structure and interactions, orientation and dynamics of cell surface carbohydrate receptors and protein folding, diabetes, antimalarials and anti-cancer agents based on curcumin, flavonoids, etc. In addition, neuropathic pain, neurodegenerative disorders and the link between immunity and obsessive–compulsive disorder are areas of his current interest
Sunil Kumar Podder was an Indian molecular biologist and biophysicist, known for his biophysical studies on Ligand. Focusing his researches on the recognition processes in biological systems and their chemical specificity, he proposed a model for measuring the specificity using free energy of association of amino acids of proteins with nucleic acid bases.
Sanjeev Anant Galande is an Indian cell biologist, epigeneticist, academic, former Chair of Biology and the Dean of Research and Development at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. He heads the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. He is the founder of the Centre of Excellence in Epigenetics at IISER Pune and is known for his studies on higher-order chromatin architecture and how it influences spatiotemporal changes in gene expression. He is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2010, for his contributions to biological sciences.
Balasubramanian Gopal is an Indian structural biologist, molecular biophysicist and a professor at the Molecular Biophysics Unit of the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his studies on cell wall synthesis in Staphylococcus aureus and is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology in 2010. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2015, for his contributions to biological sciences.
Nirmal Kumar Dutta (1913–1982) was an Indian pharmacologist, medical academic and the director of Haffkine Institute, Mumbai. He was known for his contributions to the studies on cholera and was an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 1965.
Javed Naim Agrewala is an Indian immunologist, the prof. at Indian Institute of Technology Ropar and the chief scientist and professor at the Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh. Known for his research on Tuberculosis, Agrewala is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 2005. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology.
Pundi Narasimhan Rangarajan is an Indian biochemist, virologist and a professor at the department of biochemistry of the Indian Institute of Science. Prof Rangarajan is currently the Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at Indian Institute of Science. Known for his research on eukaryotic gene expression, Rangarajan is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 2007.
Anand Kumar Bachhawat is an Indian geneticist, biochemist, professor in biological sciences and the dean of faculty at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali. Known for his studies on microbial genetics, Bachhawat is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India and Indian National Science Academy.
Kanakaraj Sekar is an Indian bioinformatician and a professor at the Department of Computational and Data Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Known for his studies in the field of bioinformatics, Sekar heads the Laboratory for Structural Biology and Bio-computing at IISc. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2004.
Karla Satchell,, is an American microbiologist who is currently a professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Ashish Arora is an Indian structural biologist and a senior scientist at Central Drug Research Institute. He did his postgraduate studies at Rajasthan University and post-doctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, and University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, before joining the Central Drug Research Institute in 2002. He is known for his studies on Protein NMR Spectroscopy and the pathogenesis of diseases such as tuberculosis and visceral leishmaniasis, commonly known as Kala Azar and has delivered invited speeches at various seminars. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2011. He is also a recipient of the 2010 Prof. B. K. Bachhawat Memorial Young Scientist Award of the National Academy of Sciences, India.
Durai Sundar is an Indian computational biologist, bioinformatician and the current Head of the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his studies in the fields of genome editing tool designing, biological studies of natural drugs and metabolic engineering as well as for his participation in the Indo-Japanese collaborative research initiatives on anti-cancer drug development and is a life member of the National Academy of Sciences, India.
Thomas John Pucadyil is an Indian molecular biologist, biochemist and a professor and chair of biology at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Known for his studies on membrane biochemistry and vesicular transport, Pucadyil is an international research scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a senior fellow of the Wellcome Trust- Department of Biotechnology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biological sciences in 2018.
