DEPARTMENTAL EVENTS
Special Seminars/Public lectures
Public Lecture by Prof. Bruce Alberts on “The Problems and Challenges in Biomedical Sciences: Keeping Science Healthy" on 12 October 2017.
Seminar by Prof. Anindya Dutta, University of Virginia, USA on “Noncoding RNAs in control of differentiation and cancer” on 16th November, 2017
Seminar by Dr. Sandip Kar, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay on “Controlling Cellular Proliferation By Adjusting microRNA Dynamics” on 21 February 2018
Seminar by Dr. Barbara Pauly, Director of Fellowships, Human Frontier Science Porgram, on “HFSP: Funding international research collaborations in Life Sciences” on 12 March 2018.
Seminar by Dr. Suvendranath Bhattacharya, Molecular Genetics Division, IICB, Kolkata, “Journey as a HFSP fellow”, 12 March 2018.
Seminar by Dr. Sreeparna Banerjee, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, “Inflammation and Colorectal Cancer”, 25 July 2018.
Public lecture by Prof. Partha P Majumder, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kolkata, on ‘Riding the Genomics Wave to Reach New depths of Human Health and History’, on 20 August 2018.
Public lecture by Prof. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Laureate (2009, Chemistry) on "From Chidambaram to Cambridge: a life in science" on 22 January, 2019.
Special seminar by Padma Shri Darshan Shankar, The Vice-Chancellor, University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Science and Technology, Bengaluru on ‘Leadership in the transformation of 21st century health science research in the context of food and medicine’ on 18 July 2019.
Seminar by Dr. Mithun Sinha, Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering, Indiana University, USA on ‘Macrophage plasticity at the site of tissue injury: Physiological cell reprogramming mediated by microRNA-21’ on 30 January 2019.
Scientific lecture by Prof. Chandan Sen, Director of Regenerative Medicine Center, Indiana University, USA on ‘Regenerative Medicine’ followed by Open House discussion with students and scholars on 14 January 2020.
Smart Classroom Inaugural Program at Botany Lecture Theatre 1 (BLT1), Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata followed by book release by Dr. Atanu Kumar Raha, IFS (Retd) and talk by Dr. Jayeeta Ghose, Department of Radiation Oncology, Ohio State University, USA on ‘Radiation Induced Immune Modulation in Cancer Therapeutics’ 27 July, 2022.
Smart Classroom Inaugural Program at Botany Lecture Theatre 1 (BLT1), Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata followed by book release by Dr. Atanu Kumar Raha, IFS (Retd) and talk by Dr. Jayeeta Ghose, Department of Radiation Oncology, Ohio State University, USA on ‘Radiation Induced Immune Modulation in Cancer Therapeutics’, 27 July 2022.
Public lecture was given by Anuroopa Dixit, Program Officer, DAAD office, New Delhi on the topic ‘Study and research in Germany”, 3 May 2023 (Coordinator: Dr. Malay Das).
Prof. Muktish Acharya, Department of Physics, Presidency University gave lecture on 'Differential equations and their applications across biological systems', 24 April 2023.
Seminar by Prof. Asim Kanti Duttaroy, MD, PhD, DSc, FNI, FICN, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway on ‘Neurodevelopment: Perinatal opportunities and vulnerabilities’, 15 Jan 2024.
Seminar by Dr. Jayanta Chatterjee, Associate Professor, Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 'Peptide engineering for human health', 22 Jan 2024.
Life Science Colloquium (Guest speaker seminar on Wednesday)
Coordinators: Dr. Ranjana Pal and Dr. Puja Ray
❏ Seminar by Dr. Amit Pal, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata on ‘Role of microbial proteases in pathogenesis and tumor regression’, 18 April 2018.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Ajit Bikram Datta, Bose Institute, Kolkata on ‘Protein ubiquitination’, 14 November 2018.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Smarajit Polley, Bose Institute, Kolkata on ‘Yin and Yang of IKK Signaling: Targeting Beyond the Active Site to Tame NF-kappaB’, 26 September 2018
❏ Seminar by Dr.Pralay Mitra, IIT Kharagpur on ‘Computational protein design and its application’, 29 August 2018.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Amit Pal, NICED, Kolkata, “ Role of microbial proteases in pathogenesis and tumor regression ”, 18 April, 2018
❏ Seminar by Dr. Chandrima Das, Biophysics and Structural Genomics Division, SINP, Kolkata, “ Reprogramming the Epigenomic Landscape by the Histone “Readers”: Insights on their Role as Breast Cancer Suppressors ”, 4 April 2018
❏ Seminar by Dr. Rupak Datta, Dept. of Biological Sciences, IISER Kolkata, “Pleiotropic Role of Carbonic Anhydrases in Intracellular Growth and Survival of Leishmania ", 21 March 2018
❏ Seminar by Dr. Sandip Kar, Dept. of Chemistry, IIT Bombay on “ Controlling Cellular Proliferation by Adjusting microRNA Dynamics ”, 21 February, 2018.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Chandrima Das, Biophysics and Structural Genomics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata on “Reprogramming the Epigenomic Landscape by the Histone “Readers”: Insights on their Role as Breast Cancer Suppressors”, 4 April 2018.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Rupak Datta, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Kolkata on “Pleiotropic Role of Carbonic Anhydrases in Intracellular Growth and Survival of Leishmania”, 21 March 2018.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Arpita Mukhopadhyay, St. John's Research Institute (SJRI), Bengaluru, ‘The human placenta: Driver or passenger of fetal growth restriction?’, 18 December 2019
❏ Seminar by Dr Debashis Bandyopadhyay, CSIR-Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata, ‘Intellectual Property Rights: Implications for Healthcare Research and Delivery’, 20 November, 2019.
❏ Seminar by Dr.Renjith Mathew, NISER, Bhubaneswar on ‘Getting in shape by driving the traffic’, 6 November 2019.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Raghunath Chatterjee, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata on ‘Cancer genomics’, 28 August 2019.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Benu Brata Das, Indian Association for Cultivation of Science, Kolkata on ‘DNA Repair and Cancer’, 18 August 2019.
❏ Seminar by Prof. Adinpunya Mitra, IIT Kharagpur on ‘Emission biology of floral volatiles- many new questions’, 27 March 2019
❏ Seminar by Dr.Soumitra Sau, Amity University, Kolkata on ‘The yeast PCNA unloader Elg1 RFC-like complex plays a role in eliciting the DNA damage checkpoint’, 13 March 2019.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Sumana Chakravarty, Principal Scientist, Applied Biology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad on ‘Understanding molecular basis of sex difference underlying neuropsychiatric disorders using relevant animal models’, 22 January 2020.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Rupak K Bhadra, Chief Scientist, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, ‘Starvation stress, virulence and choleragenic Vibrio cholerae’, 26 February 2020.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Subhankar Roy Barman, Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, NIT, Durgapur on ‘MoLAEA regulates secondary metabolism in rice blast fungus’, 16 March 2022.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Pubali Dhar, Associate Professor, Department of Home Science, University of Calcutta on ‘Nutraceuticals to Nanoceuticals: Emerging Trend in Food Science’, 13 April 2022.
❏ Seminar by Prof. Sanjit Dey, Professor, Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta, on ‘Naringin, a flavanone glycoside from citrous fruits, prevents smokeless tobacco (SLT) induced menace of mitochondrial health, apoptosis in neurons and neurobehavioral pattern’, 11 May 2022.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Sharmila Bhattacharya, Senior Program Scientist, NASA, United States on ‘Effects of Spaceflight on Biological Systems’, 23 November 2022.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Saugata Hazra, Associate Professor, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Roorkee on ‘Design and Development of multilevel diagnostics toward identifying beta-lactamase based Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)’, 7 December 2022.
❏ Seminar by Prof. Biswadip Das, PhD, FRSB, Professor, Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, Jadavpur University on ‘Killing messengers before they are born: A novel paradigm for maintaining the fidelity and regulating gene expression in eukaryotes’, 8 February 2023.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Ritesh Ranjan Pal, Assistant Professor and DBT-Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata on ‘Membranous Nanotube: A Novel CORE-associated Conduit for Bacterial Intra- and Inter-kingdom Communications’, 15 March 2023.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Jayanta Das, Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Natural Sciences, Florida Memorial University, Florida, United States on ‘3D in vitro model: Epigenomic anti-cancer drug screening and cancer health’, 26 July 2023
❏ Seminar by Dr. Paramita Chaudhuri Basu, Director, Programs & Ecosystem Development, University of Alberta, Canada on ‘Translating life sciences innovation from academia to industry’, 9 August 2023.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Sangram Bagh, Associate Professor, Biophysics and Structural Genomics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, on ‘Building computers with genetically engineered cells, which can compute, solve mazes, and add and subtract numbers’, 23 August 2023.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Amit Kumar Dixit, Assistant Director (Biochemistry), Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Kolkata, on ‘Research in Ayurveda: Scope and Perspectives’, 13 September 2023.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Shilpak Chatterjee, Senior Scientist & Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellow, Cancer Biology and Inflammatory Disorder Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, on ‘T cell exhaustion: A Daunting Challenge to Cancer Immunotherapy’, 11 October 2023.
❏ Seminar by Prof. Debidas Ghosh, Professor and Head, Molecular Medicine, Nutrigenomics and Public Health Research Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science and Management, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore on ‘Nutrigenomics: A New Domain in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’, 12 April 2023.
❏ Seminar by Dr. Alok Chakrabarti, Deputy Director, Division of Virology, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata on ‘Influenza Chronicles: Exploring the potential impact of avian influenza as global threat’, 27 March 2024.
Monthly Colloquium lecture series organized by Marine Ecology Laboratory
Coordinator: Dr. Sumit Mandal
Speakers:
■ Marcos André Machado Lima Teixeira, Doctoral Research Scholar, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA) and Institute of Science and Innovation for Bio-Sustainability (IB-S), 11 November 2020.
■ Dr. Wriddhiman Ghosh, Associate Professor, Microbiology, Bose Institute, Kolkata, 16 October 2020
■ Dr. Amit Sarkar, Associate Research Scientist, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, 8 October 2020
■ Dr. Souryadeep Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, Presidency University, Kolkata, 30 September 2020
■ Dr. Tushar Kaushik, Scientist C, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, 23 September, 2020
■ Dr. Andrew Lohrer, Principal Scientist - Marine Ecology, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand, 16 September 2020.
■ Dr. Manish Kumar, Assistant Professor, Earth Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar, 04 September 2020.
■ Dr. Samir Damare, Principal Scientist and Head, Analytical Services Division, National Institute of Oceanography, 27 August 2020.
Conferences/ Workshops/ Mini Symposium
● · Young Investigator’ Meeting 2018, in association with India Bioscience, 5-8 March 2018.
● Two-days Workshop on ‘Foldscope’ with Manipur School Students (Coordinator: Dr. Paramita Chaudhury Basu) (Date: 28-29 December 2018)
● 1st Regional Young Investigators’ meeting, Kolkata chapter, on ‘Together today for a better tomorrow’ in association with India Bioscience and research institutions in the Kolkata region (NIBMG, Bose Institute, Calcutta University, IICB, IACS) (Coordinators: Dr.Piyali Mukherjee, Dr.Abhik Saha, Dr. Shubhra Majumder, Dr.Chandrama Mukherjee) (Date: 5-6 February 2019)
● Workshop on Flow Cytometry, Bio-Rad Laboratories (Coordinator: Dr. Nabendu Biswas) (Date: 26-30 August, 2019)
● One day Workshop on ‘Crafting Your Career’ in association with India Bioscience at PC Mahalanobis Auditorium, Presidency University. (Coordinators: Dr. Piyali Mukherjee and Dr.Chandrama Mukherjee (PU); Dr.Smita Jain (India Bioscience) (Date: 20 September 2019)
● One day workshop and hands-on training on ‘Foldscope Microscopy’ at the School of Biotechnology, Presidency University, Rajarhat Campus. (Coordinator: Dr. Avishek Banik (PU)) (Date: 11 November 2019)
● A mini symposium on ‘Nutrition & Chronic Disease’ was organized in association with the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Wayne State University, USA. (Coordinators: Dr.Abhik Saha and Dr. Shubhra Majumder (PU), Dr. Pramod Khosla (WSU)) (Date: 4 December 2019)
● Two-days Webinar on ‘Aquatic Ecosystem: Prospect and future challenges’ organized by Marine Ecology Laboratory. (Coordinator: Dr. Sumit Mandal) (Date: 18-19 July 2020)
● The National Service Scheme (NSS), Presidency University, Kolkata, India in collaboration with Multitrophic Interaction and Biocontrol Research Laboratory (MIBRL), Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata organised webinar on: 'Covid19 pandemic: Today and tomorrow'. (Coordinator: Dr. Puja Ray). (Date: 30 September 2020)
● Marine Ecology Laboratory, Department of Life Sciences Presidency University, Kolkata in association with Aquaphile on the occasion of World Ocean Day presented AQUAMANIA'22 (Date: 8 June 2022)
● Online International Conference on ‘Biomolecules to Biome’. (Coordinators: Dr. Ranjana Pal and Dr. Puja Ray) (Date: 24-25th August 2022)
● One day SERB-SSR program on visit of college students to Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University (Participating college: Sammilani Mahavidyalay, Baghajatin, Kolkata) (Coordinator: Dr. Susmita Mondal) (Date: 28 September 2022)
● Marine Ecology Laboratory, Department of Life Sciences Presidency University, Kolkata in association with Aquaphile on the occasion of World Ocean Day presented AQUAMANIA'22 (Date: 8 June 2022)
● Online International Conference on ‘Biomolecules to Biome’. (Coordinators: Dr. Ranjana Pal and Dr. Puja Ray) (Date: 24-25th August 2022)
● One-day state level seminar on ‘Chemistry behind phytochemicals and their medicinal importance in curing various diseases of human being’ was organized by the Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata. It was sponsored by Inclusion and Diversity Fund, Royal Society of Chemistry, London in collaboration with Indian Chemical Society, Kolkata, India and in association with the Department of Chemistry, The Bhawanipur Education Society College (Under University. of Calcutta), Kolkata (Joint Coordinators: Dr. Abhijit Dey, Associate Professor, Dr. Ranjana Pal, Assistant Professor and Dr. Puja Ray, Assistant Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata. Prof. (Dr) Anup Kumar Sikdar, Research Advisor, The Bhawanipur Education Society College, Kolkata) (Date: 26 April 2023)
● World Animal Day awareness programme was held by the Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University in association with Nikon (Joint Coordinators: Dr. Souryadeep Mukherjee, Dr. Susmita Mondal, Dr. Puja Ray) (Date: 4 October 2023)
Linkages with institutions/industries for internship, on-the-job training, project work, sharing of research facilities:
A three-year (2020-2023) Research group linkage programme sponsored by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany was initiated between Dr. Malay Das, Smritikana Dutta, Sukanya Chakraborty, Mridushree Basak (Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata) and Prof. Annette Becker, Andrea Weisert, Dominik Lotz, Katrin Ehlers, Annalena Mehl (Institut für Botanik, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany).
Title of the linkage: Evolutionary and functional characterization of important flowering genes identified from a rarely flowering Indian bamboo (Bambusa tulda).
Dr. Paramita Chaudhuri Basu interacted with school students from Manipur and Chennai as part of a DBT Foldscope Twinning program from 31/10/2018 to 02/11/2018. She organized and conducted an on-field outreach activity in Manipur that involved active student participation. Students prepared samples, viewed, and documented them using the foldable paper microscope under her guidance.
Technical seminars
Speakers:
❏ Bio-Rad Laboratories on ‘Digital Droplet PCR’- 5 July 2018
❏ Premas Biotech on ‘Next-Gen Sequencing on Illumina platform’, 3 October 2018.
❏ Spinco Biotech on ‘ChemoMetec A/S Advanced Image Cytometer’, 11 September 2019.
❏ Thermo Fisher Scientific, “The application of Semiconductor Sequencing in basic and translational health research”, 19 September 2018.
❏ Thermo Fisher Scientific on ‘Live cell analysis’, 5 July 2019.
❏ Seminar series followed by a road show to discuss different ‘cutting-edge techniques of Cell biology, Protein Research and Synthetic Biology’ developed by Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mr. HrudayChaporkar, & Mr. Debashis Mohanty, Thermo Fisher Scientific)- 9 July 2019.
❏ Dr. Yann Jouvenot, Global Marketing Manager, BioRad, USA on ‘The real-time PCR technique along with data analysis using the BioRad software’, 6 August 2019.
Department Visit
One day SERB-SSR program on visit of college students to Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University (Participating college: Sammilani Mahavidyalay, Baghajatin, Kolkata) (Coordinator: Dr. Susmita Mondal) (Date: 28 September 2022)
Visit of Plant Tissue Culture laboratories by Semester V Botany (Hons.) students (along with 3 faculty members: Dr. Mitu De, Dr. Anwesha Biswas, and Dr. Suptotthita Choudhury) of Gurudas College, Kolkata, as a part of the curriculum of the Botany (Hons) syllabus under Calcutta University (Practical Paper- BOT-A-DSE-B-5-5-P). (Coordinators: Dr. Malay Das, Dr. Ayan Das, Dr. M. Ganesan) (Date: 15 January 2024).
Condolence Meeting
The present teachers of the Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata who were the past students of DD Sir, held a memorial meeting on 20 December, 2023 to celebrate his life and works. Professor Debajyoti Das, popularly known as DD Sir, a renowned teacher of Physiology left for his heavenly abode on 26 November, 2023. In his teaching career spanning over more than six decades, he had mentored hundreds of students in several prestigious institutions like the erstwhile Presidency College, Hooghly Mohsin College, Vidyasagar University and Bose Institute. His books on Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biostatistics are widely consulted by the students of Physiology, Biochemistry, Medicine and the other disciplines of Life Sciences.
Alumni speaker
Dr. Aritra Bhattacherjee, Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard Medical School & Boston Children’s Hospital, USA, gave a talk on ‘Understanding prefrontal cortex functions by decoding its molecular, cellular and circuit organization’, 2 Aug 2023
Mr. Bhaskar Basu, Ph.D. Scholar, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, gave a talk on ‘USP7 imparts partial EMT state in colorectal cancer by stabilizing the RNA helicase DDX3X and augmenting Wnt/β-catenin signaling’, 19 July 2023
Mr. Raktim Roy, Research Scholar, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas city, USA, gave a talk on ‘Understanding intron retention in the Drosophila nervous system’, 13 March 2024.
Sports Events:
The Department of Life Sciences cares about overall wellness and comprehensive development of its students as well as of all the teaching and non-teaching staffs. To ensure this, the Department organizes multiple sports events like DLS Cricket Cup and DLS Football League every year. The DLS Cricket Cup 2023 was held from 01.03.2023 to 03.03.2023 at the Presi Green.
DLS Football League 2023 – Coming Soon.