Women Innovators

In one of our previous editions, we had pen-pictured the deeds of three Women who have long played a leading role in the pursuit for innovation, and their talents and expertise are continuing to help us to make advances in science, technology and engineering. In this episode we once again adulate the preeminent force for the changes dominating the world.

IIT Kanpur have honoured ‘Pioneering Women Scientists’ at the Saroj Chandrashekhar Memorial Award Ceremony, 2025 held at the IIT Campus on 06^th. June, 2025. It was a distinguished event celebrating excellence in Biosciences and Biotechnology. This prestigious award, instituted by the Chandrasekhar Foundation, commemorates the inspiring legacy of Professor Saroj Chandrasekhar, a trailblazer in tuberculosis research. Professor Chandrasekhar’s exceptional career began with a B.Sc. from St. Xavier’s College, University of Bombay, in 1947, followed by a Ph.D. in Bacteriology from Imperial College of Science and Technology, UK, in 1950. Her academic journey and pioneering contributions culminated in leadership roles at the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi. She also served as visiting faculty at Johns Hopkins University from 1966 to 1969. Her groundbreaking work on the pathogenesis of tuberculosis laid the foundation for advancements in understanding and treating the disease, inspiring generations of researchers.

The award ceremony featured inspiring keynote addresses by Professor Sujata Sharma and Dr. Nagma Parveen. Professor Sujata Sharma, an acclaimed structural biologist and biophysicist from the Department of Biophysics, AIIMS New Delhi, has received numerous national and international accolades, including the Women Scientist of the Year Award (2006) and the SERB Power Fellowship (2021).

While, Dr. Nagma Parveen, faculty at the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur, shared insights from her cutting-edge research on virus kinetics, focusing on virus–membrane interactions and the development of antiviral strategies.

The Saroj Chandrashekhar Memorial Award 2025 recognised three exceptional young women scientists for their outstanding doctoral research. Yogita Kapoor, from the CSIR–Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, received recognition for her dissertation titled “Investigating the role of DivIVA-domain containing proteins in mycobacterial growth and division”; Harsha Rani, from the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, was acknowledged for her work on “Investigating alterations in the epigenetic landscape in p53 deficient or mutant colorectal cancer”; Lastly, Ankita Menon, from IIT Palakkad, earned recognition for her dissertation “Development of Surface Modified MXene Based Electrochemical Biosensors for the Detection of Biomarkers and Drug Molecules”.

These awards highlight their significant contributions to the scientific community and underline the importance of encouraging women in STEM. The ceremony concluded with a heartfelt vote of thanks from the organising committee, acknowledging the awardees, esteemed speakers, and all participants for making the event a resounding success. The event paid homage to a scientific pioneer and served as a beacon for aspiring women researchers in India and beyond.

• Yogita Kapoor: CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology – her research investigates the role of DivIVA-domain containing proteins in Mycobacterium growth and division, particularly focusing on the cytoskeletal protein Wag31. Wag31 is crucial for maintaining cell shape, directing cell elongation, and regulating lipid homeostasis in mycobacteria. Wag31’s DivIVA domain, which is crucial for membrane tethering and protein-protein interactions, is essential for proper lipid distribution and synthesis of cell wall components, ultimately influencing bacterial survival.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the research:

Wag31 and Lipid Homeostasis: Wag31, with its DivIVA domain, plays a vital role in maintaining lipid homeostasis within the cell. It interacts with lipids like cardiolipin (CL), and its function is crucial for the proper distribution and localization of lipids, including CL.

Cell Wall Synthesis: Wag31’s interactions with lipid membranes also influence cell wall synthesis, ensuring that the complex mycobacterial cell wall is properly constructed.

Protein-Protein Interactions: The C-terminal region of Wag31 is involved in protein-protein interactions, which are essential for proper cell division and growth.

Membrane Tethering: Wag31’s DivIVA domain can tether CL-containing liposomes, highlighting its role in membrane tethering.

Role in Cell Division: The studies have also explored Wag31’s impact on cell division processes in Mycobacterium.

Impact of Wag31 Depletion: Both depletion and overexpression of Wag31 can disrupt lipid homeostasis, leading to the formation of intracellular lipid inclusions (ILIs).

Polar Elongation: Wag31 is known to be crucial for polar elongation, and the research aims to understand how it orchestrates this process.

Harsha Rani, Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology at MAHE:

In p53-deficient or mutant colorectal cancer, epigenetic alterations significantly contribute to tumorigenesis, impacting both p53’s own function and downstream pathways. These changes, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and microRNA expression, can alter gene expression without directly modifying the DNA sequence. The interplay between genetic and epigenetic alterations in colorectal cancer suggests a complex mechanism involving both p53-related and independent events.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) belongs to the most common tumor types, and half of all CRC harbour missense mutations in the TP53 tumor suppressor gene. In addition to genetically caused loss of function of p53, epigenetic alterations (DNA methylation, histone modifications, micro-RNAs) contribute to CRC development.

A. Epigenetic Mechanisms:

DNA Methylation: Aberrant DNA methylation, particularly hypermethylation of promoter regions in tumor suppressor genes, is a common epigenetic alteration in colorectal cancer. This can lead to the silencing of these genes, contributing to tumor development.

Histone Modifications: Changes in histone acetylation or methylation patterns can alter chromatin structure and gene expression. For example, histone acetylation can activate gene expression, while histone methylation can repress it.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs): Altered miRNA expression can also contribute to epigenetic changes by regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level.

DNA Methylation and p53: Methylation of genes involved in activating p53 function, such as APC and MGMT, can lead to an increase in p53 mutation rates. Additionally, methylation of microRNAs like miR-34a, which activates p53, can contribute to p53 loss-of-function.

Histone Modifications and p53: Modifications to histones, like the acetylation of p53-related histones, can be affected by epigenetic changes in colorectal cancer.

Downstream of p53: Epigenetic alterations can also affect the activity of downstream p53 targets, further impacting p53’s function. For example, methylation of the HRK promoter, a p53 target, has been linked to p53 wild-type status in colorectal cancer.

B. Impact on Colorectal Cancer Development and Progression:

Tumor Suppressor Gene Inactivation: Epigenetic alterations can silence tumor suppressor genes, like p53, contributing to uncontrolled cell growth.

EMT Induction: Loss of p53 can lead to alterations in epigenetic modifications on the promoters of EMT (Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition) factors, contributing to the development of more aggressive, metastatic phenotypes.

Drug Resistance: Epigenetic changes can contribute to drug resistance in colorectal cancer.

Prognosis: Epigenetic alterations can impact the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer.

C. Clinical Implications:

Biomarkers: Specific epigenetic alterations can be used as biomarkers for early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and management of colorectal cancer.

Therapeutic Targets: Epigenetic regulators, such as DNA methyltransferases and histone deacetylases, are potential therapeutic targets in colorectal cancer.

Liquid Biopsies: Analysis of liquid biopsies can help identify epigenetic alterations and assess the effectiveness of therapies.

Ankitha Menon, IIT Palakkad: Fatal diseases like cancers, neurodegenerative, cardiac, pulmonary, and kidney diseases can be treated effectively if they are diagnosed at early stages. The diagnosis of these diseases can be carried out effectively using biomarkers that are released into the blood stream, sweat, and saliva due to various physiological processes. If these biomarkers can be detected when their concentrations in the body start to exhibit abnormal trends, processes to mitigate these abnormalities can be adopted. Additionally, the effect of treatment methodologies and the resultant prognosis of the disease can be analyzed if the levels of biomarkers can be correlated to the treatment methodology adopted. For carrying out the early-stage diagnosis and prognosis, sensors incorporating sensitive detection elements are required. Nb MXenes are a subclass of 2D transition metal carbides that have been receiving attention in this aspect. These MXenes possess superior properties like excellent electronic conductivity, electrochemical and photothermal stability, and biocompatibility that make them valuable as sensing elements in a wide variety of sensor paradigms like electrochemical, optical, electrical, and electronic sensors. This review discusses the synthesis of Nb MXenes, advantages of using Nb MXenes over other MXenes, and reviews the use of these materials as detection elements in sensors that were used to detect biomarkers holding diagnostic and prognostic significance.

A. MXenes: The Foundation of the Biosensor:

MXenes (Metal MXenes): These are a class of two-dimensional materials with exceptional properties, including high electrical conductivity, large surface area, and good biocompatibility.

Advantages for Biosensing: These properties enable MXenes to be used as a platform for developing highly sensitive biosensors.

B. Surface Modification: Enhancing Performance:

Hydrophilic Polymers: Modifying MXenes with hydrophilic polymers like polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) improves their dispersion stability in physiological conditions.

Functional Groups: Introducing functional groups like sulfonic groups (–SO3H), carboxyl groups (–COOH), and amino groups (–NH2) enhances MXenes’ performance for specific applications like dye adsorption or biosensing.

Nanocomposites: Combining MXenes with other materials like metal nanoparticles, metal oxides, and carbon nanotubes can create composite materials with enhanced properties for various sensing applications.

C. Biosensing Applications:

Biomarker Detection: MXene-based biosensors are used to detect various biomarkers in biological samples, aiding in disease diagnosis and monitoring.

Drug Molecule Detection: These biosensors can be used to detect the presence and concentration of drug molecules in biological fluids, aiding in drug development and monitoring.

Real-time and Multiplexed Detection: The unique properties of MXenes enable the development of biosensors capable of real-time and multiplexed detection of multiple analytes.

D. Challenges and Future Directions:

Low oxidative stability: One of the ongoing challenges is the low oxidative stability of MXenes.

Optimisation and Expansion: Research is focused on optimizing MXene-based biosensor performance and expanding their applications to various sensing areas.

Wearable and Implantable Sensors: The development of wearable and implantable MXene-based biosensors for real-time health monitoring is an area of growing interest.

IIT Kanpur: The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, established in 1959, is recognised as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India through an Act of Parliament. Its expansive, lush green campus spans 1,050 acres, and comprising 19 departments, 26 centers, three interdisciplinary programs, and two specialised schools across engineering, science, design, humanities, and management disciplines. With over 590 full-time faculty members and more than 9,500 students, IIT Kanpur continues to be a leader in fostering innovation and academic rigor.

Team Maverick