Pucadyil Lab
Membrane remodelling in cellular physiology
The ~5 nanometer-thin biological membrane is formed spontaneously by the the non-covalent assembly of amphipathic lipids. Membranes are fluid and capable of resealing quickly upon rupture thereby making them highly resilient materials. Perhaps, this feature explains why lipids were selected over the course of evolution to form membranes that encapsulate all living entities. Membranes are also elastic materials that resist remodelling. But biological membranes are constantly bent out of shape, cut and resealed through budding, fission and fusion reactions, which are collectively referred to as membrane remodelling.
Membrane remodelling is managed by specialised protein machines. The Pucadyil Lab focuses on discovering membrane remodelling proteins and understanding their mechanistic and regulatory aspects. We carry out biochemical screens to identify such proteins, employ reconstitution approaches to understand how they work and investigate their functions in living systems.
Lab news
March 19, 2025
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Krishnendu's paper in collaboration with Tamas Balla's lab on identifying a lipid-based mechanism that stimulates mitochondrial fission accepted in Nature Communications
October 27-29 , 2024
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2nd Organelle Biology and Membrane Trafficking meeting to be held at IISER Pune - Organized by Nagaraj and Thomas.
August , 2024
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Shivansh and Sejal join the Pucadyil Lab as graduate students.
May 29, 2024
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Swayam graduates with a BS-MS degree. Himani, Shomu and Krishnendu graduate with a Ph.D. Himani received the best thesis award in the Biology department.
May 1, 2024
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Everything you wanted to know about SMrT templates can be found in Uma's review in Biochemical Society Transactions.
April 9, 2024
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Soumya's paper on reconstituting membrane tubulation and fission using novel cushioned bilayer templates accepted in PNAS.
March 4, 2024
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Krishnendu graduates with a Ph.D. !!!
February 13, 2024
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Himani graduates with a Ph.D. !!!
February 5, 2024
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Soumya graduates with a Ph.D. !!!
September 17, 2023
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Soumya's paper on reconstituting membrane tubulation and fission using novel cushioned bilayer templates posted on the bioarxiv.
June 19, 2023
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Our review on gears in dynamin-catalyzed fission gets published in Current Opinions in Cell Biology.
March 21, 2023
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Himani gets invited to give a talk at the EMBO Cell Polarity and Membrane Dynamics meeting.
March 16, 2023
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Thomas' invited perspective piece on mitochondrial fission published in Molecular Cell.
February 9, 2023
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Himani's paper on a novel variable loop in dynamin accepted in PNAS.
February 4, 2023
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Thomas gets invited to speak at the Biophysical Society's Membrane Fusion and Budding meeting in Colorado.
January 20-24, 2023
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The Pucadyil Lab attends the 45th All India Cell Biology Conference at Varanasi. This is somewhat of a lab retreat as well (see the photos).
September 4, 2022
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Himani's paper on a novel variable loop in dynamin posted on the bioarxiv.
August 30, 2022
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Uma, Megha and Gurmail get selected to present posters at the EMBO Phosphoinositide meeting.
June 22, 2022
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Krishnendu get the EMBO Travel Grant to attend the EMBO Birth and Fission of Cellular Compartments meeting.
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Shilpa get the Infosys Travel Grant to attend the EMBO Birth and Fission of Cellular Compartments meeting.
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Our response to a recent paper claiming that Drp1 does not catalyze fission gets published as Letter to the Editor in PNAS.
April 19, 2022
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The Pucadyil Lab gets awarded the Team Science Grant from DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance.
February 14, 2022
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Devika's and Himani's paper on SUPER template pulldowns accepted in a special issue dedicated to Erwin London in the Journal of Membrane Biology.
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Krishnendu's paper on metal binding in the mitochondrial Drp1 accepted in a special issue of membrane remodelling in the Journal of Membrane Biology.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune 411008, Maharashtra, INDIA