National Centre for Cell Science
Pune

Mandate

The tripartite mandate of NCCS includes the following as its key functions: i) To serve as a National Cell Repository, ii) To perform Basic Research in Cell Biology, and iii) Human Resource Development through teaching and training.

Campus

NCCS is located within the academically enriched campus of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU).

Research Focus

NCCS is engaged in cutting-edge research in the diverse areas of modern cell biology, broadly categorized as i) Cell Biology and Cancer Biology, ii) Structural Biology, Bioinformatics and Omics, iii) Infectious diseases, Immunology, Microbiology, and iv) Neurobiology & Stem Cell Biology. The research addresses challenging health issues like cancer, infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, and regenerative medicine through approaches that integrate modern and conventional disciplines.

Human Resource

The institute currently has 32 scientists and around 200 Research Fellows engaged in high-quality research, supported by 69 technical staff and 38 administrative staff at the institute.

Key Scientific Achievements

Major achievements in the last 5 years (2017-22) are as follows:

• The institute hosts a National Cell Repository that maintains and distributes well-characterized animal cell lines to various colleges, universities, and research institutions in India at affordable costs.
• NCCS hosts the DBT-funded National Centre for Microbial Research for collecting, identifying, preserving, and distributing microbial cultures from various ecological niches across the country. NCCS has the third-largest microbial collection in the world.
• Generating a baseline microbiome profile in the Indian population for investigating the link between genotype and microbiome to understand the role of diet, geography, and genetics.
• Identified the immune-modulatory role of IL-3 in the regulation of pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis and demonstrated that IL-3 prevents bone damage in an animal model of osteoporosis.
• Developed human iPSCs based Down syndrome impaired neurogenesis model and identification of biphasic impairment during neurogenesis.
• NCCS was the first to demonstrate that computationally-designed synthetic peptides are a potential strategy against drug-resistant infection model and COVID-19 to develop novel therapeutics.
• The faculty and students at NCCS have received numerous awards for their scientific contributions, such as Swarnajayanti Fellowship, J.C. Bose National Fellowship, Fulbright Nehru Fellowship, EMBO travel awards, Tata Innovation Fellowship, etc. Several faculty members also serve on the editorial boards of prestigious international journals.
• The institute regularly organizes outreach and public engagement events such as its Open Days (Prelude to the National Science Day at NCCS-NCMR- public talks, lab visits), the Microbial Science Outreach Initiative (MSOI), Science exhibition- India International Science Festival, Science Setu webinars, etc.. NCCS faculty also participated in COVID-related and other outreach in Marathi & English through talks, and discussions, and interviews on several radio & TV programs.