The interviews for PhD admission at the Department of Developmental Biology and Genetics will be held in Nov 2025. The time and venue for your interview have been provided in the call letter issued by IISc.
Please make it convenient to appear for the interviews if shortlisted.
Please bring the following documents for the interviews:
1. IISc issued interview letter.
2. Government-issued ID card.
3. Mark sheets for 10th, 12th, Graduate and Post-Graduate courses.
4. National entrance test certificate/score card.
Please follow the guidelines as per the interview call letter and email sent by DBG interview coordinators.
Interview results will be announced on the following link https://dbg.iisc.ac.in/phd-interviews-2025/
Dear Candidates,
We welcome you to the Interview at the Department of Development Biology and Genetics (DBG) at IISc.
The interview will be conducted offline, in person at DBG.
You will be interviewed for approximately 15-20 minutes
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Please look for signboards and instructions in the main lobby of the Biological Sciences Building.
You should reach the DBG seminar hall and sign the attendance sheet on the date of your interview (at the assigned time as per the interview call letter). DBG Seminar hall is located on the 1st floor. You will be assigned to the committees for the interview. The office staff will guide you to the room where the interviews will be held.
You can write to office.dbg@iisc.ac.in for more details.
Candidates must collect the “Faculty Preference Form” from the DBG Office and submit the same to the DBG Office before the end of the day of their interview.
Should you need any further information, kindly contact the DBG office (office.dbg@iisc.ac.in).
For further information, please also visit faculty home pages.
All the best,
Chair, DBG. IISC
Telomere Integrity and Molecular Oncology Research Laboratory
Background: The key objective of our lab is to identify, understand and exploit therapeutic vulnerabilities in biomarker-defined subsets of cancers, with emphasis on highly aggressive childhood cancers.
About 10% of all cancers are characterized by dependency on a unique biological phenomenon for achieving cellular immortality: Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT+) accompanied with highly unstable genomes. These cancers are particularly enriched in aggressive solid tumours in children, a population where targeted therapeutic approaches are currently limited.
Project details: The primary objective of this project is to identify & functionally characterise novel therapeutic targets for ALT+ cancers.
Our focus will be to identify proteins that either directly affect the telomere maintenance pathways or whose up/down regulation alters existing molecular pathways that create new targetable vulnerabilities in ALT+ cancers. We will discover the role of thus identified target within the complex molecular DNA damage response pathway protein network driving ALT-biology, dissect the underlying molecular details and validate the new therapeutic vulnerability in ALT+ cancers.
The incoming PhD student will be trained to lead a multidisciplinary project involving in silico metadata analyses, high-throughput genetic engineering (CRISPR-based) screens, and functional biology experiments using biochemistry and advanced microscopy-based approaches in human patient-derived cancer cell models. As the project lead, the student will also be involved in establishing new patient-derived cellular models in upcoming collaborations with clinical oncologists and potentially conduct clinical genomics analyses.
Please visit our website to learn more about me and our lab’s upcoming research.
https://sites.google.com/view/mayaraghunandanphd/research-vision
The research program in our laboratory focuses on key transcription factors and RNA-binding proteins that regulate liver and adipose tissue function, and maintenance of pre-adipose stem cells under various metabolic conditions, including diet-induced obesity, aging, type 2 diabetes, etc. We employ several cutting-edge approaches to address our research hypothesis, including transcriptomics, lipidomics, and conditional or tissue-specific knockout and/or transgenic mouse models.
Project 1: Deciphering the epigenetic role of TET1 and TET3 in liver function
Our laboratory has generated liver-specific Tet1 knockout mice and will be employed to address lipid and mitochondrial homeostasis in the liver. Also, explore the TET1 and TET3 functions in detail during aging and fatty liver disease (Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD).
Project 2: Transcriptional and post-transcriptional function of MATR3
MATR3 is an RNA-binding protein known for its role in transcription, RNA processing, mRNA stability, and splicing. The key question in this project is: Does MATR3 regulate post-transcriptional or splicing events during adipocyte lineage commitment and development? We employ biochemical, molecular, and in vivo murine models to study the physiological function(s).
References:
Lab research topic: Cancer Stem Cells
Targeting Cancer Stemness and Metastasis: Novel AMPK Inhibitors
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a rare sub-population of cancer cells identified within several cancers that possess properties of normal stem cells, such as, self-renewal and the ability to give rise to diverse cell types. These properties of CSCs also contribute to cancer heterogeneity and disease complexity resulting in metastasis, drug resistance, and disease relapse. Prior work from the lab has identified a central role for the cellular energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in promoting stress survival of cancer cells, aiding in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis. Importantly, AMPK also maintains the stem-like states of cancer cells contributing to drug-resistance. Thus, this project aims to target the metabolic vulnerabilities of CSCs by developing and testing novel inhibitors of AMPK.
The project will employ a multidisciplinary approach using in vitro cell culture, 3D cancer models, syngenic murine models, and patient tissue samples. Mechanistic studies will involve transcriptomics and proteomics approaches to elucidate the molecular pathways targeted by AMPK inhibition. Novel chemical inhibitors will be developed in collaboration with Dr. Durga Prasad Hari (Dept. of Organic Chemistry, IISc).
References:
Admission to the department for this degree is through a division wide selection process which involves qualifying a written test followed by a interview process.