Department of Bio-Medical Engineering (DBME), IIT Ropar, Punjab.
Durba Pal, PhD
DBT/wellcome Trust India alliance Intermediate fellow
Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering (DBME)
Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar)
SSB Block-Main Campus, Room-119 Landline: 01881-232506
Email: durba.pal@iitrpr.ac.in
Google Scholar Citation: >2000
h index: 19
Dr. Durba Pal has joined Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, India as an Assistant Professor in the Center for Biomedical Engineering in December 2016. After completing her Master’s from the University of Calcutta, she joined CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata and then Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal for pursuing her Ph.D. in the field of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. She carried out her Ph.D. research work on the topic – “Role of fetuin-A in lipid induced insulin resistance”. She discovered that fetuin-A, a hepatic secretory glycoprotein, acts as a molecular adapter which links toll-like receptor (TLR4) with saturated free fatty acids and plays a pivotal role in lipid-induced adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance. Thus, her research demonstrated that fetuin-A could be a novel therapeutic target for the management of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. This work was published in Nature Medicine, where she contributed as the first author, and highlighted in other reputed journals like Cell, Science Signaling, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Immunology, Diabetes.
Following her Ph.D., Dr. Pal undertook postdoctoral research under Prof. Chandan K. Sen at The Ohio State University-Wexner Medical Center. There, she focused on cellular reprogramming and regenerative medicine, achieving in-vivo transdifferentiation of dermal fibroblasts into endothelial cells and neurons using a novel nano-electroporation technique. This research was published in Nature Nanotechnology, where she was a joint first author.
Dr. Pal has authored numerous research papers in peer-reviewed international journals and has received several prestigious awards, including the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Research (December 2023), the NASI Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award (2017) from The National Academy of Science, India, the SERB Women Excellence Award (2018), and the SERB Early Career Research Award (2017) from the Scientific and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi. She also serves as a reviewer for various international journals. Her current research focuses on cell-based therapeutics in disease biology and the application of tissue engineering in regenerative medicine.
Post-Doctoral Fellow : The Ohio State University – Wexner Medical Center, USA
Ph.D : Visva-Bharati (A Central University), INDIA
M.Sc. : University of Calcutta, INDIA
B.Sc. : Lady Brabourne College (University of Calcutta), INDIA