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Understanding how stochastic and rare events, such as motor protein binding to cytoskeletal tracks or cargo, give rise to complex cellular organisation across scales.
- Regulation of motor proteins
- Cytoskeleton-organelle interactions
- Intracellular organization
- Cellular decision making
- In vivo single-molecule imaging
Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan graduated with a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany in 2014.
Prior to this, Vaishnavi pursued a dual degree – M.Sc. Biological Sciences and B.E. Computer Science at BITS, Pilani, India. She started her independent group in 2014 at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering) with her Dept. of Science and Technology (India) INSPIRE Faculty Award.
She transitioned to an Assistant Professor position in the same institute in 2017. She was awarded the Dept. of Biotechnology (DBT, India) Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award in 2015, Science and Engineering Research Board (India) Early Career Research Award in 2016, and was elected Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2018.
In 2019, she was inducted to the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) as a Young Investigator and was granted the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship. Most recently, her work was recognized with the Indian National Science Academy’s Medal for Young Scientists 2020.
In June 2020, she co-founded BiasWatchIndia, an initiative to document representation of women, and to combat gender-biased panels at Indian science conferences.
Highlight publications
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Cortical tethering of mitochondria by the anchor protein Mcp5 enables uniparental inheritance. J. Cell Biol. (2019) 218 (11) 3560-3571. |
Cortical tethering of mitochondria by the anchor protein Mcp5 enables uniparental inheritance. |
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J. Biol. Chem. (2019) 294(10) 3385–3396. |
Association of mitochondria with microtubules inhibits mitochondrial fission by precluding activity of the fission protein Dnm1. |
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Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (2017) 114: E2672-E2681. |
Fission Yeast Myosin I Facilitates PI(4,5)P2 –mediated Anchoring of Cytoplasmic Dynein to the Cortex. |
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ACS Biomater. (2017) Sci. Eng. 3: 551-559. |
Role of Microtubules in Osteogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells on 3D Nanofibrous Scaffolds. |
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Dynein Motion Switches from Diffusive to Directed upon Cortical Anchoring. Cell (2013) 153: 1526-1536. |
Dynein Motion Switches from Diffusive to Directed upon Cortical Anchoring. |