The human body is protected from the external environment by regenerative barrier tissues that are endowed with the ability to recover from a deluge of physical, chemical, and microbial assaults. Our research aims to understand how tissue regenerative properties are affected by the external environment, infection and internal perturbances including metabolic changes, inflammation, aging and disease.

Towards this aim the Centre for Inflammation and Tissue Homeostasis (CITH) explores molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development and homeostasis of barrier tissues. An important aspect of the process of regeneration and repair is the growing realization of the unconventional contributions of immune cells in regulating the overall program of tissue homeostasis. Understanding how inflammatory responses are regulated in tissue regeneration also holds the promise of identifying novel therapeutic interventions for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. In addition, the growing appreciation of the impact of tissue heterogeneity in both physiological and pathological contexts are being addressed by contributing to international efforts to generate cellular atlases of human tissues. The ambitious program to advance our basic understanding of regeneration and repair and to translate this into potential therapeutics requires a wide spectrum of expertise. We pursue these objectives by building animal and cellular models to decipher mechanisms regulating inflammation and homeostasis in the skin, lung, and urethra. Simultaneously we develop capabilities to extend these findings to the human cognates via spatial/single cell transcriptomics/proteomics of human tissue in normal and diseased individuals and generation of 2D/3D organoids using primary cells or iPSCs. Important collaborators in these endeavors that bridge our basic research with translational aspirations are scientists from industry and clinicians in India and abroad. Current therapeutic research includes understanding the pathogenesis and development of modalities to treat fibrosis (Jamora and Guha), chronic non-healing wounds (Jamora and Gadadhar), infections and inflammatory diseases (Joseph, Guha, Jamora, Raghavan [Singapore], and Mukherjee [RCF]) and ciliopathies (Gadadhar). The translation of our findings to useful interventions is facilitated by Praveen Vemula (ICB) to develop innovative delivery systems into diseased tissues.

People

Dr.Sudarshan Gadadhar Regulation of tissue homeostasis by primary cilia	Dr.Arjun Guha Mechanism of lung repair	Prof.Colin Jamora Wound Healing	Dr.Diya Binoy Joseph Epithelial homeostasis Innate immune defence Urethra