Latest news with #SivapriyaKirubakaran
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
IIT Gandhinagar honours 45 students during pre-convocation awards ceremony
The Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), on the eve of its 14th convocation, hosted its second annual awards ceremony at Mahatma Mandir on Friday. This year IITGN recognised over 45 medallists, including recipients of the President's and Director's Gold Medals across MTech, MSc, MA, BTech, and PhD programmes. In addition, Institute Gold Medals were awarded to students who demonstrated exceptional academic performance within their respective disciplines, including biology, chemistry, civil, computer science, electrical, mechanical engineering, cognitive science, mathematics, and physics. Special commendations celebrated student leadership, entrepreneurship, research innovation, cultural contributions, sportsmanship, and social service. The commendations honoured students who led social initiatives, spearheaded campus festivals, designed solutions to real-world problems, and pursued creative passions with relentless dedication, according to an official statement. Addressing the awardees during the ceremony, Prof Sivapriya Kirubakaran, Dean, Student Affairs, remarked that the event reinforced IITGN's core philosophy that education goes beyond intellectual accomplishment; it is also about building character, creativity, and compassion. S P Shukla, Chairman, Aero, Defence, Agri Sectors at Mahindra Group, who presided over the ceremony, reflected on the evolving profiles and aspirations of students and the IIT system over the years. He emphasised the need to balance ambition with responsibility. 'Make sure that you allocate your time, energy, and resources to carry out your responsibility towards all three — yourself and your career, your family, and society,' he said.
Indian Express
28-05-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
IIT Gandhinagar researchers claim breakthrough in fight against treatment resistance in prostate cancer
A research team from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Gandhinagar) Cancer Chemical Biology Lab has recently identified a molecule that targets a key survival mechanism used by cancer cells to resist standard therapies. 'Typically, cancer cells activate a protein called Tousled-like kinase 1 (TLK1), which acts like a molecular repair crew,' explained Dr Sivapriya Kirubakaran, corresponding author of the study and a Professor at IITGN's Department of Chemistry. Traditional therapeutics using TLK1 inhibitors have been limited to a small class of compounds known as phenothiazines. The study has been published in the Bioorganic Chemistry journal. 'Initially developed as antipsychotic drugs, they show limited specificity and potency in prostate cancer therapeutics and are associated with undesirable side effects. The IITGN team sought to address this gap by creating a new class of inhibitors with better safety and effectiveness. We designed novel drug variants by modifying J54, our in-house designed phenothiazine-based TLK1 inhibitor,' said Dr Delna Johnson, the first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the lab. J54, which was developed by former researchers of the lab, has shown effective action against mCRPC (metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer) in previous studies. 'We replaced J54's core structure and systematically modified its other parts to create new molecules capable of forming stronger interactions with the TLK1 protein,' she added. 'By retaining J54's morpholine-based side chain, a common chemical structure in many drugs, and adding an amide linker, our team sculpted a molecular decoy that disables the protein's function without disturbing the rest of the cellular machinery,' noted Dr Vijay Thiruvenkatam, senior author of the study and an Associate Research Professor at IITGN's Department of Biological Sciences and Engineering. The research team synthesised two series of molecules and performed a comprehensive set of experiments to evaluate their biological activity. In in vitro (test tube) assays, several compounds showed promising inhibition of TLK1, with one molecule, named 5n, standing out as the most potent. 'Molecule 5n could inhibit TLK1 significantly better than J54, and, crucially, it did so without competing with ATP, the cell's primary energy molecule,' according to the research team. To assess whether these molecules would work in living systems, the researchers tested their compounds on the LNCaP cell line, a human prostate cancer cell line that still responds to hormones. The cells, routinely used as a testing model for early-stage prostate cancer, responded strongly to 5n. 'In combination with Bicalutamide, a commonly used anti-androgen drug, 5n showed a six-fold improvement in reducing cancer cell survival. Additional experiments revealed that this dual treatment triggered significant DNA damage in the cancer cells and activated apoptosis, a self-destruct mechanism reserved for when a cell recognises its own irreparable flaws. Importantly, 5n demonstrated far less toxicity toward healthy, non-cancerous cells, suggesting that it selectively targets cancer cells, which is critical for reducing side effects in potential therapies,' the researchers claimed. 'By targeting a key protein involved in therapy resistance and designing a new class of molecules with precision and purpose, we have opened a new avenue for treating one of the most challenging forms of cancer,' says Prof Kirubakaran. The study shows how interdisciplinary research can set new benchmarks for cancer therapeutics, according to the research team. The future direction of this research will involve further preclinical studies to assess safety and effectiveness in animal models, followed by potential clinical trials, they added.
