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Research

Stem Cells Our lab is interested in studying Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC), which are adult multipotent cells from bone marrow and other connective tissue.  MSC have got the capacity to differentiate into mesenchymal tissue cells such as adipocytes, osteocytes, chondrocytes and muscle cells. Our special focus is on the biology, differentiation potential, aging, cytoskeleton and migration of MSC.

Cancer We are studying the role of bone marrow stroma in the development and progression of hematologic malignancies through cell-cell contact and secreted factors as several studies show that the tumor stroma or the cancer microenvironment contributes largely to the development of the disease.

Cell Therapy It has been known that adult-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) has tremendous potential to differentiate into bone, cartilage, muscle, marrow stroma, tendon-ligament, fat and other connective tissues. The use of stem cells has been limited due to requirement of large number of cells for therapy as most of these cells disappear shortly after transplantation. Therefore we are trying to understand their in vivo survival/death mechanisms that might help to improve the efficacy of these cells for therapy.

Research Projects

Ongoing 1. DBT-NE twinning project in collaboration with IIAR Gujarat, DBT, Govt. of India 2. DBT - Rapid Grant for Young Investigators Scheme (RGYI Scheme), DBT, Govt. of India 3. NER project, ICMR, Govt. of India 4. DST - Fast Track Young Scientist Award, DST, Govt. of India

Collaborators

1. IIAR, Gujarat, India 2. Sri Sankaradev Nethralaya, Guwahati, India 3. GMC, Guwahati, India

Last updated: August 2012