Abstract: “Harnessing the adaptive immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells has ushered in T cell-based immunotherapies, which have revolutionized cancer treatment by inducing durable remission for many patients. Due to the immense complexity of T cell immunotherapy, nearly all attempts to improve these approaches and to expand their applications have been driven empirically. […]

Abstract:  Self-induced cellular confinement has been shown to play a role in a wide variety of biological processes, including cancer invasion and metastasis, immune cell navigation, and mechanosensitive gene expression and localization. However, the ability of adult stem cells to enter tight confinements has been less studied, despite the fact that stem cells are capable […]

Speaker Name and Affiliation: Dr. Vinaya Simha, Mayo Clinic (currently Satish Dhawan visiting professor at IISc) Seminar Title: Lipodystrophy and Insulin Resistance: Lessons learned and to be learned Abstract: Lipodystrophy syndromes are a diverse group of congenital and acquired disorders characterized by selective fat loss and features of marked insulin resistance including early-onset diabetes, hyperlipidemia […]

Title: Mechanics of Cancer Abstract:  Cancer is a disease rooted in genetic mutations and epigenetic regulation of cell biology. There is extensive heterogeneity in the biological drivers of this disease across cancer types, across patients with one type of cancer, and even within tumors within a single patient, making early cancer diagnosis, accurate prognosis and treatment […]

Title: Engineering the interface: From smart materials to devices to cell transplantation Abstract:  “In this talk, I will discuss our efforts in engineering the bio-material interface to achieve unique biological functions and medical applications. First, I will talk about design of hydrogel matrices to control stem cell fate in vitro and in vivo and use of […]

Title: Ex vivo 3D tumor models to study cancer cell invasion and T cell recruitment Abstract:  “Advancement in three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures and microfabrication has led to the development of physiologically relevant ex vivo models to understand the interdependency between cells and their microenvironment as well as various cellular functions involved in development and pathogenesis. In […]

Speaker: Dr. Tarini Shankar Ghosh (Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, IIIT-Delhi) Title: The gut microbiome and biological aging Abstract: "The gut harbours one of the largest microbial communities found in human body, with more than 1.3 trillion microbial cells encoding a functional capacity estimated to be more than 150 times the coding capacity of our own. Alterations in […]

Title: The Tumor-Immune Interaction: Pieces of a Multiscale Story Abstract: One of the most important advances in cancer research over recent years has been the renewed excitement regarding using the immune system to attack malignant cells. Understanding and managing the battle between adaptive immunity and the tumor is a complex multiscale problem, involving the molecular […]

Title: Elucidating and leveraging the design principles towards realistic Boolean models of gene regulatory networks Speaker: Areejit Samal (The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai) Venue: MRDG Conference Room Abstract: Boolean networks is a widely-used mathematical framework to model gene regulatory networks. Such Boolean models consist of a set of nodes, directed edges between the nodes, and Boolean […]

Title: Tractor beams and single molecules: How to visualize and manipulate single biomolecules in real-time Abstract: Imagine you could directly see the location and dynamics of individual proteins binding to a piece of single DNA. What if you could assemble your biological complex step by step and see it in action in real-time? What if you […]

Speaker: Prof. Herbert Levine (Satish Dhawan Visiting Chair Professor, IISc) Title: Cell – ECM interactions and their relevance for cancer progression Abstract: During metastasis, tumor cells must traverse fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM) en route to the circulation. Conversely, immune cells must traverse the same medium en route to attacking a tumor. Thus, the study of the reciprocal feedbacks between […]