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SCMM organises a talk by Santanu Banerjee

SCMM organises a talk by Santanu Banerjee

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SCMM organises a talk by Santanu Banerjee
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JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

Special Centre for Molecular Medicine

 

Featured Talk

25th July, 2019; 11:00 AM

Venue: Seminar Room, SCMM

 

Commensal microbes and their metabolites in health and disease: Few stories from HIV, cancer and aging.

 

Santanu Banerjee, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Surgery/Surgical Oncology

University of Miami, Florida, USA.

 

Abstract: A host of disease-associated inflammatory events have been correlated to changes in the microbial composition in the lung and gut mucosa. This “dysbiosis” of the microbiome has been suggested to either foster the pro-inflammatory prognosis by influencing the innate immune system of the host, or has been suggested as an early marker for these changes. While there is a dearth of knowledge on the lung microbial dysbiosis in disease models, wealth of information is emerging on the gut microbiome dysbiosis , leading to increased systemic inflammation and co-morbidities in various diseases. In recent years, my laboratory has started generating and working with NSG-BLT and CD34+ humanized mice on various aspects of mucosal immunology, including elucidating the role of commensal microbiota from various mucosal surfaces and its influence on host immune system and metabolism of proximal tissues using 16s pyrosequencing and shotgun metagenomics. Recent unpublished work includes looking at the host and microbial metabolites and their crosstalk in murine models of opioid addiction, HIV infection or pancreatic cancer using targeted (Isotope Ratio Outlier Analysis; IROA) and untargeted (Tandem Mass spectrometry) LC-MS/MS and GC-MS based approaches. In my laboratory, we bring these platforms together to elucidate the precise role of microbiome in host pathogenesis in the context of inflammatory diseases with special focus on personalized medicine (bench to bedside approach). This presentation will describe these findings.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.