Dipyaman Ganguly

Dipyaman Ganguly is an Indian physician-scientist immunologist and cell biologist, currently a professor in the Department of Biology, Ashoka University. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 2022.

Ganguly graduated in medicine from Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata in 2001 but shifted his focus to biomedical research and joined the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology as a clinical associate. His post-doctoral work was at the Columbia University Medical Center as an SLE Foundation Fellow He was also a Swarnajayanti Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology, and was formerly a Ramanujan Fellow of the Science and Engineering Research Board of the Department of Science and Technology.

Scientific contribution Research interests of Ganguly lab are exploring the role of dendritic cells in autoreactive inflammatory contexts, deciphering molecular regulation of innate immune response and exploring the role of mechanical cues in immune cells. Researchers from Ganguly Lab recently discovered a novel regulatory module involving the Piezo1 mechanosensors in human T cells, driven by mechanical cues. They also provided the first evidence for involvement of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in obesity and associated metabolic syndrome in humans. Previous work by Dipyaman Ganguly led to discovery of the key initiation events in pathogenesis of the skin autoimmunity in Psoriasis, as well as first identification of dying neutrophils as the major source of nuclear antigens in systemic lupus, which was featured in Nature Reviews Key Advances in Medicine for the year 2012. Ganguly lab has also interest in development of new therapies for autoimmune diseases. Ganguly lab also took interest in performing research on immunology of COVID-19 disease and ran a randomized control trial on convalescent plasma therapy.

Awards The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2017/18. He is also a recipient of the Merck Young Scientist Award, the CDRI Award for Excellence in Drug Research from CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology and the NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Award of the Elsevier. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Medical Sciences in the year 2022.

Public outreach Ganguly is an enthusiast for public outreach of science in India, an avid stargazer and a public commentator and popular columnist on issues on science and health.

Selected bibliography