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cellular and animal models. She reports on the levels of Dicer, the miRNA processing enzyme, to be a
determinant of diabetic wound healing. This finding has potential application in diabetic wound healing
in humans. The process of wound healing is inherently altered in the skin disease vitiligo. Archana Singh’s
lab studies epigenetic modifiers of genes involved in pathways relevant to Vitiligo. Here she reports the
role of miRNAs that result in delayed wound healing in vitiligo by comparing human lesional and non-
lesional skin for miRNA expression. In addition, she reports on their finding that the lncRNA Metastasis
Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript 1 (MALAT1) mediates regulation of SIRT1, explaining the
molecular basis for the protection of vitiligo skin from sun induced damage.

Mitochondria are central regulators of cell fate and at IGIB, multiple areas of research impinge on the
activity of mitochondria. Neeru Saini’s lab has an interest in microRNAs that are involved in different
molecular aspects of apoptosis. Here, she reports miRNA that impact mitochondrial dynamics. Her lab
also has an interest in various molecular aspects of cancer and psoriasis, with strategies placed both
towards biomarker discovery, and therapeutics. Soumya Sinha Roy’s lab works in the area of
mitochondrial voltage gated porins called VDACs. These proteins integrate key cytosolic processes with
mitochondrial functions. Using in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo liver cancer samples, he reports on the
regulation of vdac1 and vdac2 by miR-29a, a process central to tumorigenesis. Additionally, his lab
reports on how mitochondrial health alters with age and obesity and how it could be rescued with
externally provided quinones in a mouse model of obesity.

Secondary structures of nucleic acids can drive control of gene expression; this is also a means of
“epigenetic regulation” and G-quadruplexes offer this potential. This has been highlighted from the work
done in Shantanu Chowdhury’s lab which demonstrated that a small molecule based G-quadruplex
stabilization in the promoter region of telomerase gene leads to its suppression, providing possibility for
the development of G-quadruplex targeting epigenetic drugs. His lab is also making headway into
understanding how G-quadruplex mediated control of immune cell infiltration may be targeted by such
G-quadruplex targeting small molecules. Souvik Maiti’s lab reports on their work in RNA-protein
interactions that are pertinent to understanding lncRNA function and development of a novel COVID19
diagnostic. His lab identified nucleolin as a binding partner for the MALAT 1 and explained the role of G-
quadruplex structure in this association. Mary Ekka’s lab took a complementary approach in
understanding domains of nucleolin which enable this association. Her lab’s focus on structure-function
relationship in case of nucleic acid binding proteins extends to CONCR-DDX11 pair and searching for
binding partners of the lncRNA CHAST. A spectrum of biophysical and biochemical tools form the basis
of her lab’s approach to understanding epigenetic mechanisms at play in cancer and cardiac
hypertrophy.

The strengths of proteomics and metabolomics as parallel approaches to develop biomarkers and
understand biology is being recognized at IGIB. Sagarika Biswas reports on the discovery of early
biomarkers of osteoarthritis using proteomics. Swarnendu Bag, a new addition to IGIB, reports on his
efforts towards development of cancer immunodiagnostics using proteomics and metabolomics. His
focus is on spatiotemporal attributes in clinically well defined cases in collaboration with leading centers
across the globe. Computational approaches to deconvolute variations at the protein level in complex
tissues is required. Debasis Dash’s lab reports on identification of brain-tissue specific proteoforms using
a proteogenomic approach using publicly available datasets.

At IGIB, several model systems are being used to understand the impact of genetic changes and
environmental stress on phenotypic outcomes. One of the most popular model systems to address
function of human genes has been Zebrafish. Chetana Sachidanandan’s laboratory uses chemico-genetic

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