Blog

The 2025 InSDB meeting, in partnership with the International Society of Differentiation (ISD), was hosted at IISER Berhampur, Odisha, from 14th to 17th December 2025. The meeting brought together over 200 participants, including students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members from across India and around the world. The event started with opening remarks by Prof. Ashok […]

In this interview, we caught up with Kristina S. Stapornwongkul, postdoctoral fellow at Vikas Trivedi’s lab at EMBL, to discuss their new paper on Cell Stem Cell. Their work shows that glycolysis has an instructive role during the early stages of development, defining cell fate. You can read the paper here. Hello, Kristina! It is […]

Part II VM: In your opinion, what are the most significant mechanisms underlying robustness in developmental systems? UN: Feedback is the most important mechanism. If one studies the shoot apical meristem (SAM) through the works of Meyerowitz and colleagues about how genes maintain this pool of stem cells, which forms all plant organs, it becomes […]

This is Part I of Vishwadeep Mane’s (VM) conversation with Professor Utpal Nath (UN) and Prof. Olivier Hamant (OH). The interview revolves around the robustness of organs, shape, and size from a mechanical and genetic perspective. It takes a walk around the historical aspects of plant development and the turning points that led the interviewees […]

Glycolysis is an ancient metabolic activity. Although scientists have extensively studied the role of metabolism in individual cells to understand how it influences their energetic state, little has been studied about the effect of glycolysis on the decisions that cells or groups of cells make. Vikas Trivedi, Group Leader at EMBL and member of InDDB, […]

John B Wallingford is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. John has also written various pieces on the history and philosophy of developmental biology. We caught up with him to discuss his essay ‘Aristotle, Buddhist scripture and embryology in ancient Mexico: building inclusion by re-thinking what counts as the history of developmental […]

By: Indulekha M S What happens if the level of a certain protein in your body is reduced by half? Could this alter how your face, brain, and even your heart develop? This is what happens in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS), where a baby is born with unusual facial features, intellectual disability, heart defects, and other […]

This interview is with Neelanjana Ray, who won the best oral presentation award at the LASDB meeting in Chile. Neelanjana is a graduate student at the National Centre for Biological Sciences. She looks at the workings of inner ear development in the lab of Dr. Raj Ladher. Hello, Neelanja! To start with, could you tell […]

Jayshree Singh is a graduate student working on planaria in the lab of Akash Gulyani at the Central University of Hyderabad. Let’s start with an intro to the research presented in your winning poster.  Our capacity to perceive our environment hinges on the intricate coordination between our eyes and brain. While humans can see colors […]

Ankita Walvekar is a PhD student in Dr. Neha Vyas’s lab at St. John’s Research Institute and jointly works in the lab of Dr. Raj Ladher at NCBS. Tell us about the research presented in your winning poster. The work presented in my poster is a part of my PhD. The poster focused on exosomal […]

Nikhil is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Dasaradhi Palakodeti. He works at the interface of regeneration and stem cell biology.  Can you tell us a little bit about the research presented in your winning poster at InSDB24?  Planaria, a remarkable organism known for its extraordinary regenerative abilities, has been the focus of […]

Atal is an integrated PhD student in the lab of Dr. Abhishek Bhattacharya at NCBS. He talks about his work on electrical synapses and his experience at InSDB24. Let’s start from the beginning. Tell us a little bit about the research presented in your winning poster.  Our research focuses on understanding how neurons communicate via […]

An integrated PhD student in Dr. Abhishek Bhattacharya’s lab at NCBS, Ananya Bandyopadhyay shares the work behind her prize-winning poster and about InSDB24. 1. Tell us a bit about the research presented in your winning poster  We know that neuronal communication is important for the functioning of the brain and this is majorly mediated by […]

Aravind H is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Manish Jaiswal at TIFR-Hyderabad. His poster was among the few that were awarded the best poster award at InSDB24. Here, Aravind talks about his work, and his experience at the conference. Tell us a little bit about the work you presented in your poster […]

We talk to Y K Sammera, an integrated PhD student in Dr. Ramkumar Sambasivan’s lab at IISER-Tirupati. She bagged the best poster prize at InSDB24. Read to know more about her work and her experience at the conference.  Tell us about the work you presented in your poster. My lab broadly works to understand the […]

The 2024 Indian Society of Developmental Biologists meeting (InSDB24) was hosted at the vibrant Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster, with over 300 participants from India and overseas. The talks and sessions reflected the interdisciplinary nature of modern developmental biology with sessions on early development, developmental cell biology, mechanisms of morphogenesis, stem cells and repair, disease and […]

Development’s second call for their Pathway to Independence program is now open! The Pathway to Independence (PI) program aims to support researchers in the developmental biology and stem cell field as they transition from postdoc to principal investigator. This scheme will provide mentorship and networking opportunities, and will help to raise the profile of those […]

InSDB is thrilled to welcome Indulekha M S to the team! She joins us as our community manager. In her new role, she will be organizing community activities for InSDB and helping us build our outreach and social media activities as well. With a master’s from IISER-Tvm, she is an academic-turned-science communicator, interested in the […]

By Niveda Udaykumar My first foray into developmental biology came during my undergraduate Zoology class in 2013. The class was on the famous Spemann-Mangold Organizer, and I remember that I found the class quite interesting. After my Masters, as any student at that stage would do, I started applying for PhD programs. I appeared for […]

If you’re a DevBio enthusiast, I am sure you’ve come across The Node. Run by the journal Development and its publisher, Company of Biologists, this community website, is part of our inspiration. But in case you haven’t, read on! Joyce You, The Node’s Community Manager, tells about the Node and what they do. About the […]

By Mitali Patil My first peek into the world of ‘developmental biology’ was years before I knew that such a field of study existed. Thanks to Foldscope – an origami paper microscope and a humble puddle on a sea beach in Mumbai that I got excited about looking at innards of all kinds of eggs. […]

What is InSDB?Developmental biology is the study of how a single-celled seed or embryo gives rise to the complex shapes and forms of plants and animals around us. Many scientists in India work in this field and InSDB is the national society that represents this community. What will the InSDB community manager do?InSDB wants to […]

Maneesha Inamdar Dear Colleagues, Greetings! I am thrilled to announce the launch of the brand new logo and website for the Indian Society of Developmental Biologists (InSDB).  The new logo is based on the impressive, iridescent feathers of the peacock, our National Bird. It is pointing skyward with a gastrula at the center, in the colorful eye […]

By: Aadya Nageswaran It is one thing to observe Drosophila embryos under a microscope (they look like grains of rice with two appendages), but it is quite another, more mind-blowing experience, to watch that same tiny bundle of cells under a foldscope, and capture a time lapse of its growth. That is precisely what I […]

Dr Cuckoo Mahapatra, Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo, Orissa

Aliziran Red (bone) and Alcian Blue (cartilage) staining of the middle ear region of a 12 day chicken embryo. Unlike mammals, with 3 ossicles, birds only have one ossicle, the columella. Raj Ladher, NCBS, Bangalore

Section of the invaginating inner ear placode from a 2 day chick embryo. Actin (green), RhoA (red) and nuclei (blue) are shown Raj Ladher, NCBS, Bangalore

Experimental upregulation of Wnt pathway in Hydra vulgaris leads to development of ectopic tentacles all over the body column. This image from Surendra Ghaskadbi lab at ARI, Pune, India shows sites of ectopic tentacles marked by the expression of noggin. The lab studies regeneration in hydra with particular emphasis on cell signalling pathways.