Rate My Professor Kavita Babu

Kavita Babu is a Professor at the Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science. She completed her undergraduate degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore. She pursued doctoral research in the laboratory of Professor William Chia at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore, King’s College London and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory. She conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Josh Kaplan at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In August 2011 she joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, and in 2019 she moved to the Centre for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science.

Her research focuses on molecular neurobiology and neurogenetics, using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate molecules and mechanisms underlying synaptic function, neuronal communication through neuropeptides, and related processes at the neuromuscular junction. She has received the Wellcome Trust–DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship, the DBT Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award, the Wellcome Trust–DBT India Alliance Senior Fellowship and the Janaki Ammal National Women Bioscientist Award (young category, 2019). Her laboratory has produced numerous peer-reviewed publications on topics including neuropeptide modulation of behavior, cell-adhesion molecules such as claudins and calsyntenins, and synaptic transmission in C. elegans.