Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) has announced that staff scientist and head of the lab of cell signalling Rashna Bhandari has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. The fellowship is awarded to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to science and have demonstrated sustained excellence in research. Dr. Bhandari’s work in the study of cellular signaling pathways and their role in disease mechanisms has significantly advanced the understanding of cellular processes and their implications for therapeutic applications, as per a press release issued on Wednesday (January 29, 2025)

Researchers at BRIC-Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) on Thursday (October 3, 2024) have announced that they had discovered how fungal pathogen ‘Candida glabrata’, which resides in the mouth, gut and genitourinary tract of healthy humans, evade killing by host immune cells.

Globally, more than 2.5 million people are said to be dying of the invasive fungal infections every year. This particular pathogen causes fatal infections of the bloodstream and internal organs in patients with weak immune system.

Unlike other major fungal pathogens, C. glabrata circumvents the body’s immune system. How it manages to do it is what research scholar Sandip Patra in the group of scientist Rupinder Kaur found out examining the cell interactions.

He found that patients with mutations in a particular ‘Arpc1B gene’ suffer from recurrent microbial invasive infections and these findings, newly published in the journal EMBO Reports, pave a path forward for the researchers to explore a novel therapeutic for infectious diseases. This study was funded by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, said a press release.