ICAM extends a warm welcome to a new node in its global network—the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) of Bangalore, India.  NCBS, founded in 1991, is a division of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and one of a cluster of scientific research institutes in north Bangalore which, while independent, operate in an open, collaborative atmosphere. Its Director is K. VijayRaghavan, and its Dean is Satyajit Mayor.  Together with the newly established Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, NCBS has set up a Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platform Technologies (C-CAMP) which will grow to comprise about 100 groups and focus on stem cell research, biomaterials, and health science translation.

The core strengths of NCBS are in biology and interdisciplinary biological studies.  The Centre recently created a Program in Theory and Modeling, embedded in their experimental research environment, seeking to apply recent developments in the fields of physics, chemistry, and information sciences to the study of complex biological problems.  In addition to permanent faculty members, the Theory Program will include a number of visiting Associates and plans to develop an intensive post-doctoral program.  This structure is designed to encourage collaborations between groups and investigators.

Three examples of work at NCBS will give an idea of research being carried out at the interface of theory and experiment:

Madan Rao (soft-matter physics) and Satyajit Mayor (cell biology) developed an approach based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to probe the nanoscale organization of proteins on eukaryotic cell membranes.  They found that GPI-anchored proteins on the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane were organized into nanoclusters, possibly through an active process involving actin remodeling, and that this organization played a key role in their endocytosis (D. Goswami et al., 2008, Cell 135, 1085-1097.

Upinder Bhalla (computational neuroscience) and Mukund Thattai (computational cell biology) investigated how odor combinations were encoded by the mammalian central nervous system.  They showed that the apparently novel response of neurons in the rat olfactory bulb to mixtures of odorants could in fact be explained by their response to pure odors.  In their model, which combined linear and nonlinear elements, observable excitatory inuts combined with hidden inhibitory inputs to generate new response types (A. G. Khan, M. Thattai, and U. S. Bhalla, 2008, Neuron 57, 571-585).

Yamuna Krishnan (biochemistry) and her group programmed pieces of DNA to assemble in a hierarchical manner, first into polyhedra and finally into a complete icosahedron.  They showed that these DNA structures could be used as cages to trap gold nanoparticles, and are exploring how this might be applied in drug delivery (D. Bhatia et al., 2009, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 48 (23), 4134-4137).

Other areas of study at NCBS include many dealing with emergent behavior, e.g.,

Molecular-level approaches: molecular dynamics of proteins and lipids (Shachi Gosavi); structural DNA nanotechnology (Yamuna Krishnan).

Network approaches: Signaling networks, feedback systems (Upinder Bhalla, Sandeep Krishna); synthetic biology, synthetic gene networks (Mukund Thattai).

Cellular organization and traffic: Cytoskeletal organization; organellar structure, intracellular traffic (Satyajit Mayor, Madan Rao, Mukund Thattai).

Computational neuroscience: Computational neuroscience, memory, cell physiology (Upinder Bhalla); neural and physical basis of insect flight (Sanjay Sane).

Organismal and developmental biology: Models of spatial patterning and development (Sandeep Krishna).

Population genetics and ecology; Global dynamics of ecosystems (Mahesh Shankaran).

Technical facilities. NCBS Cell screening facility (Satyajit Mayor); Central imaging and Fluorescence Facility (H. Krishnamurthy); Mass Spectrometry and Lipidomics Facility (Dominik Schwudke).

NCBS has an active schedule of meetings and workshops, with strong emphasis on interdisciplinary areas.  Two that will be upcoming in January are

(1)  Breaking Barriers:  from Physics to Biology, January 9-11,  event website:

www.ncbs.res.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=465&Itemid=9 .

(2)  Molecular Motors, Tracks, and Transport, January 23-28, event website:  www.ncbs.res.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=470&Itemid=9 .

Representatives to the ICAM Board of Governors and committees are as follows:

Board of Governors, Madan Rao; Science Steering Committee, Mukund Thattai and Mrinalini Puranik; Fellows Committee: Shachi Gosavi.

More information about the work being done at NCBS may be found on their website, www.ncbs.res.in.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews, October 2009