Munia Ganguli | |
|---|---|
| Born | India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Known for | Studies in non-invasive drug delivery methods |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
Munia Ganguli is an Indian biochemist, biotechnologist and a scientist at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB). [1] She is known for the development of non-invasive protocols of drug delivery [2] and the team led by her was successful in developing a drug delivery system for skin disorders, using a nanometer-sized peptide complex carrying plasmid DNA which has since shown effective penetration and apparently without harming the skin. [3] She holds two patents for the processes she has developed. [4] At IGIB, she has established her laboratory where she hosts several research scholars and scientists. [5] Her studies have been documented by way of a number of articles [6] [note 1] and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 76 of them. [7]
Ganguli is a member of the contingent which represented IGIB in the Joint Research Initiative between CSIR and IGIB for interfacing chemistry with biology [8] and has been a member of the editorial advisory committee of Nano Science and its Application, a national level seminar sponsored by the University Grants Commission. [9] She has been the leader of the IGIB project, Nanomaterials and nanodevices for applications in health and disease, [10] has delivered invited speeches which included the International Conference on Advances in Biological Systems and Materials Science in NanoWorld (ABSMSNW-2017) [11] and guest edited the special volume of Science and Culture journal on Emerging Trends in Genomics : Applications in Health and Disease, published in January 2011. [12] The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded her the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for her contributions to biosciences, in 2012. [13]
Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is an artificially synthesized polymer similar to DNA or RNA.
A DNA construct is an artificially-designed segment of DNA borne on a vector that can be used to incorporate genetic material into a target tissue or cell. A DNA construct contains a DNA insert, called a transgene, delivered via a transformation vector which allows the insert sequence to be replicated and/or expressed in the target cell. This gene can be cloned from a naturally occurring gene, or synthetically constructed. The vector can be delivered using physical, chemical or viral methods. Typically, the vectors used in DNA constructs contain an origin of replication, a multiple cloning site, and a selectable marker. Certain vectors can carry additional regulatory elements based on the expression system involved.
Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short peptides that facilitate cellular intake and uptake of molecules ranging from nanosize particles to small chemical compounds to large fragments of DNA. The "cargo" is associated with the peptides either through chemical linkage via covalent bonds or through non-covalent interactions.
A nanodisc is a synthetic model membrane system which assists in the study of membrane proteins. Nanodiscs are discoidal proteins in which a lipid bilayer is surrounded by molecules that are amphipathic molecules including proteins, peptides, and synthetic polymers. It is composed of a lipid bilayer of phospholipids with the hydrophobic edge screened by two amphipathic proteins. These proteins are called membrane scaffolding proteins (MSP) and align in double belt formation. Nanodiscs are structurally very similar to discoidal high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and the MSPs are modified versions of apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), the main constituent in HDL. Nanodiscs are useful in the study of membrane proteins because they can solubilise and stabilise membrane proteins and represent a more native environment than liposomes, detergent micelles, bicelles and amphipols.
CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) is a scientific research institute devoted primarily to biological research. It is a part of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India.
Samir Kumar Brahmachari is an Indian biophysicist and Former Director General of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Former Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India. He is the Founder Director of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi and the Chief Mentor of Open Source for Drug Discovery (OSDD) Project. He is the recipient of J.C Bose Fellowship Award, DST (2012). In addition, he is one of the featured researchers in the India Cancer Research Database developed by Institute of Bioinformatics (IOB), Bangalore with support from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
Taruna Madan Gupta, born on 14 May 1968 in New Delhi, is an Indian scientist F and Head of the Department of Innate Immunity at the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH) in Mumbai, India. She has extensively worked on Aspergillosis and Lung Surfactant Proteins, with her research now more focused on role of Innate Immunity in host-pathogen interactions.
Jennifer Anne Doudna is an American biochemist who has pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. Doudna was one of the first women to share a Nobel in the sciences. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Emmanuelle Charpentier, "for the development of a method for genome editing." She is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair Professor in the department of chemistry and the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997.
Dr Vinod Scaria FRSB, FRSPH is an Indian biologist, medical researcher pioneering in Precision Medicine and Clinical Genomics in India. He is best known for sequencing the first Indian genome. He was also instrumental in the sequencing of The first Sri Lankan Genome, analysis of the first Malaysian Genome sequencing and analysis of the Wild-type strain of Zebrafish and the IndiGen programme on Genomics for Public Health in India.
Mitali Mukerji is a Professor and Head of the Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Jodhpur. She was formerly a Chief Scientist at the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology with notable achievement in the field of human genomics and personalized medicine. She is best known for initiating the field of "Ayurgenomics" in partnership with her colleague Dr. Bhavana Prasher under the mentorship of Prof. Samir K. Brahmachari. Ayurgenomics is an innovative study, blending the principles of Ayurveda- the traditional Indian system of medicine- with genomics. Mukerji is also a major contributor in the Indian Genome Variation Consortium, a comprehensive database that is producing "the first genetic landscape of the Indian population", and has been an author in many publications that use IGV databases to study population genomics. Mukerji has done extensive research on hereditary ataxias, and is involved in many other projects related to tracking disease origins and mutational histories. She is the recipient of the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 2010 for her contribution in the field of Medical Sciences.
Sunil Kumar Verma, was an Indian biologist and a principal scientist at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India. Verma was primarily known for his contributions to the development of "universal primer technology", a first generation DNA barcoding method, that can identify any bird, fish, reptile or mammal from a small biological sample, and satisfy legal evidence requirements in a court of law. This technology has revitalised the field of wildlife forensics and is now routinely used across India to provide a species identification service in cases of wildlife crime. This approach of species identification is now known as "DNA barcoding" across the world.
Tapas Kumar Kundu is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and at present the Director of Central Drug Research Institute, a prestigious research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lucknow. He is the head of the Transcription and Disease Laboratory of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He is known for his studies on the regulation of Gene expression and his contributions in cancer diagnostics and the development of new drug candidates for cancer and AIDS therapeutics. He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India and a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology. 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 2005, for his contributions to biological sciences. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology.
Anurag Agrawal is an Indian pulmonologist, medical researcher, Dean of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, and the former director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, a CSIR institution. Known for his studies on lung diseases, Agrawal has been a senior fellow of the DBT-Wellcome Trust. 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 2014. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology which he received in 2015 and the 2020 Sun Pharma Science Foundation award in Medical Sciences.
Shantanu Sengupta is an Indian cell biologist and a professor at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. At IGIB, he coordinates the activities of the National Facility for Biochemical and Genomic Resources (NFBGR) and the Proteomics and Structural Biology Unit of the institute. He is a member of the executive council of the Proteomic Society, India and is known for his studies of cardiovascular diseases from a genetic perspective as well as of Homocysteine with regard to its toxicity and its role in epigenetic modifications. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 149 of them. 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.
Debasis Dash is an Indian computational biologist and chief scientist at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB). Known for his research on proteomics and Big Data and Artificial Intelligence studies, his studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 120 of them. 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 2014. He was appointed as the director of Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar on 18 May 2023.
Dipyaman Ganguly is an Indian physician-scientist immunologist and cell biologist, currently a Principal Scientist and Swarnajayanthi Fellow at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB). He heads the Dendritic Cell Laboratory of IICB, popularly known as the Ganguly Lab, where he hosts several researchers involved in research on regulation of innate Immunity and pathogenesis of inflammatory disorders. 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 2022.
Beena Ramakrishnan Pillai is an Indian microbiologist, geneticist, and a scientist at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. She is known for her studies on gene regulation influenced by small RNA and histone variants and is a recipient of the Young Scientist Award of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Young Scientist Medal of the INSA. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded her the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for her contributions to biosciences, in 2017–18.
Hamid Ghandehari is an Iranian-American drug delivery research scientist, and a professor in the Departments of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah. His research is focused in recombinant polymers for drug and gene delivery, nanotoxicology of dendritic and inorganic constructs, water-soluble polymers for targeted delivery and poly(amidoamine) dendrimers for oral delivery.
Rohit Srivastava is a Himanshu Patel Chair Professor in the Department of Biosciences and Bioegineering at IIT Bombay specialising in medical diagnostic devices, nanoengineered materials and photothermal cancer therapy. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Medical Sciences in the year 2021 for his contributions to the development of affordable medical devices.
Krishnarajanagar Nagappa Ganesh is an Indian bio-organic chemist and served as the (founding) director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati since 2017 till 2023. He is also the founding director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, that was established in 2006 and served the office till 2017. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in chemical sciences (1998) for "his outstanding contribution towards the understanding of the chemical principles of DNA molecular recognition and for his work on various facets of DNA structure and its interaction with drugs and proteins". He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy since 2000.
