Monday
16
February 2026
4:00 - 5:30 PM IST
Location
Room 004, School of Arts and Sciences
Central Campus
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Matrix - Mechanosensing - More: A Golgi Story
Arts and Sciences Research Seminar Series
Nagaraj Balasubramanian
Professor and Dean
IISER Pune
Speaker
Integrin-mediated adhesion regulates membrane trafficking to control anchorage-dependent signalling and growth deregulated in anchorage-independent cancers. Cell organelles like the Golgi and mitochondria are vital regulators of cellular function that could contribute to everything from cell migration to development. Loss of adhesion triggers a rapid and reversible disorganisation of the Golgi. This is mediated by differential activation of Arf1 regulated by Arf GEF, GBF1. This causes the differential recruitment of microtubule motor proteins to regulate the Golgi. This regulatory pathway controls Golgi-dependent microtubule stability and cell surface glycosylation. My talk will discuss this pathway in cells and how it can be used to understand the Golgi. I will also discuss its implications for cellular mechanosensing, particularly in the context of diseases such as cancer.
Speaker
Nagaraj Balasubramanian
A cell biologist by training, Professor Balasubramanian graduated from the University of Mumbai (Bombay) with a bachelors and Master’s degree in Microbiology. He worked in the Cancer Research Institute (now ACTREC) at the Tata Memorial Center for his PhD in Biochemistry. He took a break from cancer biology to do a postdoc in mammalian photo transduction at University of Miami, only to return to cell and cancer biology focusing on cell adhesion and trafficking as a postdoc first and then a Research Assistant Professor in the lab of Dr Martin Schwartz at the University of Virginia. He moved to IISER, Pune to start his lab in 2010. His research interests include understanding how cell adhesion regulates trafficking and its implications in cell migration and anchorage dependence.
