Avijit  Banik

Avijit Banik

Associate Professor, Biotechnology, GSS , VSP

Education
Ph. D.
Email ID
abanik2@gitam.edu
Education
Ph. D.
About
Dr. Avijit Banik is a Cognitive Neuroscientist with specialization in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Dr. Avijit obtained his Ph.D. from PGIMER, Chandigarh in 2014 and then went on to receive his post-doctoral trainings, from National University of Singapore and Emory University, Atlanta for 6.5 years.

The key research question Dr. Avijit is addressing on how neuroinflammatory pathways influence the AD pathology and whether targeting one of those can reduce the associated pathophysiological burden of the disease. Worth mentioning, his preliminary findings in animal studies have led to the approval of a NIH funded pre-clinical trials for his supervisor at Emory to test one of the candidate drugs targeting Alzheimer’s and Epilepsy in larger animals. Dr. Avijit is well versed with molecular genetics, cellular, biochemical and pharmacological assays associated with drug discovery program, and is an expert in behavioural neuroscience.

Dr. Avijit has always been an inspirational trainer and team leader for his fellow colleagues and junior students in the lab. His postdoctoral employer at Department of Pharmacology at Emory University nominated him as a “COVID-19 Lab Hero” for sustaining essential research works during pandemic. He has more than 25 peer-reviewed publications on his name and is a fine blogger addressing different science and social causes. One of his articles was recently recognized as a top 50 ideas for Ideathon - 'Vision 2040' an initiative by the Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020) Secretariat jointly with the Science Policy Forum and Office of PSA to the Govt of India. He was also actively involved in the formulation of current STIP2020 being an active Leadership Team member of an US based non-profit organization, Science and Research Opportunities in India (www.sciroi.net) enabling Indian STEM diaspora to transition back to India.

Education

Degree Name Institute & College name Year of Graduation/Award
Ph.D. 2014
M.Sc. Dayananda Sagar Institute 2005
B.Sc. East West College 2003

Experience

Designation Organization From Date To Date
PostDoctoral Fellow Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta GA USA 28-08-2017 31-12-2021
Post Doctoral Fellow National University of Singapore Singapore 02-11-2015 31-07-2017
Senior Demonstrator PGIMER Chandigarh 04-08-2014 08-10-2015
Senior Research Fellow PGIMER Chandigarh 15-09-2007 31-12-2008
Research Officer Sri Raghavendra Biotechnologies P. Ltd. Bangalore 01-08-2005 12-09-2007

Awards

Award name Award Organization Awarded year
Ideathon Vision 2040 Science Technology and Innovation Policy STIP Secretariat. Office of PSA. Govt of India 2021
COVID19 Lab Hero Dept. of Pharmacology. School of Medecine. Emory University. Atlanta. USA 2020
Best Poster Award Center for Neuroscience Initiative Retreat. Auburn University. USA 2020
Best Logo Award Dept. of Pharmacology. School of Medicine. Emory University. Atlanta. USA 2019
Internship Award Office of Technology Transfer. Emory Universit. Atlanta. USA 2019
Travel Award for International Society for Neurochemistry ISN Meeting. Cairns Aus.tralia ICMR Delhi 2015
Travel Award for 9th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience Rio de Janeiro Brazil. International Brain Research Organization 2015
Quality Control of India QCI Award to our Team at NRL. PGIMER Chandigarh Quality Control of India. Delhi 2014
Travel Award for Society for Neuroscience conference at San Diego USA. DBT Delhi 2013
Senior Research Fellowship ICMR Delhi 2010
Best Essay Award SOCIETY FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE TISSUE ENGINEERING National conference STEM2005. 2005