Jio Institute Webpage: https://www.jioinstitute.edu.in/faculty/dr-varun-aggarwala
Varun Aggarwala
Microbiome Therapeutics Laboratory,
8-15, Jio Institute
NMSEZ Building 1, Sector 4, Ulwe, Navi Mumbai, Wahal, Maharashtra 410206
Email: Varun.Aggarwala AT JioInstitute.edu.in, Varun.Aggarwala AT Gmail.com
Phone: +91 022 3501 1226
Dr Varun Aggarwala is an Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator of the Microbiome Therapeutics laboratory at the Jio Institute, a philanthropic initiative of Reliance Industries Ltd.
Varun performed his doctoral research at the Perelman School of Medicine of University of Pennsylvania, focusing on problems related to personalized medicine and genetics. He furthered his training in precision therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai Hospital, and identified therapeutically relevant commensal gut microbes in lieu of whole stool Fecal Transplants for infectious and inflammatory bowel diseases, which are being evaluated in defined clinical trials.
Previously Varun did his Masters in Computer Science from University of Pennsylvania and has a BTech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Guwahati. His previous honours include the prestigious DBT Ramalingaswami re-entry fellowship, IIT Silver medal and NTSE scholarship from MHRD.
Now at the Jio Institute, Dr. Aggarwala’s laboratory is modeling microbiome dynamics and in-turn identifying reproducible live bacterial products, ranging from synbiotics to super-donor stool material, for robust and stable engineering of the human microbiome in both health and disease.
Varun is committed towards the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India mission, to realize our collective civilizational potential in this Amrit kaal.
Here is the link to my Google Scholar account.
Representative Patent:
Compositions and Methods for Treating Infections of the Gastrointestinal Tract. J Faith, V Aggarwala, L Bethlehem, JJ Eggers 2023
Representative Publications:
As a Postdoctoral Fellow: "Precise quantification of bacterial strains after fecal microbiota transplantation delineates long-term engraftment and explains outcomes", Aggarwala et. al., Nature Microbiology 2021
As a PhD Scholar: "An expanded sequence context model broadly explains variability in polymorphism levels across the human genome", Aggarwala and Voight, Nature Genetics 2016
The overarching mission of our laboratory is to model microbiome dynamics (gut, skin, vaginal tract) and in-turn identify reproducible live bacterial products, ranging from synbiotics to super-donor stool material, for robust and stable engineering of the human microbiome in both health and disease.
Human body is colonised and is in a symbiotic relationship with trillions of microorganisms (predominantly bacteria) which have a critical role in maintaining health and have been implicated across several diseases. The scientific community is actively perturbing the human microbial communities (probiotics, diet, synbiotics, stool transplant, xenobiotics) for desirable therapeutic outcomes with various degrees of success but several challenges remain:
We have not characterised the vast diversity of our commensal microbes,
Answered fundamental questions pertaining to their mechanism and modes of action,
Barely understand the stability and structure of the complex microbial ecology and how it transforms under a homeostatic state and in presence of external perturbations (FMT, dietary changes, probiotics).
How to reproducibly engineer the microbiota?
Microbiome Therapeutics laboratory is addressing these open questions by integrating ideas from computational systems biology, ecology, genomics, & microbial culturing with fruitful collaborations from clinicians and public health researchers.
We collaborate extensively with clinicians and identify longitudinal microbiota samples (both in health and disease, with matched controls) to develop models and test our hypotheses. In our golden age of publicly available high-quality genomic datasets, we benefit tremendously from repurposing independent studies for our investigations. We also have access to high throughput sequencing and a biobanking facility for our projects. AWS and NSM Param are used for our high performance computing requirements. We will soon have a well-stocked laboratory for benchside research.
PROJECTS:
Our central theme is to engineer the microbiota but this is conditional on modelling and mechanistic understanding of underlying microbial dynamics. Towards this, we are actively pursuing the following projects:
Pangenomic representation of human commensal microbes to model microbiome dynamics in complex social settings (multiple donors, recipients or community with extensive sharing of microbes).
Antibiotic resistance reservoirs: Modelling, stability and engineering techniques to reset it.
Microbiome for Age: Modelling, variation across lifespan, and engineering techniques for microbiome maturity.
Microbiome (im)maturity in children with undernutrition, and symbiotic interventions to reverse cognitive stunting.
Bacterial strain dynamics post Faecal Microbiota Transplants (FMT) for Ulcerative Colitis (UC).
Microbial Predictors for both clinical endpoint and longevity of response post-FMT for UC.
Identification of super stool donors and superior interventional methodologies by integrating 1000s of FMT.
Computational approaches to achieve actionable strain level resolution for commensal microbes.
Core commensal microbiota in early childhood and its impact on the seeding of transient microbes.
FMT registries, donor engraftment (urban vs rural), stool biobanks & hub for Indian microbiota therapeutics.
FUNDING RESOURCES:
Current
Generous startup support from Jio Institute.
DBT Ramalingaswami re-entry fellowship
Previous
PI for Research fellowship award (175,500 USD, 2020-22) from Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation to study microbial strain dynamics in an FMT clinical trial for active Ulcerative Colitis
Co-PI on Pilot grant (50,000 USD, 2019-20) from Genetics and Genomics institute of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, to study and design live biotherapeutic product for C. difficile infection
We have an open non-hierarchical lab culture and encourage critical discussions and respect independent thoughts.
The PI firmly believes that the success of trainees will be the true barometer of his own success and is committed to ensuring a productive environment that will benefit every stakeholder.
We welcome creative ideas but insist on every project to make a positive impact on therapeutics, and thus contribute to the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India mission to realise our collective civilizational potential in this Amrit kaal.
Postdocs:
Dr Narendra Chaudhry: Narendra is working on pangenomic modelling of commensal microbes to elucidate microbiome dynamics (across complex community settings, FMT interventions) and in turn identify candidates for live bacterial therapeutics.
Dr Agnik Haldar: Agnik is building accurate microbiota for age models, understanding the core commensal features across lifespan, and if microbiome engineering can help with maturity (for age).
RA:
Anish Ganju: Anish is modelling the Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) reservoirs and their stability over time, and if different microbiome perturbations (FMT, synbiotics) can systematically alter the AMR reservoirs in high-risk cohorts.
My teaching philosophy is rooted in the twin pillars of project-based learning and the Socratic method of discovery. I firmly believe that we can only add value to the student's learning process through intimate discussions in a flipped classroom model, and this will create independent and self-learners and thinkers in our fast-paced world.
Courses taught at Jio Institute
Probability and Statistics for Data Science (Summer 2023, Spring 2024)
Audience: Core course for PGP student in AI and Data Sciences
Courses taught at University of Pennsylvania
TA and Lab instructor for GCB/CIS 535 Introduction to Bioinformatics (Spring 2013, Spring 2014)
Audience: PhD students in Biomedical and Life Sciences graduate program
TA for online Coursera course, Experimental Genome Science (Fall 2013)
TA for CIS 521 Artificial Intelligence
Audience: Elective for CS PhD students, Core course for MSE students
TA for CIS 502 Analysis of Algorithms
Audience: Elective for CS PhD students, Core course for MSE students
It took a long time, support of many mentors, heartbreaks and exciting moments, and incredible amount of luck to find my passion. I am incredibly grateful for all the opportunities that came my way (I did not deserve this largesse) and hope to return the favor soon through excellent research, mentorship, teaching and Make in India project.
I have been inspired by the work and life of Ben Franklin, who was a great patriot, diplomat, inventor, philosopher and a businessman, in short a true Renaissance Man.
It Never Stops: Lovely piece by Maira Kalman on Ben Franklin:
Don’t mope in your room,
Go invent something.
That is the American message.
Electricity. Flight. The telephone.
Television. Computers. Walking on
the moon. It never stops.
Just like my hero (and countless others who have helped India during its darkest days to make it possible for our generation to flourish), I wish to change my motherland India, through my teaching, research and contributions to the Make in India mission for Viksit Bharat in this Amrit Kaal.
I also happen to be a father of two amazing kids, who keep me busy and motivate me to become a better person everyday and to work extra hard to leave a better world for their generation.
Focus on building things and hard outcomes. Surround yourself with similar people who build stuff.
Be happy. Be positive. Be nice. Be optimistic. Stay away from the negative people.
Everyone makes mistakes and has acted as an insufferable fool at some point. We cannot change the past, but can learn from our mistakes and improve.
Think big. Take calculated risks. Money loses its marginal utility beyond a limit. Do not always choose the safe path of least resistance (more so after you have achieved some security). But do achieve financial security :) Read this book from cover to cover
Have kids and have them early !!! Learn how to cook !!! Learn how to invest.
Do not waste time online. Connect with real and solid people. If you still have spare time then learn how to work with your hands (carpentry, plumbing etc.)
Always think about making impact and focusing on problems/issues that are bigger than us.
