Deepak Kumar Sinha

Associate Professor

Research Areas

Micro-environment sensing by cells, Monocyte differentiation. Lipid Droplet dynamics,

Deepak’s lab pursues research in understanding the 1) role of lipid droplets during early development in zebrafish and 2) mechanism by which cells sense its physical microenvironments, monocyte differentiation, phagocytosis etc.

1. Lipid droplets (LDs) are neutral lipid rich organelles enclosed by a monolayer of phospholipids associated with lipid processing enzymes (lipases). Other than lipid processing, they participate in crucial cellular activities such as protein turnover, membrane trafficking, cell signaling etc. The physiology of an embryo is very different from that of the cells present in the organs/tissues. Embryos of various organisms contain LDs in their cytosol which are critically associated with embryonic development. My lab investigate different role of LDs related to zebrafish embryonic development.
2. Cellular functions are controlled by combinations of autonomous and non-autonomous factors. Non-autonomous factors elicit cellular responses via the extracellular micro-environment. The chemical makeup of a cellular micro-environment imparts its response either via the receptor-ligand interaction at the plasma membrane or through the transport of soluble molecules into the cytoplasm. The physical makeup of both the cell and the cellular micro-environment influences the functioning of the cells. Our lab explore the mechanism by which cells prescive its  physical micro-environment. We also study the mechanism by which the  physical makeup of the cells (rheology) influences its function.

Current research projects

Project-1: Defense against microbe in pre-immune imbryos

Project-2: Lipase recruitment on lipid droplets in zebrafish embryos

Project-3:  Origin of phenotypic (phagocytsis) variations in macrophages

Project-4: Influence of extra-cellular rheology on differentioation

Dr. Deepak K Sinha is currently an associate Professor in the school of biology at IACS, Kolkata. His laboratory is focused on understanding 1) the role of lipid droplets in early embryonic development in zebrafish and 2) how the physical properties of the extra-cellular microenvironment and intra-cellular cytoplasm influence its function using a multi-disciplinary approach. He carried out his PhD research at the national centre for biological sciences (2001-2007) and Postdoctoral research at ENS, Paris France (2007-2011). He started his laboratory at the India Association for the cultivation of sciences, Kolkata India in 2011 His scientific awards include; the Ramanujan Fellowship (2012)