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Department of Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences

Departmental Happenings

YEAR-2024:

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  • Computer Science Association and Biological Society, Department of Biological Sciences BITS Pilani organised an interactive session on synthetic biology, reversible/irreversible computing, and machine learning, with Sangram Bagh, Associate Professor, the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, on January 20th, 2024.
  • The Department of Biological Sciences BITS Pilani, Pilani campus along with IIT Jodhpur and Central University of Rajasthan hosted the 5th Regional Young Investigators’ Meeting (RYIM) during 18-19 January 2024 and a career crafting workshop organized by India Bioscience on 20 January, 2024. The theme of the event was 'Life Sciences and Interdisciplinary Research'. Interactive presentations were delivered by esteemed speakers during the event. Students from multiple disciplines also had the opportunity to present posters during the Regional Young Investigators' Meeting (RYIM).

YEAR-2023:

  • The Department of Biological Sciences at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, organized a Plant Biotechnology laboratory visit of B.Sc. Agriculture students from College of Agriculture, Chandgothi, Dist. Churu on December 14, 2023. This initiative was conducted as a Scientific Social Responsibility associated with the SERB-Startup Research Grant led by Dr. Mukul Joshi (SRG/2021/002390)."
  • Alumni Lecture Series- Talk-5: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a research talk entitled “Regulation of Intestinal Intraepithelial T Lymphocytes (IEL)” on 8th November, 2023, delivered by Dr Mahima Swami, Principal Investigator and Sir Henry Dale Fellow, MRC Protein Phosphorylation & Ubiquitylation Unit at the University of Dundee (Alumni, Batch 2003).
  • Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus organized an educational research laboratory visit for the students of Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Vidya Vihar, Pilani, Pilani, on 27th October, 2023
  • 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-6: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavor, on 21st October, 2023, a research talk entitled “Host-pathogen interaction and its consequences during Salmonella infection” was delivered by Dr Vidya Devi Negi, (Assistant Professor) Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali
  • 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-5: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavour, on 27th February 2023, a research talk entitled “Indian Philosophy to Scientific Innovation: Encasing the molecular secrets of mosquito's lifestyle to fight against vector borne diseases” was delivered by Prof. Rajnikant Dixit, (Scientist E, ICMR-NIMR, Delhi) ICMR-National Institute of Malaria Research, Delhi, India.
  • The Biological Society, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, organized a fun-filled event ‘Bio Day Out’ on Sunday 29th January 2023.  The M.Sc., ME and PhD students, from our department along with faculties and staff participated in the event.
  • 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-4: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavor, on 27th January 2023, a research talk entitled “Microbes Choose where they want to live: Inside or Outside-strategic Location” was delivered by Prof. Dipshikha Chakravortty, (Professor, FNA, FNASc, FASc, TATA Innovation Fellowship recipient, ASTRA Chair Professor, DAE SRC Fellow, and Humboldt Fellow) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
  • A demonstration workshop for Biox 3D Bioprinter, organized by CELLINK and Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus on 29th September 2023.
  • Department of Biological Sciences organised a live webinar under Industry-Academia collaboration in association with Biotech Club, Department of Biosciences; MUJ; Microbiology Society of India. A Talk was delivered by Dr. Surendra Kumar Chikara Importance of gut microbes in health and disease on 9th September,2023.
  • A demonstration of ELSD "Evaporative light scattering detector" attached to HPLC system on April 29, 2023.
  • Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani campus, in association with Thermo Fisher Scientific, organized a one-day Microscopy Karyashala (Workshop) on “Microscopy by EVOS M7000 Motorized Microscope from Screening to High-Resolution Images”. on 14th April 2023
  • A one-day hands-on training on FPLC (Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography) AKTA Pure 25 M for protein purification on 12th April 2023.
  • Thanks to Apogee- 2023 held in BITS-Pilani, Pilani campus, on 1st April, the students and faculty members of the Department of Biological Sciences, had a chance to meet and interact with Prof.  Dr. K Vijayaraghavan, former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. The faculties and students were enlightened with this interaction that majorly covered various challenges faced by the present-day scientific community and how to overcome these challenges and develop a healthy scientific ecosystem.
  • A distinguished Professor, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar winner and former director of the National Centre for Biological Sciences Prof. K Vijay Raghavan was conferred upon the Padma Shri in 2013 by the Government of India. His research interests are in the fields of developmental biology, genetics, and neurogenetics, and on the important principles and mechanisms that control the nervous system and muscles during development and how these neuromuscular systems direct specific locomotor behaviors.
  • Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-5: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavor, on 27th February 2023, a research talk entitled “Indian Philosophy to Scientific Innovation: Encasing the molecular secrets of mosquito's lifestyle to fight against vector borne diseases” was delivered by Prof. Rajnikant Dixit, (Scientist E) ICMR-National Institute of Malaria Research, Delhi, India. 
  • The Biological Society, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, organized a fun-filled event ‘Bio Day Out’ on Sunday 29th January 2023.  The M.Sc., ME and PhD students, from our department along with faculties and staff participated in the event.  
  • 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-4: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavor, on 27th January 2023, a research talk entitled “Microbes Choose where they want to live: Inside or Outside-strategic Location” was delivered by Prof. Dipshikha Chakravortty, (Professor, FNA, FNASc, FASc, TATA Innovation Fellowship recipient, ASTRA Chair Professor, DAE SRC Fellow, and Humboldt Fellow) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
YEAR-2022:
 
  • Alumni Lecture Series- Talk-4: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a research talk entitled “How does information transfer occur inside cells: Multifaceted roles of the ubiquitin system” on 21st December, 2022, delivered by Dr. Yogesh Kulathu, MRC PPU, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee (Alumni, Batch 2000). 
  • A training on "Biosafety and Biohazards’ was organised by the ‘Institute Biosafety Committee’ and the Department of Biological Sciences BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus on 17th December 2022. In this regard several talks were organized as part of the training session by internal and external experts. The training session was attended by more than seventy research scholars and post-graduate students from Department of Pharmacy, Department of Chemistry and Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani. As part of the event, a talk on “Essentials of Biosafety in a Laboratory Environment” was delivered by the Invited Speaker, Prof. Souvik Bhattacharjee, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. A quiz was also organized at the end of the session to sum up and evaluate the understanding of the biosafety practices. 
  • 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-3: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavor, on 10th December, 2022, a research talk entitled “Reductive stress by thiol antioxidants activates the hypoxia response pathway” was delivered by Dr. Jogender Singh, Assistant Professor and Ramalingaswami fellow, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, India.
  • A mini colloquium as part of the lecture series- 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’ was organized by the Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus and BITS BioCyTiH Foundation on 3rd Dec2022.

    Several research talks were organized as part of this event. They are-

    1. “Mission oriented Research Leads to Products of Utility '' was delivered by eminent scientist- Prof. J.P.Talwar, Director Research, Talwar Research Foundation New Delhi India. 

    2. “Disorders of Proliferation: Analysis of Novel Pathways and Targets” was delivered by Dr. Rahul Paul, National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi, India. 

    3. “Autography in 3D space –changing goal post after Alpha fold era” was delivered by Dr. Lipi Thukral from Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi

    4. "Genetics & Genomics in Healthcare: Initiatives and Priorities" was delivered by Dr. Onkar N. Tiwari,Department of Biotechnology,Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. On this occasion, the research scholars of the Department presented their research through a poster presentation session.  

  • Alumni Lecture Series- Talk-3: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a research talk entitled ‘‘Utilizing microbiome science to improve host health and to combat antimicrobial resistance’’ on 26 November 2022, delivered by Prof. Joy Scaria, Associate Professor, South Dakota State University, Brookings, USA (Alumni, Batch 2006).
  • 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-2: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavor, on 19th November 2022., a research talk entitled “Programmable DNA nanodevices to instruct biological systems” was delivered by Dr. Dhiraj Bhatia, Assistant Professor and Ramanujan fellow, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India.
  • 'Excitement in Science: Insights and Perspectives’- Talk-1: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a series of research talks by eminent scientists/researchers working in India or abroad. As part of this endeavor, on 31st October, 2022., a research talk entitled “Identifying risk predictors for Cardiovascular Disease in India: A multi-omic approach” was delivered by Dr. Shantanu Sengupta, Professor, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India.
  • Alumni Lecture Series- Talk-2: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a research talk entitled ‘Studying the mechanisms underlying anti-inflammation and nerve regeneration by sodium phenylbutyrate and platelet rich growth factors in rat model of sciatic nerve transection’ on 29 October 2022, delivered by Dr. Anjali Yadav, Ph.D.  Academia Sinica, New Taipei, Taiwan (Alumni, Batch 2014).
  • Alumni Lecture Series- Talk-1: Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus conducted a research talk entitled 'Innate immune recognition of bacterial toxins' on 14 October 2022 to foster a research environment among existing students at BITS Pilani. As part of this endeavor, a research talk entitled was delivered by Dr. Anukriti Mathur, ME Biotechnology who is currently doing her post-doctoral research at Australian National University, Canberra (Alumni, Batch 2014).
  • The Biological Society, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani organized a fun-filled teacher's day program, in the same event the latest issue of the departmental magazine "Genesis" was also released on Monday, 5th September 2022.
  • Prof Amit Singh, Schuellein Endowed Chair (2018-2021), Drosophila Development and Disease Lab, Department of Biology, University of Dayton,  Dayton, OH, USA delivered an invited talk on “Drosophila eye model to study patterning and disease ” organised by the Department of  Biological Sciences on  2nd May 2022 at 5:45 PM.
  • One-Day Virtual Symposium on “Informatics-Driven Advances in Biological Sciences” was organised by the Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, and Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Interaction and Networking Society (APBians) on 02 March 2022.
  • A webinar on “Lung cancer and Lung cancer screening’ was organized by the Department of Biological Sciences in coordination with American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative (ALCSI) on 08 February 2022.

YEAR-2021:

  • Prof Guhan Jayaraman, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India delivered an online invited talk on “Applications of Synthetic Biology in Metabolic Engineering: A Case study on the production of controlled molecular weight biopolymers” organised by the Department of  Biological Sciences on  23 October 2021at 9.30 AM. 
  • Dr. Ratna Chaturvedi, Research Scientist, Department of Neurobiology, UMASS Medical School, USA delivered an online invited talk on  “Sleep modulation by glial transporters in Drosophila” organised by the Department of  Biological Sciences on  23 October 2021 at 11.00 AM.
  • An invited talk cum demo on  "cell counting as a part of the Animal Cell Technology lab". The same is being facilitated by Ritika Uchil, Merck (Sigma-Aldrich Chemicals Pvt Ltd). on 27th September at 03:00 PM.
  • Invited lecture on "Engineering analysis of living systems", by Prof. Jayanth Ramadoss, Director Perinatal Research Laboratory, Texas A&M University, USA on 15th June 2021, online at 6:30 PM.
  • The Biological Society, Department of Biological Sciences BITS Pilani organized an online event for pre-launch of the Magazine “Genesis issue: April 2021” on Saturday, 24th April 2021 at 8:00 PM. 
  • A talk on "The joys and sorrows of any life in science" was given by Professor Purnananda Gupta Sharma, Department of Biological Sciences, IISER Mohali. This was followed by a talk on "Neuron, Neuron, where art thou? " by Professor Anand Chandrasekhar, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri.
  • An online Demo on ‘Deeper exploration of cellular heterogeneity with high dimensional single cell biology’ was organized by BD Biosciences. Feb 22, 2021.
  • An online Demo on ‘Biomolecular interactions measurement using Thermophoresis’ was organized by Cornell Scientific Instruments Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.. Feb 12, 2021.
  • A Demo on ‘FPLC’ was organized by GE Healthcare. Jan 29, 2021.
  • A Demo on ‘HPLC’ was organized by Agilent Cross Lab. Jan 16, 2021. 

 

YEAR-2020:

  • A Demo on ‘JMP statistical software for genomic analysis ’ was organized by JMP Genomics. Jul 31, 2020. 
  • A webinar on ‘Publication Ethics in Scholarly Communications: Why and how to avoid Predatory Journals?’ was organized by the department of Biological Sciences in collaboration with The BITS Library and Cabells on 21 November 2020.
  • A  Webinar on 'Multicolor Research Applications of Flow Cytometry' was organized by the Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani along with Beckman Coulter, on 19 September 2020.
  • Dr. Sunit Mandad, Research Associate at Department of Neuro and Sensory Physiology University Medical Centre Goettingen GERMANY, delivered a talk on "Quantitative Mass Spectrometry: a tool to investigate neuronal proteome abundance and protein turnover" organised by Department of  Biological Sciences on  08 February,2020.
  • Dr. Manu Smriti Singh, Postdoctoral Fellow at Laboratory of Nano-medicine, Department of Cell Research and Immunology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel delivered a talk on “Three-dimensional tumor model as a robust platform to mimic vascularized tumors in clinic” organised by Department of  Biological Sciences on  31 January,2020.

 

  • Dr. Gagandeep Singh Saggu, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, Rockville, MD delivered invited talk on “A large conductance ion channel on the malaria parasite digestive vacuole”, organised by Department of  Biological Sciences on  28 January,2020.

 

  • Mini-colloquium on Emerging and Interdisciplinary Areas of Biologial Science Research, organised by Department of  Biological Sciences on 17 January,2020. 

 

YEAR-2019:

  • Akshina Jindal received Khorana Scholar 2019, Summer at Yale University: Akshina Jindal a B1 student, interned under Prof. Mark Gerstein at the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University in the field of Computational Biology. She worked on classification of hyper mutated tumor samples into hypoxic and non-hypoxic tumor samples using integration of CNN’s, image processing and genomics. Hypoxic subregions in tumors lead to increased genetic instability and higher rate of mutations. She built a pipeline using InceptionV3 and Resnet50 (transfer learning techniques) pre-trained models and compared the results with unsupervised clustering models. She also worked on finding plausible mutated regions in the hypoxic breast cancer tumor samples.
  • Mini-colloquium on Emerging and Interdisciplinary Areas of Biological Science Research, organised by Department of  Biological Sciences on 02 March,2019.

 

Science Day Celebration on 28 Feb,2019:

YEAR-2018

  • DHULIKA RAVINUTHALA, a M.E. Biotechnology student, received the "Bajpai saha" award (cash award Rs.2000/-)  for the best student paper presentation International conference on BioMaterials, BioEngineering and BioTheranostics given by the "Society for Biomaterials and Artificial organs (India) in VIT university,Vellore.

  • Dr. Jola Dubey trained 70 farmers from 45 villages of Jhunjhunu district at Ramkrishna Jaidayal Dalmia Seva Sansthan, Dalmia Trust, Chirawa, on production and use of biopesticides in horticulture. The program was conducted for imparting training to the farmers for using latest technologies involved in horticulture. Many scientists from ICAR's Krishi Vigyaan Kendras and state agricultural departments and social reformers delivered their talks on technologies in agriculture, latest government programmes in agriculture sector for the benefits of farmers and best possible ways for the maximum utilization of water in horticulture under the view of water conservation in today's scenario. Dr. Jola Dubey is presently working as DST Woman Scientist under the mentorship of Prof.S. K. Verma, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS, Pilani. The collaborating organization for the project is BITSAA, Pilani Resource Centre.

YEAR-2017:-

  • Dr. JolaDubey interacted with farmers of Churu district at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), Chandgothi, Rajasthan followed by Prime Minister's live session with farmers on developments and advancements in the agriculture sector on 20thJune 2018. Dr. Dubey provided in depth insights to farmers on importance of biopesticides and organic farming. She provided training on production and use of biopesticides. Farmers were keen to learn the techniques involved in organic farming as the heavy use of chemical pesticides is causing serious damage to soil, groundwater, ecosystem and human health.Their interest and response was overwhelming. After few interactive sessions local production units of biopesticides will be set up at village levels under this project.
  • Dr. Jola Dubey is presently working as DST Woman Scientist under the mentorship of Prof.S. K. Verma, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS, Pilani. The collaborating organization for the project is BITSAA, Pilani Resource Centre.

  • Department of Biological Sciences organized a TWO day hands on workshop on Flow Cytometry from 18th -19th Jan 2017. Lectures on basic principle of Flow Cytometry preceded hands on experimental demonstration of some selected FACS based experiments during the two day workshop.

    A Certificate was distributed by Dept of BioSciences on successful completion of the workshop.

  • The department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani,Rajasthan, India is pleased to announce an International Conference (BITS CONFERENCE ON GENE AND GENOME REGULATION, (BCGGR-2016)) which is to be held from February 18th -20th 2016. This symposium will serve as a platform to catalyze new interactions and exchange ideas in the diverse and fast-moving field of genetics and gene regulation, genomics and epigenomics, high throughput technologies and other diverse array of topics popular in genomics era. Over 20 keynote lectures will be delivered by leading scientists from India and abroad. For registration and other details visit our website http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/bcggr/index.html Organizers BCGGR-2016 Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan 333031, India; Phone : +91-1596-245250 (HOD); +91-1596-245273 (Office); Event Email: bcggr.2016@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

  • President of INDIA has shared his warm blessings for the BITS Conference on Gene and Genome Regulation (BCGGR) during February 18-20, 2016.