Dr. Ena Ray Banerjee is an Associate Professor of Zoology at the University of Calcutta, India, where she heads the department’s Immunobiology and Regenerative Research Unit. Her interests are manifold but centered around translational outcomes research in the life sciences by exploring various facets of drug discovery. She has also formed a Consortium of experts from various disciplines to explore biodiversity through bioprospecting and converting them into bioresources currency but in an economically viable and ecologically and environmentally sustainable model. An alumnus of the premiere educational institutions Lady Brabourne College and Gokhale Memorial Girls’ school, Dr. Banerjee has trained in immunobiology, immune modulation in inflammation and cytokine mediated inflammation at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, USA. She led an asthma drug discovery project at Advinus Therapeutics, a TATA Enterprise. Her experience of working in academia and industry in India and the US prepared her for a unique role – that of translational research in the life sciences. Her large team of researchers at the Dept. of Zoology, University of Calcutta works on developing technology-intensive processes and products, developing animal models of diseases for screening novel drug entities, models of developmental biology, or bioresources from local biodiversity. The group engages in drug discovery using novel drugs (small molecules), herbal extracts (functional food), probiotics (neutraceuticals), novel antibody-mediated (camelid antibody) and cells (tissue engineering of stem cells of embryonic origin, adult tissue origin and umbilical cord-derived) in inflammatory disease models (tissue-specific inflammation in the lung and systemic inflammation) and degenerative disease models. She has published widely in premiere scientific journals and has spearheaded the rejuvenation of a world-class heritage museum because she believes that to do bioprospecting and molecular drug discovery, knowing and respecting our biodiversity is key. Through her efforts, this archived faunal repository is positioned to become a center of excellence for technology-based capacity building and an important educational interpretive center.
