emblem राष्ट्रीय प्रतिरक्षाविज्ञान संस्थानNational Institute of Immunology

An Autonomous Institute of Dept. of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India

विनीता बाल

Research Interest:

Analysing roles of T lymphocytes in pathophysiological conditions.

Summary of Research:

Focus areas of research work at the National Institute of Immunology have been: T cell activation, T cell differentiation, T cell memory responses, T cell aging, role of T cells in autoimmunity and allergic responses, characterising immune response to various infectious agents such as Salmonella typhimurium, Japanese encephalitis virus, filarial infections etc.. This work was primarily done using mouse as a model organism. Apart from this, some work on characterising features of human T cells in steady state was carried out. Other areas of collaborative research with Drs. Satyajit Rath and Anna George included antigen processing and presentation, B cell activation and B cell memory generation, mucosal immune responses etc.

In addition to the collaborations within NII, research output was contributed by collaborations outside NII, both within and outside India. List of publications below is indicative of areas of research.

Group Members:
Members of the research group in NII from 1990 onwards

Doctoral Students: Ebenezer Satyaraj, Jayant Thatte, Achal Pashine, Manisha Gupta, Arpita Choudhury, Beena John, A Rama Sundari, Monika Vig, Usha Kandpal, Anupriya Khare, Nagesh N. Panday, Shipra Thukral, Hamid Mattoo, Bharathi Vishwanathan, Rituparna Das, Vidya Ranganathan, Nidhi Jain, Sanket Rane, Arundhoti Das, Parna Kanodia, Neelam Oswal

Research Staff on projects: Abhijit Bal, N. Suresh, Rashmi Shukla, Sangeeta Thatai, Sangita Mukhopadhyay, Deepa Rajagopal, S Moanaro Biswas, Suparna Barua, Nasir Salam, Neeraj Kumar, Pooja Rawat, Saptak Banerjee
Publications:

From 2010 onwards
[* indicates joint senior authorship]

  • Asokan M, Joan RF, Babji S, Dayma G, Nitheesh P, Subrahmanyam V, Pandey A, Malagi G, Arya P, Mahajan V, Bhavikatti J, Pawar K, Thorat A, Shah P, Goud RB, Roy B, Rajukutty S, Immanuel S, Agarwal D, Saha S, Shivaraj A, Panikulam P, Shome R, Gulzar S-e-J, Sharma AU, Naik A, Talashi A, Belekar M, Yadav R, Khude P, Mamatha V, Sudarshan S, Deshmukh U, Bhise C, Joshi M, Inbaraj LR, Chandrasingh S, Ghose A, Jamora C, Karumbati AS, Sundaramurthy V, Johnson A, Ramesh N, Chetan N, Parthiban C, Ahmed A, Rakshit S, Adiga V, Dsouza G, Rale V, George CE, John J, Kawade A, Chaturvedi A, Raghunathan A, Dias M, Bhosale A, Raghu P, Shashidhara LS, Vyakarnam A, Bal V, Kang G, Mayor S. (2023). Interim results from comparison of immune responses elicited by an inactivated and a vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in seronegative and seropositive participants in India. MedRxiv January 5. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.03.22284082. The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia (2024) 22, 100361. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lansea.2024.100361.
  • Gupta S, Gupta SL, Singh A, Oswal N, Bal V, Rath S, George A, Basu S. (2023) IgA determines bacterial composition in the gut. Crohns Colitis 360, 5(3):otad030. doi: 10.1093/crocol/otad030. eCollection. 
  • Dev G, Chawla AS, Gupta S, Bal V, George A, Rath S, Arimbasseri GA. (2022) Differential regulation of two arms of mTORC1 pathway fine-tunes global protein synthesis in resting B lymphocytes. Int J Mol Sci 23(24), 16017-29. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232416017 (registering DOI)
  • Rokade S, Upadhya M, Bhat DS, Subhedar N, Yajnik CS, Ghose A, Rath S*, Bal V*. (2021) Transient systemic inflammation in adult male mice results in underweight progeny. Am J Reproductive Immunol. 86(1):e13401. doi: 10.1111/aji.13401. (bioRxiv 2020.10.30.358697; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.30.358697)
  • Ghose A, Bhattacharya S, Karthikeyan AS, Kudale A, Monteiro JM, Joshi A, Medigeshi G, Kang G, Bal V, Rath S, Shashidhara LS, John J, Chaudhuri S, Nagarkar A. (2020) Community prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and correlates of protective immunity in five localities in an Indian metropolitan city. MedRxiv November 18. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.17.20228155.
  • Umar D, Das A, Gupta S, Chattopadhyay S, Sarkar D, Mirji G, Kalia J, Arimbasseri GA, Durdik JM*, Rath S*, George A*, Bal V*. (2020) Febrile temperature change modulates CD4 T cell differentiation via a TRPV channel-regulated Notch-dependent pathway. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 117 (36), 22357-22366. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1922683117.
  • Chawla AS, Khalsa JK, Dhar A, Gupta S, Umar D, Arimbasseri GA, Bal V*, George A*, Rath S*. (2020). A role for cell-autocrine interleukin-2 in regulatory T-cell homeostasis. Immunology. 160(3), 295-309. DOI: 10.1111/imm.13194.
  • Kanodia P, Kaur G, Coshic P, Chatterjee K, Neeman T, George A*, Rath S*, Bal V*, Prabhu S*. (2019). Characterization of biological variation of peripheral blood immune cytome in an Indian cohort. Scientific Reports 9(1),14735. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51294-7.
  • Dhar A, Chawla M, Chattopadhyay S, Oswal N, Umar U, Gupta S, Bal V*, Rath S*, George A*, Aneeshkumar Arimbasseri G*, Basak S*. (2019) Role of NF-kappaB2-p100 in regulatory T cell homeostasis and activation. Scientific Reports 9(1),13867. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50454-z.
  • Khalsa JK, Chawla AS, Prabhu SB, Vats M, Dhar A, Dev G, Das N, Mukherjee S, Durdik JM*, Bal V*, George A*, Rath S*, Arimbasseri GA*. (2019) Functionally significant metabolic differences between B and T lymphocyte lineages. Immunology. doi: 10.1111/imm.13098.
  • Gupta S, Basu S, Bal V*, Rath S*, George A*. Gut IgA abundance in adult life is a major determinant of resistance to dextran sodium sulphate-colitis and can compensate for the effects of inadequate maternal IgA received by neonates. (2019) Immunology. doi: 10.1111/imm.13091.
  • Bhasym A, Gurjar BS, Prabhu S, Puraswani M, Khandelwal P, Saini H, Saini S, Chatterjee P, Bal V, George A, Coshic P, Patidar G, Hari P, Sinha A, Bagga A, Rath S, Guchhait P. (2019) Altered Peripheral Blood Leucocyte Phenotype and Responses in Healthy Individuals with Homozygous Deletion of FHR1 and FHR3 Genes. J Clin Immunol. 39(3), 336-345. doi: 10.1007/s10875-019-00619-2. Epub 2019 Apr 3.
  • Chawla AS, Kanodia P, Mukherjee A, Jain V, Kaur G, Coshic P, Chatterjee K, Wadhwa N, Natchu UCM, Sopory S, Bhatnagar S, Majumder PP, George A*, Bal V*, Rath S*, Prabhu SB*. (2018) Cell-intrinsic regulation of peripheral memory-phenotype T cell frequencies. PLoS One. 13(12), e0200227. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200227.
  • Balyan R, Gund R, Chawla AS, Khare S, Pradhan S, Rane S, Galande S, Durdik J*, George A*, Bal V*, Rath S* (2019). Correlation of Cell-Surface CD8 Levels with Function, Phenotype and Transcriptome of Naive CD8 T Cells. Immunology 156, 384-401 (doi: 10.1111/imm.13036).
  • Rathore DK, Holmes TH, Kari Nadeau, Mittal P, Batra A, Rosenberg-Hasson Y, Sopory S, Gupta R, Chellani HK, Aggarwal KC, Bal V, Natchu UCM, Bhatnagar S, Tavassoli M, Lyell DJ, Rath S, Wadhwa N, Maecker HT (2018). Differences in multiple immune parameters between Indian and US infants. PLoS One 13, e0207297 (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207297).
  • Chawla AS, Kanodia P, Mukherjee A, Jain V, Kaur G, Coshic P, Chatterjee K, Wadhwa N, Natchu UCM, Sopory S, Bhatnagar S, Majumder PP, George A*, Bal V*, Rath S*, Prabhu SB* (2018). Cell-intrinsic genetic regulation of peripheral memory-phenotype T cell frequencies. bioRxiv 355313; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/355313. PLoS One 13, e0200227 (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200227).
  • Gurjar BS, Manikanta Sriharsha T, Bhasym A, Prabhu S, Puraswani M, Khandelwal P, Saini H, Saini S, Verma AK, Chatterjee P, Guchhait P, Bal V, George A, Rath S, Sahu A, Sharma A, Hari P, Sinha A, Bagga A. (2018). Characterization of genetic predisposition and autoantibody profile in atypical haemolytic-uraemic syndrome. Immunology 154, 663-672. (doi: 10.1111/imm.12916).
  • Das A, Ranganathan V, Umar D, Thukral S, George A*, Rath S*, Bal V*(2017). Effector/memory CD4 T cells making either Th1 or Th2 cytokines commonly co-express T-bet and GATA-3. PLoS One 12, e0185932. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185932)
  • Mukherjee T, Chatterjee B, Dhar A, Bais SS, Chawla M, Roy P, George A, Bal V, Rath S, Basak S (2017). A TNF-p100 pathway subverts noncanonical NF-B signaling in inflamed secondary lymphoid organs. EMBO J. 36, 3501-3516 (doi: 10.15252/embj.201796919.).
  • Khullar B, Balyan R, Oswal N, Jain N, Sharma A, Abdin MA, Bagga A, Bhatnagar S, Wadhwa N, Natchu UCM, George A, Rath S, Bal V, Sopory S (2018). Interaction of CD80 with Neph-1: A potential mechanism of podocyte injury. Clin Exp Nephrol 22, 508-516. (DOI 10.1007/s10157-017-1489-3).
  • D'Souza L, Gupta SL, Bal V*, Rath S* and George A* (2017). CD73 expression identifies a subset of IgM+ antigen-experienced cells with memory attributes that is T cell and CD40 signaling dependent. Immunology 152, 602-612 (doi: 10.1111/imm.12800).
  • Tanwar S, Dhar A, Varanasi V, Mukherjee T, Boppana R, Basak S, Bal V*, George A* and Rath S* (2017). Mediation of transitional B cell maturation in the absence of functional Bruton’s tyrosine kinase. Scientific Reports 7, 46029.
  • Jain N, Oswal N, Chawla AS, Agrawal T, Biswas M, Vrati S, Rath S*, George A*, Bal V*, Medigeshi GR* (2017). CD8 T cells protect adult naive mice from JEV-induced morbidity via lytic function. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 11, e0005329.
  • Balyan R, Gund R, Ebenezer C, Khalsa JK, Verghese DA, Krishnamurthy T, George A*, Bal V*, Rath S*, Chaudhry A*. (2017). Modulation of naive CD8 T cell response features by ligand density, affinity and continued signaling via internalised TCRs. J Immunol. 2017 198, 1823-1837.
  • Prabhu SB, Rathore DK, Nair D, Chaudhary A, Raza S, Kanodia P, Sopory S, George A, Rath S, Bal V, Tripathi R, Ramji S, Batra A, Aggarwal KC, Chellani HK, Arya S, Agarwal N, Mehta U, Natchu UCM, Wadhwa N, Bhatnagar S (2016). Comparison of human neonatal and adult blood leukocyte subset composition phenotypes. PLoS One 11, e0162242.
  • Basu S, Kaw S, D’Souza L, Vaidya T, Bal V*, Rath S*, George A* (2016). Constitutive CD40 Signaling Calibrates Differentiation Outcomes in Responding B Cells via Multiple Molecular Pathways. J Immunol 197, 761-770.
  • Jain N, Khullar B, Oswal N, Banoth B, Joshi P, Ravindran B, Panda S, Basak S, George A*, Rath S*, Bal V* and Sopory S* (2016). TLR-mediated albuminuria needs TNF-mediated co-operativity between TLRs present in hematopoietic tissues and CD80 present on non-hematopoietic tissues. Disease Models and Mechanisms 9, 707-717.
  • Rathore DK, Nair D, Raza S, Saini S, Singh R, Kumar A, Tripathi R, Ramji S, Batra A, Aggarwal KC, Chellani HK, Arya S, Bhatla N, Paul VK, Aggarwal R, Agarwal N, Mehta U, Sopory S, Natchu UCM, Bhatnagar S, Bal V, Rath S and Wadhwa N (2015). Underweight full-term Indian neonates show differences in umbilical cord blood leukocyte phenotype: a cross-sectional study. PLoS One 10, e0123589.
  • Rane S, Das R,  Ranganathan V, Prabhu S, Das A, Mattoo H, Durdik JM*,  George A*, Rath S*, Bal V* (2014) Peripheral residence of naïve CD4 T cells induces MHC class II-dependent alterations in phenotype and function. BMC Biology 12, 106.
  • Upadhyay M, Priya GK, Ramesh P, Madhavi MB, Rath S, Bal V, George A and Vaidya T. (2014) CD40 signaling drives B lymphocytes into an intermediate memory-like state, poised between naïve and plasma cells. Journal of Cellular Physiology 229, 1387-1396.
  • Saini S, Shenoy G, Rath S*, Bal V*, George A* (2014) Inducible nitric oxide synthase is a major intermediate in signaling pathways for the survival of plasma cells. Nature Immunology 15, 275-282.
  • Sinha A, Gulati A, Saini S, Blanc C, Gupta A, Gurjar BS, Saini H, Kotresh ST, Ali U, Bhatia D, Ohri A, Kumar M, Agarwal I, Gulati S, Anand K, Vijaykumar M, Sinha R, Sethi S, Saloma M, George A, Bal V, Singh G, Dinda AK, Hari P, Rath S, Dragon-Durey M-A, Bagga A. (2014) Prompt plasma exchanges and immunosuppressive treatment improves the outcomes of anti-factor H autoantibody-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome in children. Kidney International  85 1151-1160.
  • Banerjee H, Das A, Srivastava S, Mattoo HR, Thyagarajan K, Khalsa JK, Tanwar S, Sharma D, Majumdar SS, George A*, Bal V*, Durdik JM*, Rath S*. (2012) A role for apoptosis-inducing factor (Aif) in T cell development. J Exp Med 209, 1641-1653.
  • Shenoy GN, Chatterjee P, Kaw S, Mukherjee S, Rathore DK, Bal V*, Rath S*, George A*. (2012) Recruitment of memory B cells to lymph nodes remote from the site of immunization requires an inflammatory stimulus.  J Immunol 189 521-528.
  • Panda S, Kumar S, Tupperwar N, Vaidya T, George A, Rath S, Bal V, Ravindran B. (2012) Chitohexaose activates macrophages by alternate pathway through TLR4 and blocks endotoxemia. PLoS Pathogens 8 e1002717. (doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002717).
  • Chatterjee P, Tiwari RK, Rath S*, Bal V*, George A*. (2012) Modulation of antigen presentation and BCR signaling in B cells of beige mice. J Immunol 188 695-702.
  • Khare A, Viswanathan B, Gund R, Jain N, Ravindran B, George A*, Rath S*, Bal V*. (2011) Role of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase in macrophage apoptosis. Apoptosis 16 334-336.
  • Satpathy S, Shenoy G, Kaw S, Bal V*, Rath S*, George A*. (2010) Inhibition of terminal differentiation of B cells mediated by CD27 and CD40 involves signalling through JNK. J Immunol. 185 6499-6507.
  • Varanasi V, Mattoo H, Tupperwar NC, Thyagarajan K, Das A, Kumar R, Bal V*, Vaidya T*, George A*, Rath S*. (2010) A superantigen interacts with leishmanial infection in antigen-presenting cells to regulate cytokine commitment of responding CD4 T cells. J. Infect. Dis. 202 1234-1245.