Our research focuses on frontier areas in Biological Sciences. We aim for research that seamlessly integrates physics, chemistry, mathematics and computational sciences to answer key biological questions. Research in Biology at IISER currently encompasses both theoretical and experimental approaches to the broad areas of Systems Biology, Ecology and Population Dynamics, Evolutionary-Developmental Biology, Cancer Biology, Neurobiology, Epigenetics and Gene-Environment interactions.

IISER Pune is actively recruiting more faculty for its Biology program and would like to strengthen both core areas in Biology as well as multidisciplinary research areas.  

For enquiries about faculty positions write to Dr. Saikrishnan Kayarat (saikrishnan at iiserpune.ac.in).

Prospective PhD students are encouraged to send their queries to biophdselection@iiserpune.ac.in. Detailed eligibility criteria and timetable of admission process would be posted here. Please note that students interested in pursuing research in Ecology and Evolution should have cleared GATE (Ecology and Evolution) and those wanting to pursue PhD in other areas of Biology should have cleared the JGEEBILS.

 
Facilities                  Centres of Excellence                  Academic Advisors                  Faculty Positions

 

Faculty Members Name Designation Research Nixon M. Abraham Assistant Professor Neural circuits and behaviour; Olfaction Collins Assisi Assistant Professor Information processing by neuronal networks Chaitanya Athale Associate Professor Self-organization and cell morphogenesis Ramana Athreya Associate Professor Active galaxies, galaxy cluster radio sources, high redshift Universe, imaging techniques; Biodiversity research & conservation Nagaraj Balasubramanian Associate Professor Cell Biology: cell adhesion, trafficking, cell migration and growth Anjan Banerjee Professor Plant developmental biology, Micro RNA (miRNA) and gene regulation, Long distance signalling and plant-pathogen interaction Deepak Barua Associate Professor Plant physiology, physiological ecology and evolutionary ecology S Sandanaraj Britto Assistant Professor Chemical Biology/Physiology & Optical Molecular Imaging of Whole Organisms Jeetender Chugh Assistant Professor NMR spectroscopy of biomolecules Sutirth Dey Professor Population dynamics, life-history evolution, simulations, Drosophila melanogaster Sanjeev Galande Professor and Dean (Research and Development) Epigenetics, Chromatin biology, Regulation of gene expression, Nuclear organization and function Aurnab Ghose Associate Professor Neurobiology Pranay Goel Associate Professor Mathematical biology: physiology and type 2 diabetes. Data science and predictive modeling for healthcare and precision (personalized) medicine Amrita Hazra Assistant Professor Enzyme mechanisms, Chemical biology of microbes Siddhesh S Kamat Associate Professor Chemical Biology, Metabolomics, Chemoproteomics, Lipid Metabolism, Protein Biochemistry Krishanpal Karmodiya Assistant Professor Epigenetics and Transcriptional Control in Plasmodium Saikrishnan Kayarat Professor Structural biology Mayurika Lahiri Associate Professor DNA damage and cell cycle, 3D studies of breast cancer progression M. S. Madhusudhan Associate Professor Bioinformatics and Structure Nishad Matange Assistant Professor Evolution and Genetics of Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacteria Suhita Nadkarni Assistant Professor and Associate Dean (Student Activities) Biophysical models of synaptic plasticity in health and disease Mridula Nambiar Assistant Professor Meiotic recombination and chromosomal segregation in yeast and mammals Gayathri Pananghat Associate Professor Structural Biology of Cytoskeletal Systems Sagar Pandit Assistant Professor Chemical and molecular ecology of multitrophic interactions involving plant, herbivore and its natural enemies Thomas Pucadyil Professor and Chair, Biology Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, Vesicular Transport Sunish Kumar Radhakrishnan Associate Professor Cell Cycle Control and Differentiation in Bacteria, Antimicrobial Resistance Sudha Rajamani Associate Professor and Deputy Chair, Biology Origins of life Raghav Rajan Assistant Professor Neural mechanisms underlying movement initiation in songbirds Girish Ratnaparkhi Associate Professor Gene regulation, innate immunity, embryonic development, drosophilia Richa Rikhy Associate Professor Cell Biology of development and differentiation: Membrane trafficking and polarity Kundan Sengupta Associate Professor Chromosome biology in development and disease L. S. Shashidhara Professor (currently on lien to Ashoka University) Evolution of appendage forms, functional genomics, drug discovery Jayant B. Udgaonkar Professor and Director Study of protein folding, unfolding and aggregation using tools of protein engineering and physical biochemistry. Visiting Faculty Vineeta Bal Visiting Faculty Research focus: T cell biology Neelesh Dahanukar Visiting Faculty Molecular phylogeny, Phylogeography, Systematics, Molecular epidemiology of wildlife diseases, Conservation biology, Evolutionary game theory V. S. Rao Visiting Faculty Plant biology, plant genetics, breeding Satyajit Rath Visiting Faculty Immunology: generation and activation of T, B and antigen-presenting cells (APCs) of myeloid lineage Fellows Anand Krishnan DST-INSPIRE Faculty Fellow Interdisciplinary studies of bird sensory signals Independent Scientist Keerthi Harikrishnan WOS-A DST Scientist Tressa Jacob WOS-A DST Scientist Understanding the molecular cross talk between epidermis and dermis during dermis development and scale formation, using zebrafish as a model organism