Nearly 700 posters were created and displayed, covering the vast spectrum of cell biology, and 32 awards presented to outstanding poster presentations judged by a panel of expert senior scientists. Students and postdoctoral fellows from the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), Bangalore, were awarded five of these. “We are very proud of our inStem graduate students for winning 5 poster prizes. These awards are a testament to the important questions they are addressing, and the hard work and tenacity of our students,” remarked Dr. Srikala Raghavan a faculty member of inStem.

The inStem awardees are:

1. Krithika Badarinath from Colin Jamora’s Lab, for her poster titled “Understanding the role of Snail in maintaining undifferentiated state of epithelial cells.”
2. Jahnavi Kulkarni from Dasaradhi Palakodeti’s Lab, was awarded for her work titled “Deciphering ribosomal heterogeneity essential for translational regulation during cell fate transitions.”
3. Vairavan Lakshmanan from Dasaradhi Palakodeti’s Lab, was awarded for his work titled “Ending the message Right: Polyadenylation centered gene regulation in planarian Stem cells and Regeneration.”
4. Srikar Krishna from Dasaradhi Palakodeti & Srikala Raghavan’s Lab, was awarded for his work titled “Dynamic expression of tRNA-derived small RNAs define cell states.”
5. Ritusree Biswas and Avinanda Banerjee from Srikala Raghavan’s Lab, were awarded for their work titled “Role of vinculin in regulating bulge stem cell quiescence.”

Recognition of their work is also a big boost for students to continue to pursue their research with dedication.  As one award winner, Ritusree Biswas, noted, "I am glad that my work got recognized in an International meeting. It serves as an encouragement for all of us.” 

These award-winning posters will have their abstracts published in the Indian Society for Cell Biology (ISCB) newsletter in March 2018.