BSBE Newsletter

By the mid-1990s, the group had grown into the Biotechnology Center, formally recognized by the institute around 1996. What distinguished the Biotechnology Center was not just its academic output, but its culture. Punekar describes it with evident pride, “We grew as a very cohesive group. We did not put individuals as the objective. We put the group as the objective.” Funding was collectively decided, recruitments were done jointly, and every faculty member, regardless of seniority, had an equal voice.

The group was deliberate in its scientific focus, concentrating on molecular and microbial biology, a strategic choice that enabled six or seven faculty members to build real depth and critical mass in a defined area. This intentional cohesion, Punekar believes, is what allowed the Biotechnology Center to thrive and earn recognition. “We were, I think, the most democratic group on campus,” he says. This is a legacy he hopes continues to define the department today.

In 2001, the institute brought together two parallel units, the Biotechnology Center and the Biomedical Engineering Group, to form the School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, which then became a full-fledged department in 2009. Each transition represented years of effort by faculty, heads, and administrators who believed in the vision. Punekar credits K.K. Rao, Dulal Panda, and many colleagues for shepherding these changes through the complex processes of institute governance.

Perhaps the most tangible symbol of the department’s arrival was its move into a dedicated building, inaugurated by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2013 — a moment Punekar identifies as a genuine landmark. He played a direct role, as head of the department at the time, in ensuring that the entire building was allocated to BSBE. Today, the department continues to grow, with a new annex building under construction.

While celebrating the department’s growth in research visibility and faculty strength, Punekar also offers a thoughtful reflection on something he feels deserves renewed attention: teaching. “When we joined, it was very clear that one of our major objectives and part of the job description, was to teach. Teaching was our base on which you built,” he says. In those early years, the founding faculty taught broadly across many courses, and he believes that breadth was fundamental to the department’s identity.

Over time, as the emphasis on research metrics has grown across academia, Punekar worries that the balance has shifted. “Biology is an information-rich science,” he explains. “To teach it well, you need to have a broad-based preparation — you cannot be just a molecular biologist, biophysicist, immunologist or just a microbiologist. You need to know many things.” He is not dismissive of research ambition, but urges the department to remember that deep, committed teaching (that includes teaching how to do research!) is what produces the next generation of scientists who can do meaningful research in the first place.

On the question of research group sizes, he is equally candid. With the number of students per faculty lab growing steadily, he cautions that the quality of mentorship risks being diluted. “If you have fifteen or twenty students in a lab, how are you going to spend quality time with each one? How are you going to mentor them? How will you emphasize research ethics?” His view is that meaningful research training, particularly in a field as hands-on and patient as biology, requires genuine one-on-one engagement between guide and student. A smaller, well-mentored group, he argues, will always produce better science than a large, thinly supervised one. “Good quality time in both teaching and research — that is extremely important,” he says. “Both. Not one or the other.”

Suresh Devasahayam joined what was then the Interdisciplinary Program (IDP) in Biomedical Engineering in 1990, following his PhD and a brief postdoctoral stint. Having completed his PhD in Bioengineering, he sought opportunities in India to build the fledgling discipline of Biomedical Engineering. The IDP had been started recently, in 1988, he thinks, and it was a great place to join.

Subir Kar of Mechanical Engineering headed the IDP, and the only full-time faculty member at the time was Ram Puniyani. But there were several people deeply involved from across disciplines — Prem Pandey from Electrical Engineering, Rajini Joshi and Purshotam Chaturani from Mathematics, S. Arunkumar from Computer Science, A.S. Mahajan from Physics, S.V. Bhatt from Chemistry, and P. Basu from Chemical Engineering — which made it a truly multidisciplinary program.

The IDP aimed at providing an integrated postgraduate program for graduates of engineering, medicine, and science. This took the pioneering efforts at IIT Madras and IIT Delhi further and much more ambitiously. Rohit Manchanda joined shortly after Devasahayam. Then, Sanjay Parikh joined as a part-time faculty member, having decided to spend most of his time in industry. Incidentally, Sanjay Parikh was an IITB alumnus, having done his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering.

Setting up the teaching and research labs required some struggle, as the usual constraints of space and money had to be tackled. But he recalls a remarkable camaraderie among the faculty, where it was easy to direct students to a particular department, point them to a specific professor, and have them use their labs.

Perhaps the most significant challenge, he reflects, was the isolation from medical institutions and basic science labs. He remembers visiting hospitals in Bombay with Rohit Manchanda to speak with people they could collaborate with. They managed a few MTech projects jointly supervised or examined by doctors from the All India Institute for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Bombay Hospital, and KEM Hospital. Rohit Manchanda, Sanjay Parikh, and Devasahayam were all keen to conduct animal experiments, but it was not easy at IIT. Curiously, all three had an interest in muscle physiology — Manchanda in smooth muscle, Parikh in cardiac muscle, and Devasahayam in skeletal muscle. A remarkable coincidence, he notes.

Mixing graduates from engineering, medicine, and science backgrounds was both a delight and a challenge, he recalls. The curriculum was designed to foster a common understanding of healthcare issues, though planning career paths proved more difficult. But there were signs that things were being done right. He remembers one student who had an MBBS degree, completed an MTech in Biomedical Engineering, returned to medicine, and obtained an MD in Radiology. The student came back one day to discuss modelling the uptake of contrast agents in organs using systems theory — transfer functions in particular — in Radiodiagnosis. There are other similarly pleasing stories, he says.

For Ram Puniyani, this evolution is a source of pride. He observes that when he was at the institute, biology and biomedical work were often seen as peripheral. Now it is among the main listings, which is heartening. He sees the recognition of genetics and biosciences as particularly healthy and believes the department has grown structurally and functionally well beyond what it was in his time.

Devasahayam went on sabbatical in 2001 and subsequently moved to a medical college environment, leaving IIT Bombay in 2002. He describes those years at the School, however, as among the most formative and fulfilling of his career. The two founding figures of the School have continued, in very different ways, to embody the values the program stood for.

Puniyani, after leaving IIT Bombay, channeled his energy into social and historical work — writing weekly articles, delivering lectures. He continues to mentor young people and social workers informally. He maintains quiet connections with the department, staying in touch with former colleague Rohit Manchanda and occasionally advising researchers in his field. He remembers with particular warmth his research scholar and former faculty member of the department, the late Rinti Banerjee, whom he describes as a brilliant mind, and who sadly passed away due to COVID. Devasahayam, for his part, carried the same integrative instinct he had pursued at IIT into a medical college environment. He remains a thoughtful voice on the discipline, its history and ambitions.

Devasahayam and Puniyani’s pioneering efforts and vision helped shape Biomedical Engineering at IIT Bombay. Their legacy continues to inspire BSBE as we combine biosciences and engineering to grow into new frontiers of healthcare.

When V. V. Raghavendra Sai arrived at IIT Bombay in 2003, biomedical engineering in India was still finding its footing. He had an instrumentation background, a year of teaching experience in Visakhapatnam, and an appetite for interdisciplinary research; he enrolled directly in the PhD program in IIT Bombay — a bold move that would shape the next two decades of his career. Today, he is a faculty member at IIT Madras, where he leads research in clinical diagnostic devices.

V. V. Raghavendra Sai graduated in Electronics and Instrumentation in 2002 and spent a year teaching before deciding to pursue a PhD. His choice of biomedical engineering at IIT Bombay was deliberate. What sealed the deal was IIT Bombay’s visibility: the biomedical engineering program was prominently listed and easy to find, unlike at other institutions, where it was less apparent.

He chose the direct PhD route at a time when most of his peers opted for an MTech. IIT Bombay had just taken what he calls “a very bold and great decision”, encouraging newly-graduated students to pursue PhD directly without a master’s degree.

“The idea was more important than the facilities. With minimal equipment, we established very important sensing strategies at IIT Bombay,” says Sai, talking about those early days.

V. V. Raghavendra Sai’s PhD lab was a 15-by-8-foot room in the Annex Building of IIT Bombay’s Electrical Engineering department, then home to the Advanced Center for Research in Electronics (ACRE). He was among a small group: two PhD students and two MTech students, all focused on BioMEMS research under the guidance of Soumyo Mukherji.

He credits this fusion model as a key strength: during his PhD, he relied heavily on colleagues from the biosciences side to understand biomolecule handling and assay design. “Without them, I would have found it very difficult,” he says.

At IIT Madras, V. V. Raghavendra Sai has witnessed a parallel institutional evolution. Biomedical engineering has roots there going back to the 1950s, embedded within the Department of Applied Mechanics. Since 2013, a dedicated group of about ten faculty members has been working exclusively in the area. The latest milestone is: the launch of a BTech program in Instrumentation and Biomedical Engineering (IBME) — a recognition that the field deserves dedicated undergraduate-level attention from day one.

He sees a structural difference between the two IITs worth noting: IIT Bombay’s department brings together engineering and bioscience faculty into a single, connected unit, while IIT Madras strengthens both biotechnology and bioengineering through separate dedicated departments. Sai feels that for his research — clinical diagnostic device development — proximity to biological scientists is invaluable.

Sai’s warmest memories of IIT Bombay are not confined to the lab. Powai Lake, the guest house staircase, the walk from Jalvihar to the Durga and Kali temples, and especially the hilltop — these were the places where he and his friends from other labs would unwind. “Sometimes, once I was a little sure that I was going to get my PhD, I used to go to the hilltop and really enjoy the weather there with my friends.” It is a reminder that great research happens not just in labs, but in communities.

The growth of BSBE, from cramped labs to a thriving department, is mirrored in the success of its alumni — a legacy we celebrate.

Back in the early 2000s, research opportunities in India were limited. For Ronak, pursuing a PhD was always the plan, but the path was straightforward: apply, interview, and wait for the next cycle if not selected. What he did not anticipate was working at the intersection of biology and computation, at a time and place where this combination was poised to be part of the biology of the future.

At that time, bioinformatics was still an emerging field. Few institutes had the faculty, training, or infrastructure to support such work. IIT Bombay’s strong computing culture, and the training he received in PV Balaji’s lab, gave Ronak the programming skills he needed. BSBE provided the right environment to explore this new frontier. Looking back, BSBE was the right place at the right time.

A typical PhD day for Ronak began with a rushed breakfast at the hostel mess, followed by long hours in the lab filled with experiments, reading, and seminars. Afternoons were spent on research, while evenings brought hostel gossip, campus walks, and late nights in the computer lab. Campus life was full of escapes from the PhD bubble — food runs to Harish near Y-Gate or Laxmi near the Main Gate, hostel parties, and even waiting for Domino’s pizza deliveries to arrive late so they could be free. The Mumbai rains brought their own adventures, like enjoying lunch in Hostel 1 while standing in floodwater.

There were defining academic moments too. One of Ronak’s projects initially lacked funding, but a government-led collaboration with TCS provided the computational infrastructure needed. That incident became a reminder of how paths often unfold beyond individual control.

Sukhada Kulkarni — fondly known to everyone as Mrs. Kulkarni — spent more than thirty years at IIT Bombay, building a life within the corridors of what is today the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering (BSBE).

She first joined the institute in 1989 as a Senior Laboratory Assistant in the Advanced Center for Research in Electronics (ACRE) department. A few years later, when the Biotechnology Center was established, she moved there, beginning her journey in the undergraduate laboratory. Her early responsibilities included preparing materials for students and supporting faculty in their teaching. Soon, she was asked to help in the office, which at that time was a small space with only one staff member. Within a couple of years, she transitioned fully into administration — a change that was challenging at first, but one she grew to love.

She credits previous department heads like Susheel Durani, Anil Lala, and Jayesh Bellare for patiently guiding her in those early days. Back then, everything was done by hand — attendance registers, files, and records were maintained meticulously on paper. “Every document had to be read carefully before it could be processed,” she recalls. Over time, as the department grew, so did her responsibilities, and she adapted to each new phase with dedication.

Through the years, she witnessed the transformation of the Biotechnology Center into a full-fledged School and later into the BSBE Department. With each new Head of Department, she adjusted to different working styles, always keeping the department’s needs at the center of her work.

The growing number of students brought her immense joy. Many still remember her warmly, and she continues to stay in touch with several alumni. She fondly recalls Prasenjit Bhaumik, now a faculty member, but forever in her mind “one of the students.”