ICMR - NIRBI


ICMR - National Institute for Research
in Bacterial Infections

आईसीएमआर - राष्ट्रीय जीवाणु संक्रमण अनुसंधान संस्थान

Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India
स्वास्थ्य अनुसंधान विभाग, स्वास्थ्य और परिवार कल्याण मंत्रालय, भारत सरकार
WHO Collaborating Centre For Research and Training On Diarrhoeal Diseases

BETI BACHAO BETI PADHAO
G20

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NICED : Scientists

Dr. Amrita Bhattacharjee

Dr. Amrita Bhattacharjee

General Information
Name Dr. Amrita Bhattacharjee
Designation DBT Ramalingaswami Fellow
Date of joining ICMR Since August 2023
Date of joining present post 2nd August  2023
Discipline Immunology and Infection
Email :  abhattacharjee.niced@gmail.com
Academic qualification: M.Sc, PhD
Graduation B.Sc(Microbiology), St Pauls CM college, Kolkata
Post-Graduation M.Sc(Microbiology), Barrackpore Rastraguru Surendranath College , Barrackpore
Doctorate PhD (Immunology) Bose Institute, Kolkata
Postdoctoral Training  University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh

Profile

Research Experience

Dr. Amrita Bhattacharjee is a mucosal immunologist with a strong background in Microbiology and Immunology. She has over 13 years of experience in the immunology of communicable diseases and has published and co-authored papers in journals including Immunity, Infection and Immunity, Journal of Immunology, and Nature Immunology.

After finishing her master's degree in Microbiology, Dr Bhattacharjee studied how immunosuppressive molecules are used by pathogens to evade immune surveillance during her Ph. D. under the guidance of Prof Subrata Majumdar at Bose Institute, Kolkata. Thereafter, she continued her research on immune dysfunction during her postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied various disease models of intestinal infection and inflammation with Prof Timothy Hand. She is now employed at ICMR-NIRBI (formerly NICED) as a DBT-Ramalingaswami fellow at the Division of Immunology where her lab is focused on understanding how exposure to malnutrition and enteric infections during early life modulate long term alterations in intestinal immune responses.
In addition to her academic quests, Dr Bhattacharjee is strong advocate for promoting inclusivity in STEM and has participated in many science outreach programs .
 

Research interest:

Our primary research interest lies in understanding the long term health consequences of early life disruptions, due to malnutrition or repeated enteric infections, with a particular focus on immune function. Other newer areas of interest include exploring immune evasion strategies employed by invasive bacteria to breach intestinal barriers and disseminate to distal organs , and deciphering the role of malnutrition-related immune disruptions in spreading antimicrobial resistance.

Honors and Awards

2010 : Junior Research Fellowship for qualifying the National Eligibility Test (UGC-JRF) by the United Grants Commission, Govt. of India

2016 : Was awarded the ‘Sir Nilratan Sirkar Award' for recognition of doctoral work by the RAC of Bose Institute.

2019 : Was awarded the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) grant by the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

2018 : Travel award for an oral presentation at the Cytokine meeting , Boston

2019 : Best Poster award at the Rust Belt microbiome meeting, Pittsburgh, USA

2020 : Travel award for presenting a talk at the International Congress of Mucosal Immunity, Denver (cancelled due to the pandemic, presented virtually instead.)

2021 : Selected for oral presentation at the Immunology Retreat of the University of Pittsburgh, Wheeling, USA

2022 : Best Oral Presentation Award at the 11th Children’s hospital Annual Research symposium, Pittsburgh, USA

2022 :Guest associate editor at Frontiers in Immunology

2023 : Granted the DBT-Ramalingaswami Re-entry fellowship.

Publications

2024

  1. Bhattacharjee A. Intestinal barrier immunity : key players in the gut microbial "meet and greet or get-rid" event. Book chapter in Microbes Metabolites and Mucosal Immunity by Elsevier. (In press ) Releasing Aug 2024.

2021

  1.  Bhattacharjee A, Burr AHP, Overacre-Delgoffe AE, Tometich T,Yang D, Huckestein BR, Linehan JL, Spencer SP, Hall JA, Harrison OJ, da Fonseca DM, Norton EB, Belkaid Y, Hand TW. Enteropathy-induced regulatory T cells inhibit intestinal CD4+ T cell responses against oral vaccines. Immunity 2021
  2. Overacre-Delgoffe AE, Cillo AR, Bumgarner HJ, Burr AH, Bhattacharjee A, Bruno TC, Vignali DAA, Hand TW. Microbiome-specific T follicular helper cells drive tertiary lymphoid structures and anti-tumor immunity against colorectal cancer. Immunity 2021.

2020

  1. Burr AHP, Bhattacharjee A (joint 1st author) , Hand TW. Nutritional modulation of the microbiome and immune response. Journal of Immunology 2020.

2019

  1. Majumder S, Amatya N, Revu S, Jawale CV, Wu D, Rittenhouse N, Menk A, Kupul S, Du F, Raphael I, Bhattacharjee A, Siebenlist U, Hand TW, Delgoffe GM, Poholek AC, Gaffen SL, Biswas PS, McGeachy MJ. IL-17 metabolically reprograms activated fibroblastic reticular cells for proliferation and survival. Nat Immunol. 2019

2018

  1. Bhattacharjee A, Hand TW. Role of nutrition, infection, and the microbiota in the efficacy of oral vaccines. Clin Sci (Lond). 2018

2016

  1. Bhattacharjee A, Majumder S, Das S, Ghosh S, Biswas S, Majumdar S. Leishmania donovani-Induced Prostaglandin E2 Generation Is Critically Dependent on Host Toll-Like Receptor 2-Cytosolic Phospholipase A2 Signaling.Infect Immun. 2016.

2015

  1.  Bandyopadhyay S, Bhattacharjee A, Banerjee S, Halder K, Das S, Paul Chowdhury B, Majumdar S. Glycyrrhizic acid-mediated subdual of myeloid-derived suppressor cells induces antileishmanial immune responses in a susceptible host. Infect Immun. 2015
  2.  Bhattacharjee A, Majumder S, Majumdar SB, Choudhuri SK, Roy S, Majumdar S.Co-administration of glycyrrhizic acid with the antileishmanial drug sodium antimony gluconate (SAG) cures SAG-resistant visceral leishmaniasis.Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2015

2014

  1. Majumder S, Bhattacharjee A, Paul Chowdhury B, Bhattacharyya Majumdar S, Majumdar S. Antigen-Pulsed CpG-ODN-Activated Dendritic Cells Induce Host-Protective Immune Response by Regulating the T Regulatory Cell Functioning in Leishmania donovani-Infected Mice: Critical Role of CXCL10.Front Immunol.2014.

2012

  1. Bhattacharjee S, Bhattacharjee A, Majumder S, Majumdar SB, Majumdar S. Glycyrrhizic acid suppresses Cox-2-mediated anti-inflammatory responses during Leishmania donovani infection. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2012