Lolitika Mandal
IISER, Mohali
After completing her PhD at the Cytogenetics Laboratory BHU, under the mentorship of Jagat Kumar Roy, Lolitika Mandal headed for her postdoctoral studies at UCLA, USA. During her time there, she spearheaded research on blood cell development under the guidance of Voker Hartenstein and Utpal Banerjee. In July 2009, she joined IISER Mohali when the institute was in its early stages. With Welcome Trust DBT Intermediate and Senior Fellowships, she established a laboratory of international standards. Her team's primary focus is on understanding the cellular crosstalk between stem cell compartments and unravelling the molecular circuitry essential for cell fate specification and the function of blood cells. Notably, her work using the fruit fly as a model has uncovered several significant similarities with mammalian hematopoiesis. She is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, IISER Mohali and elected member of INSA and NASI. She was elected Fellow of IASc in 2023.
Session 2C: Lectures by Fellows/Associates
Chairperson: Rajesh K Srivastava, BHU, Varanasi
A Tale of Cellular and Metabolic Essential for the Development of Blood Cells
Employing the Drosophila blood cell system, we have tried to understand the crosstalk between the stem cell compartments. In this process, we have unravelled several new signals and metabolic cues essential for the maintenance and functionality of the stem cell niche and the blood progenitors.Our recent work shows how cellular systems can maintain phenotypic stability despite multiple perturbations produced by environmental changes, stochastic events, and genetic diversity. Cues to which a cell needs to respond immediately would specifically utilize mechanisms that can initiate a rapid turnover of the functionally active entities of a cell. One such entity can be the translating mRNA requiring immediate clearance to cope actively with an environmental response triggered by cellular sensing. In this context, we demonstrate that the miRNAs are not mere bystanders but active players in dictating how blood cells react to their environment, particularly in varying nutrient states. Employing in vivo (Drosophila) and in vitro (human primary and blood cell lines), our study establishes the functional association between an environmental signal of nutrient availability and active-miRNA machinery essential for hematopoietic growth and proliferation.