Mr. Vigneshwaran Venkatesan
Mr. Vigneshwaran Venkatesan has been selected for the Sun Pharma Science Foundation Science Scholar Award - 2023 for Young Scientists in the field of Biological Sciences. He was awarded for his research, “Development and demonstration of novel bifunctional gene editing approach for β-hemoglobinopathies gene therapy”. His research focuses on developing a gene editing approach for the β-hemoglobinopathies gene therapy by turning on the developmentally silenced fetal hemoglobin. The developed novel target functionally mimics the naturally occurring beneficial hereditary persistent of fetal hemoglobin mutation and shown to effectively activates fetal hemoglobin and decreased adult hemoglobin production. This bifunctional editing strategy showed superior HbF production than any of the existing HbF inducing targets including BCL11a enhancer and HBG promoter BCL11a binding site. Gene editing of Sickle cell disease (SCD) patients HSPCs with this approach displayed robust HbF activation with near complete absent of endogenously expressing sickle β-globin. This novel gene editing approach when tested in β-thalassemia patient HSPCs shown to reverse ineffective erythropoiesis. This work addresses one of the major challenges associated with the β-hemoglobinopathies gene therapy involving the continuous production of defective sickle β-globin and shown that ablation of defective β-globin has a potential to further improve HbF levels.
Ms. Leena Sapra
Ms. Leena Sapra has been selected for the Sun Pharma Science Foundation Science Scholar Award - 2023 for the Young Scientists in the field of Biomedical Sciences. She was awarded for her pioneer research work in “Establishing the Immunoporotic role of “Bregs-Tregs-Th17” cell axis as a novel Immunotherapeutic strategy in mitigating inflammatory bone loss in Post-Menopausal Osteoporosis (PMO)”. Findings from her doctoral research work suggested that probiotics exhibit the potential of enhancing anti-osteoclastogenic potential of Bregs along with its ability to modulate differentiation of Tregs and Th17 cells. These pivotal findings of her research work establish probiotics as a viable therapeutic option in the treatment and management of osteoporosis under clinical settings. Her research study ultimately led to initiation of a clinical trial in employing probiotics in the management and treatment of inflammatory bone loss in post-menopausal osteoporosis, making her research truly Bench-to-Bedside. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Rupesh K. Srivastava, Associate Professor & Principal investigator, Translational Immunology, Osteoimmunology & Immunoporosis Lab (TIOIL), Department of Biotechnology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India (Bharat). Dr. Srivastava’s group is a pioneer in establishing the role of the immune system in the pathophysiology of Osteoporosis, a field now recognized as "Immunoporosis”.
Ms. Parishmita Sarma
Ms. Parishmita Sarma has been selected for The Sun Pharma Science Foundation Science Scholar Award 2023 for young scientists in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her award-winning research aims to understand the molecular basis of biased signaling at selected G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) with a focus on improving the currently available therapeutics. The ability of GPCRs to preferentially activate, and signal through, one or the other signaling pathways, referred to as biased signaling, has revolutionized our current understanding of these versatile receptors and prospects of novel drug discovery. Ms. Sarma’s research has characterized a chemokine receptor namely CXCR7 as an intrinsically biased seven transmembrane receptor (7TMR) with exclusive coupling to β-arrestins without measurable activation of heterotrimeric G-proteins. In addition, her work has also characterized a small molecule compound as a receptor subtype selective agonist of CXCR7 with activities similar to that of natural chemokine agonist of the receptor. Overall, her research findings have direct implications for the fundamental conceptual framework of biased signaling and discovery of novel therapeutics targeting selected chemokine receptors.
Mr. Avik Chattopadhyay
Mr. Avik Chattopadhyay has been selected for The Sun Pharma Science Foundation Science Scholar Award 2023 for young scientists in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His award-winning work was titled “Novel Pharmacological Inhibitors of Interferon-gamma-induced Nitric Oxide Production, Alleviating Ulcerative Colitis and Bacterial Sepsis in Mice.” His research focussed on addressing therapeutic limitations in managing inflammatory diseases characterized by recurrent flare-ups and necessitating prolonged corticosteroid treatments. He aimed to search for novel non-steroidal anti-inflammatory compounds against these diseases. In this endeavor, he optimized an in vitro high throughput screening system against Interferon-gamma-induced Nitric Oxide Production- a critical signaling pathway that propels inflammatory diseases. In doing so, he successfully pinpointed novel lead compounds targeting this pathway. These lead compounds were further investigated to understand their impact on Interferon-gamma signaling. In vivo testing demonstrated their efficacy in mitigating ulcerative colitis and bacterial sepsis in pre-clinical disease models in mice. Furthermore, he explored in vivo drug-drug interactions between two promising lead compounds to optimize combination therapy and minimize adverse effects, thereby enhancing the potential for improved outcomes in future clinical trials. Avik is pursuing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Dipankar Nandi at the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. His research interests are twofold: first, to enhance the cost-effectiveness and efficacy of cancer immunotherapy by deciphering tumor responses to immunological interventions; second, to identify novel anti-inflammatory compounds and explore drug repurposing strategies for diverse inflammatory diseases.