Experiments in living cells and theoretical work have implicated energy-consuming patterning mechanisms located at the cell 's edge, the plasma membrane. These are expected to assist in reading signals from the outside world and transmitting them into the cell. An in vitro system Compiled and edited by Sumantra Chattarji, consisting of a few ingredients involved in this Arachana Shetty and Savita Ayyar mechanism is shown in the movie strip. Here Design: Sarita Sundar & Sybil D’Souza, Special protein filaments (actin; pink), motor proteins Illustrations: Georgie Paul Photography: Manoj Sudhakaran (myosin; yellow) and molecules in the membrane Additional photographs contributed by students linked to these filaments (cyan) are capable of and staff recreating similar patterns. This motif is also Print: www.pragati.com represented by the abstract collections of lines shown in the background MANAGEMENT 3 NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR 4 RESEARCH REPORTS Biochemistry, Biophysics and Bioinformatics 7 Cellular Organization and Signaling 33 Ecology and Evolution 53 Genetics and Development 69 Neurobiology 83 Theory, Simulation and Modeling of Biological Systems 111 Adjunct and Visiting Faculty Members 130 New Investigators 131 PUBLICATIONS 139 MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS Meetings and Workshops 2012-14 157 ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES Programs 165 Degrees Awarded 166 Lectures and Visits 172 MSc Wildlife Program 183 HONORS AND AWARDS 187 SUPPORTING OUR SCIENCE Research Facilities Overview 191 Facilities and Resources 193 RDO@NCBS 196 Public Engagement 198 Science and Society Programme 200 The Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines 201 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE 202 NCBS INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS 204 NCBS NATIONAL COLLABORATIONS 216 MANAGEMENT NCBS Director, Satyajit Mayor MANAGEMENT BOARD Dean, NCBS Upinder S Bhalla M Barma, Director, TIFR (Chairman) Head, Academic Activities Apurva Sarin Gautam. R. Desiraju, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (till Aug 2012) Head, Research Development Savita Ayyar P Balaram, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (till Aug 2013) Head, Infrastructure & Construction V R Rengasamy Utpal Banerjee, UCLA, USA Head, Administration & Finance Pradip Pyne Mary Beckerle, University of Utah, USA Head, Architect U B Poornima John Kuriyan, UCLB, USA Head, Scientific & Engineering Services P C Gautam Satyajit Mayor, Director, NCBS, Bangalore Head, Purchase K V Ramanathan Pradip Baviskar, Joint Secretary (R & D), Govt of India, DAE Upinder S. Bhalla, Dean, NCBS, Bangalore Satyajit Rath, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi Anjana Rao, La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology , USA Benny Shilo, WIS, Israel (from Aug 2014) Apurva Sarin, Head Academics, NCBS, Bangalore (from Aug 2014) L.S. Shashidhara, IISER, Pune (from Aug 2014) Jayant B Udgaonkar, NCBS, Bangalore M.K.Bhan (till Nov 2012) K VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology,New Delhi (till Jan 2014) Vidita Vaidya, DBS, TIFR,Mumbai (from Aug 2014) George Antony, Registrar, TIFR, Mumbai Pradip Pyne, Head Administration and Finance, NCBS, Bangalore (Non Member Secretary) SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS Shinichi Aizawa, RIKEN, Japan Tony Hyman, Max Planck Institute, Germany Albert J Libchaber, Rockefeller University, USA Eve Marder, Brandeis University, USA Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden, USA NCBS & CAMPUS COMMITTEE ON ADMINISTRATION & LABORATORY MANAGEMENT (N-CALM) Satyajit Mayor, Director NCBS (Chairman) S Ramaswamy Sumantra Chattarji Apurva Sarin Upinder S Bhalla V R Rengasamy Pradip Pyne T M Sahadevan K V Ramanathan K F James S Ashok Rao Number of Faculty (Group Leaders /Young Investigators/ Administration and Post Doctoral Students Registered Masters Junior Research Scientific and Technical International Investigators/ Auxillary (including Appointments for PhD Students Fellows staff (including trainees) Joint Faculty / Adjunct Faculty) trainees) 63 182 15 138 97 39 78 NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR Just as we were coming to terms with Obaid’s passing away last year, with Prof. KS Krishnan’s sudden passing (d. 24 May 2014) we have lost another one of our unusual biologists. Krishnan was unusual in the way he repeatedly linked his scientific questions with innovative solutions that were rooted locally. In his science, Krishnan linked the dance of molecules in the nerve cell to the behaviour of the animal in an interactive world. Cutting seamlessly across scale is the quintessence of biology, and Krishnan did this effortlessly. We will long cherish his huge enthusiasm for science, his generosity and his inimitable style: he would do what he loved, inventing devices and looking at molecules or animals in many ways and he could always inspire others to get the very important details done. Inspired by Krishnan and his explorations (along with Mani Ramaswami and P. Balaram) into the biological wonderland (venoms) of native cone snails species, we have embarked on a new programme in Chemical Ecology. This aims to connect the scales of biology, represented on our campus from the single molecule to ecosystems. With an expanding array of field stations NCBS)], thematics [from basic mechanisms underlying how cells chose their fate by a complex accessible to our researchers and the natural biodiversity that these field stations offer, our interplay of nature and nurture to the use of stem cells in translational research (at inStem)], programme offers a veritable cornucopia of possibilities for original research that is locally with the technological capabilities necessary [development of core facilities and new technology rooted. To add to the excitement this new avenue offers we welcome our newest recruit, Shannon necessary for Biology and innovation (at CCAMP)]. I see huge potential of combining different Olsson (Chemical Ecologist) to our campus. We also welcome P. Shivaprasad (our first card- modes of research, in which individual laboratory based (NCBS) and theme driven approaches carrying plant biologist), Ranabir Das (NMR spectroscopist), Varadha Sundarmurthy (infectious (inStem) could create a heady mixture for truly exciting science. disease biologist) who have all recently joined us and will surely engage with the avenues that field biology opens up. If this potential is to be realized, we will need an enlightened mechanism to govern the interactions of this cluster of institutions, without compromising individual institutional identities, autonomies And as a sign of coming of age (NCBS just turned 21 last year) some of our colleagues who have and directions. inSTEM and CCAMP were established with the explicit involvement of both NCBS’s been nurtured here, are testing new pastures. We bid farewell to Deepak Nair, Madhusudhan administration and scientists, to help amplify research potential on our campus. The presence Venkadesan, and Yamuna Krishnan. Deepak moves to the Regional Centre for Biotechnology in of these institutions enriches our scientific environment, and opens avenues for PIs to initiate New Delhi to head up a structural biology unit there. Madhu moves to Yale University to build up projects that transcend limitations imposed by the scale of work possible in an individual’s on research that started here on biomechanics and control theory, and Yamuna to the University laboratory. of Chicago to expand the scope of her interactions in her domain of DNA-based sensors. Apurva Sarin also moves away from NCBS, but fortunately not too far; she takes on a big challenge as the Some fruits of such collaborative and theme based research are beginning to be realized, in the new Dean at inStem. We wish all of them only the very best. launching of a number of multi-institute programmes (such as Centre for Brain Development and Repair - CBDR, National Mouse Resource - NaMoR, Discovery Biology of Neuropsychiatric With our theorists colleagues now housed in their chalk-board filled digs at the Simons@NCBS Syndromes - DBNS, NCBS-Max Planck Lipid Center. I believe that this ecosystem will provide complex (see page 201) and embarking on new journeys, and our new laboratory complex with us the necessary bandwidth to engage with the huge potential for human and other organismal its open plan architecture beginning to grow on its occupants, as well as a brand new housing biology that our new clinical engagements and field research offers, filling our laboratories with complex completed, we must commend our projects and the technical services teams for making questions that emanate from our own local environments. We need a multi-disciplinary research sure of the architecture and quality necessary for our research. As we rapidly fill our new building environment that can support many modes of research, and this is what we must nurture our and renew our old building with new and exciting science (as you will no doubt read in this report), campus. we also realize that we will soon have a new research block in our neighbourhood, this time built for the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (inStem). Satyajit Mayor Director, NCBS This brings up the question of our ‘neighbourhood’. It is here that I believe we are forming a new ecosystem for biological research. This spans scale [from single molecules to ecosystems (at BIOCHEMISTRY, BIOPHYSICS AND BIOINFORMATICS { [email protected] } >7< Biochemistry Biophysics Bioinformatics Jayant B Udgaonkar M K Mathew R Sowdhamini Aswin Sai Narain Seshasayee P V Shivaprasad Ranabir Das Neurobiology Theory, Mitradas M Panicker Simulation Upinder S. Bhalla and Modeling Sumantra Chattarji of Biological Sanjay P Sane Systems