Dr Thomas Pucadyil Appointed Director of Biotechnology Research Innovation Council-National Centre for Cell Science (BRIC-NCCS)

Key facts

• Dr Thomas Pucadyil has been appointed as the Director of the Biotechnology Research Innovation Council-National Centre for Cell Science (BRIC-NCCS) in Pune.
• Prior to this appointment, Dr Pucadyil served as a Professor in the Department of Biology at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune.
• He will assume the charge from Dr Manisha Inamdar, who had been serving as the interim director of the institution.
• Dr Pucadyil was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2018 and is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS).
• His scientific research focuses on understanding membrane integrity-disrupting proteins in cells.
• BRIC-NCCS is located within the campus of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and hosts the National Cell Repository which distributes animal cell lines to research institutions in India.
• The institute also hosts the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)-funded National Centre for Microbial Research (NCMR), which maintains the third-largest microbial collection in the world.