C. L. Indulekha Pillai

Biography

Dr. Indulekha C. L. Pillai joined as Assistant Professor in School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Amrita University) in 2016. She earned her PhD from Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, India (2005-2010). Her PhD work contributed towards elucidating the role of notch signaling in transcriptional regulation of neuronal sub type specification during embryonic stem cell differentiation and the role of glial progenitors (stromal cells in brain) during adult neurogenesis in rat models of epileptic injury. Further, she completed her research training in Duke University, USA (2010-2011). Dr. Pillai finished her post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Arjun Deb at University of California, Los Angeles (2011-2015), where she contributed towards understanding stem cell mediated repair during cardiac injury, fibrosis, calcification etc. using transgenic and knockout mouse models of disease. Later she moved to Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles and further expanded her research in lung injury and fibrosis and studied the role of innate immune regulators in epithelial progenitors/stem cells using transgenic mouse models of acute lung injury (2016). Dysregulation of stem cell maintenance or differentiation is the major underlying reason in many different diseases ranging from degenerative diseases to cancer. So understanding the molecular mechanisms of stem cell proliferation/targeted differentiation will lead to the development of better therapeutic options against those refractory diseases. Dr. Indulekha Pillai aims to understand the molecular mechanisms and the role of developmental signaling pathways such as notch/Wnt signaling in stem cell mediated repair, regeneration and diseases process, and thus to develop novel stem cell based therapies. Dr. Indulekha Pillai has received several recognitions throughout her academic career. She has been selected as Moderator for American Heart Association Annual meeting (2013), Marie Curie funding to attend International Stem Cell School, Denmark (2009), International travel grant from Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India to attend Annual meeting of Society for Neuroscience, Chicago (2009), Dr. M. R. Das Career Award with gold medal and citation for exceptional contributions as a graduate student (2011), Junior and Senior Research Fellowship from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India (2004), National eligibility for Lectureship from University Grants Commission, India (2004). She received first rank in MSc Biotechnology and awarded with Certificate of Merit (2004) from University of Kerala, India. Dr. Indulekha Pillai has several International journal publications to her credit. She serves as a reviewer to several international journals in biomedical research. Indulekha Pillai is also a member of the American Heart Association (AHA) and International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).

Research Interest

Biotechnology