[bioundgrd] FW: MISTI / MIT-India Internships at the National Centre for Biological Sciences

[Joshua Stone]

From: Madeline Smith <msmith1 at mit.edu>
Subject: MISTI / MIT-India Internships at the National Centre for Biological Sciences

Please share the below opportunities with your membership, who may be interested in these summer internships through MISTI / MIT-India:
[cid:image003.png at 01D4C393.56DD75B0]
The National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India is seeking three interns to work on projects related to ecology, biology, neuroscience, bioinformatics, and related areas. Interns live on NCBS’s campus in central Bangalore, and conduct research over a period of 10 weeks.

Previous MIT-India interns at NCBS have been involved in papers that went on to publication and gained valuable research experience.

Students interested in these opportunities should apply as soon as possible through MIT-India at applymisti.mit.edu<https://applymisti.mit.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Abroad.ViewLink&Parent_ID=0&Link_ID=F95C3A54-5056-BA1F-71427DB3CB88AD7E> or email msmith1 at mit.edu<mailto:msmith1 at mit.edu> for more information.

Projects:
Naturalist-Inspired Chemical Ecology (NICE) Labs
Focus of Project: Finding a universal object: Flower identification across pollinators
Website: www.nice.ncbs.res.in<http://www.nice.ncbs.res.in>
Academic qualifications: Computer science, neuroscience, behavior or ecology focused students interested in theoretical, experimental or field work
Project Description: Most insects, including most pollinating insects, are solitary, which means when they emerge as adults there is no one to teach them about their world. This also implies that certain vital objects, such as food and danger, should be encoded as innate neural representations in their brain. Flowers are food for pollinating insects like bees, moths and flies. For the past several years, we have been examining what stimuli constitute "a flower" to a naïve insect, given the immense variety of floral cues in terms of smells, colors, and shapes across the planet. We have identified some key stimuli that are important for certain pollinators, and are interested if these characteristics translate to other insects (or even other animals!) We would like to invite students interested in computer science, neuroscience, animal behavior, or ecology to participate. Depending on their interest, they can participate in exciting theoretical, field and laboratory experiments to uncover the fundamental concepts that shape object identification in simple neural networks.

Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine - Centre for Inflammation and Tissue Homeostasis
Focus of project: Mechanisms regulating the wound-healing response
Website: https://instem.res.in/cith
Academic qualifications: Biology, engineering or bioinformatics interested students with basic laboratory experience
Project description and goals: The key goal of this research program is to gain a mechanistic understanding of the wound-healing process that would allow us to tailor it according to biomedical need. Specifically, we will focus on the regulatory mechanisms that govern the initiation of the wound-healing cascade with the notion that this understanding would likewise facilitate our ability to turn this process off. We will tackle these complex processes using a two-pronged approach: 1. From the physiological context of wound healing, we will probe the “on” signal that stimulates inflammation, proliferation, and tissue remodeling and 2. Within the pathological framework of cancer, aka over healing wound, we will investigate the “off” switch to terminate this wound-like response. These models will be used reciprocally to provide insights into both ends of the wound repair response. We would be using various technique to unravel these mysteries. E.g. In-vitro cell-culture, nucleotide sequencing, tissue sectioning and staining with bio-marker antibodies.
Research at inStem addresses the genetic mechanisms of potency, differentiation and proliferation in human pluripotent cells, examines clinical manifestations of diseases that can potentially be treated by stem cells, models human diseases using stem cells, uses model organisms such as Planaria and Hydra to address fundamental questions in regenerative biology, develops platforms to interrogate signaling pathways with new chemical entities, and finally, develops tools that will help to better understand the biology driving stem cells and eventually treat disease states. At inStem, research is primarily carried out by groups who work on tightly-knit themes, crossing boundaries and developing new approaches to address questions larger than the expertise of individual researchers. [from https://instem.res.in/about-us]

Host – Pathogen Interactions Lab
Focus of project: Assay development for P. vivax liver stage malaria
Website: https://www.ncbs.res.in/faculty/varadha
Academic qualifications: Students interested in modelling / theory
Project description: This lab works on host-pathogen interaction, trying to dissect, in quantitative terms, the fine balance operating between host and pathogen. They aim to come up with novel ways to disrupt this balance to favor the host.

Students of all majors and levels are welcome to apply!

Madeline Smith
Program Coordinator, MIT-India, MIT-South Asia
MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
E40-422, 1 Amherst Street
Cambridge, MA 02142

Phone: (617) 452-2479 / Fax: (617) 258-7432
Email: msmith1 at mit.edu<mailto:msmith1 at mit.edu> / mit-india at mit.edu<mailto:mit-india at mit.edu>
Web: misti.mit.edu/mit-india<http://misti.mit.edu/mit-india>

If you are a current MIT-India student and you are experiencing an emergency abroad, please call ISOS collect: +1 215-942-8478  (USA) or dial from within in India: +91 22 4283 8383.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/bioundgrd/attachments/20190213/7d216cf7/attachment-0001.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 31072 bytes
Desc: image001.png
Url : http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/bioundgrd/attachments/20190213/7d216cf7/attachment-0001.png