2026 Monthly Updates

2026 Monthly Updates

2026

Monthly Update

Papers Accepted:

  • Susan Jehangir, Preethi R Navaneethan, Reka Karuppasami, Manisha Madhai Beck, Benjamin J Ross, Manish Kumar, Sridhar Santhanam, Sundeep Kisku, John Fletcher, Large population-based assessment of SARS-CoV-2 teratogenicity by profiling congenital anomalies during COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of the Turkish-German Gynecological Association on March 16, 2026.

Published articles:  

Invited Talk:  

  • Dr. Nihal Thomas delivered a talk titled “Differential Diagnosis Diabetes in the Lean and Young in South Asia- Undernutrition and the Road to Type 5 Diabetes”. At the Seminar of the: Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovations (ACADI). Online with Melbourne University.February-2026. 
  • Dr. Nihal Thomas delivered a talk titled “Where we Stand in Gene and Stem Cell Research” at Neocon. Vellore, March-2026. 
  • Dr. Nihal Thomas delivered a talk titled “Lipodystrophic diabetes- the Spectrum and the Diversity”, At the Global Obeisty Conclave. At New Delhi, March- 2026.
  • Dr. Mohan K M delivered a talk titled “Therapeutic genome editing for hematological disorders" at Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bengaluru, India on Feb28, 2026. 
  • Dr. Srujan Marepally delivered a talk titled “mRNA in lipid nanoparticles: Road to translation” in a seminar on “Exploring regenerative medicine, stem cells and gene therapy” held at IPGMER-Kolkata on 16th February 2026.  
  • Dr. Srujan Marepally delivered a talk titled “mRNA in lipid nanoparticles: New frontier in nucleic acid therapeutics” on 28th February at 3rd Annual conference of Society for Paediatric cellular Therapy and Transplant conducted by SPCTT, Bengaluru 
  • Dr. Srujan Marepally delivered delivered at talk on “Nanotechnology in Cell and Gene Therapy” as a resource person in Refresher Course on Materials Science and Nanotechnology - UGC-MMTTC CU Kerala, held on 21st February 2026. 
  • Dr. Saravanabhavan Thangavel delivered a talk on "Gene editing" at 3 rd Annual Conference of the Society for Pediatric Cellular Therapy & Transplant (SPCTT 2026), held from February 28 - March 01, 2026 at Taj Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru, 
  • Dr. Sandya Rani B delivered a Technical talk on "Introduction to Advanced Microscopes" on National Science Day on 27th February 2026, held at CSCR.
  • Dr. Gurbind Singh delivered a Scientific Talk on “Stem Cells and their Applications” on National Science Day on 27th February 2026, held at CSCR.  

Events Held:

The Centre for Stem Cell Research (CSCR), celebrated National Science Day on 27th February 2026 paying tribute to commemorate Dr. C.V. Raman and his groundbreaking discovery of the Raman Effect on 28th Feb 1928. To celebrate the event, School children from various schools in and around the Vellore were invited to participate in scientific activities at CSCR. The event was organized with the objective of promoting scientific awareness and inspiring young minds and to develop an enquiring and problem-solving attitude in the students. A total number of 98 students from various schools in and around Vellore were participated in the scientific activities at CSCR, Organized by Research and Development office, CSCR.

On March 02, 2026, the Center for Stem Cell Research (a unit of inStem, Bengaluru) hosted a lecture by Prof. K Felix Jebasingh, Professor, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Associate Medical Superintendent, Christian Medical College Vellore, India.

Title of Talk: Cure for Type 1 Diabetes – Is It a Reality? 

Published articles

  1. Hawkins M, Schwarz P, Yajnik CS, Bajaj M, Powers AC, Boyne MS, Wild S, Christensen DL, Bahendeka S, Jones AG, Mukhopadhyay S, Ramaiya K, Phillips D, Kehlenbrink S, Kibirige D, Bavuma C, Somasundaram NP, Thompson DS, Abodo J, Alemu S, Katulanda P, Pathan F, Selim S, Mathai S, Joseph M, Sonawane M, Mathur S, Anoop S, Kamalanathan S, Mondal P, Naik D, Kolthur-Seetharam U, Dasgupta R, Jebasingh F, Thomas N, Wadivkar P, Vaag AA, Recognising type 5 diabetes. Lancet Global Health. February 2026, 12.
  2. Ghoshal A, Sharma P , Sudhakaran D, Dutta E, Connor S, Ali Z, Thomas N, Rajagopal MR. Integrating Palliative Care Into the Noncommunicable Disease Framework in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Advances in Public Health. February 2026.

Invited talk:

  1. Dr. Nihal Thomas delivered a talk titled “Type 5 Diabetes – What, How, Why, and What Not” at the Malabar Endocrine Society Meeting (MENDOS 2026) in January 2026.
  2. Dr. Nihal Thomas delivered a talk on “Perspectives of GDM Prevention and Clinical Care in India” at the Workshop on Prevention and Management of Gestational Diabetes: Lifestyle, Nutrition, and Integrated Care Approaches, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in January 2026.
  3. Dr. Nihal Thomas delivered a talk titled “Deciphering the Diagnosis of Young-Onset Diabetes in South Asia: The Road to Type 5 Diabetes – The Vellore Story” at DKM College, Vellore, in January 2026.
  4. Dr. Nihal Thomas delivered a talk on “Lipodystrophic Diabetes – Congenital and Acquired: Recent Advances and Insights from India” at the Diabetes India Conference 2026, held in 13th - 15th February 2026.
  5. Dr. Mohan KM delivered a talk on “Advanced genome editing strategies for the treatment of hematological disorders" at IPGMER on 16th February, 2026.
  6. Dr. Saravanabhavan Thangavel delivered a talk on Exploring regenerative medicine, stem cells and gene therapy, from lab to life., IPGMER, Kolkata (online), 16th  February, 2026. 

Others:(Conferences/Seminars/Outreach/Meetings/Events, etc.):

  1. Dr. Nihal Thomas was invited as the Chief Guest – BLS programe Annual Day held at Springdays Junior School in Vellore in January- 2026.
  2. Dr. Nihal Thomas was invited as the Chief Guest at the Annual Conference held at DKM College for Women in Vellore in January 2026.
  3. Dr. Nihal Thomas was appointed as DM Viva Examiner at Christian Medical College Vellore for the January 2026 examination session.
  4. Dr. Saravanabhavan Thangavel chaired a session at ClinViCON-2026, Indian Society of Clinical Virology, Vellore, February 5-7, 2026. 

Thesis Awarded:

  1. Ms. Sevanthy S, working under the guidance of Dr. Srujan Kumar Marepally successfully completed her PhD viva on February 19, 2026. Thesis Title: “Therapeutic Application of Genetically Modified Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells”.

Outreach Activities:

  1. DM students from clinical Virology department from CMC have visited CSCR facilities and Dr. Srujan Kumar Merapally (lab-8) and completed their training from 09/02/2026 to 14/02/2026. Total no. of the students = 2. This was coordinated by CSCR Core facility.

 

Paper published

  1. Azhagiri M, Verhoeyen E , Murugesan KM , Marepally S, Venkatesan V &  Thangavel S. HLF and hTERT cooperatively enable partial immortalization of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology .Volume 13 – 2026.
  2. Merin M. Zachariah, Ganesh Parasuraman, Christo Jeyaraj, Mariya S. Rani J, Grace Rebekah, Elizabeth Vinod. Evaluation of the chondrogenic potential of human articular chondrocytes, fibronectin-adherent chondroprogenitors, and migratory chondroprogenitors using a tri-coculture in vitro system. European Journal of Anatomy. https://doi.org/10.52083/HKKE5986   November 2025
  3. C. Ayshath Ruksana, Archa Suresh, Christo Jeyaraj, Mohana Priya, Ganesh Parasuraman, Grace Rebekah & Elizabeth Vinod. Assessing the Potential of CD11c as a Biomarker for Identifying Ideal Donors in Hyaline Cartilage Repair. Indian Journal of Orthopaedics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43465-025-01577-1 October 2025
  4. Mohana Priya, Ayshath Ruksana C, Christo Jeyaraj, Archa Suresh, Ganesh Parasuraman, Grace Rebekah, Elizabeth Vinod. Exploring BMP9 and Integrin Alpha 10 as Novel Chondrogenic Markers in Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Chondroprogenitors, and Chondrocytes: An Immunohistochemistry Study. The Knee. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knee.2025.09.005 October 2025.
  5. Rallapalli SS, Cherian KE, Hephzibah J, Jebasingh FK, Kapoor N, Asha HS, Thomas N, Paul TV. Women with Graves’ Disease Have Altered Proximal Hip Geometry, Trabecular Bone Score and Body Composition Parameters: A Case–Control Study from Southern India. Calcified Tissue International (2026).117. //doi.org/10.1007/s00223-025-01472-9.
  6. Yashodha R, Ramya A, Sevanthy S, Gokulnath M, Rajesh KS, Mohanraj R, Ilavarasan R*, Srujan M* Combination of transfection incompetent lipids having strikingly different aliphatic chain lengths in a liposome demonstrates superior transfection and produces high titre lentivirus. Colloids Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 2026 Jan 2;260:115402.

Awards

 Dr. Thangavel has received Prof. B.K. Bachhawat International Travel Grant-2026