Anusree Mahanta
Ph.D., Tezpur Central University, Assam, IndiaAssistant Professor, School of Biosciences
Anusree Mahanta
Ph.D., Tezpur Central University, Assam, IndiaBuilding on broad training in immunology, spanning infectious disease and non-canonical functions of immune cells, my research focuses on how immune mechanisms shape brain development and lifelong vulnerability to neurological disease. A growing body of evidence suggests that many neurological and psychiatric conditions like Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia have their roots in early development, where immune signals, maternal health and environmental factors can influence brain growth and function long before disease onset.
I focus on macrophages, the earliest immune cells present in the developing embryo, which are increasingly recognized as active regulators of neurodevelopment. While macrophages are known to participate in neural circuit refinement, particularly through axonal pruning, their broader roles in regulating early brain growth and neural stem cell dynamics remain poorly understood. My work aims to uncover how macrophage-derived signals and immune activation states influence brain structure, function and vulnerability to later-life neurological and mental health conditions.
Using the genetically powerful Drosophila model system, my lab combines developmental neurobiology, immunology and genetic approaches to dissect immune–brain crosstalk at cellular and molecular resolution. Beyond brain health, I am also interested in how maternal diet and metabolic health during pregnancy influence long-term susceptibility to metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Team members in my lab will receive interdisciplinary training spanning basic biology and public health relevance, with opportunities to engage in mechanistic discovery as well as long-term translational and collaborative research. I welcome students curious about how early-life biology shapes lifelong health.
Anusree Mahanta is an Assistant Professor at the School of Biosciences. While her Ph.D work focused on the cytokine dynamics in context of severe falciparum malaria, her postdoctoral work dealt with developmental roles of immune cells beyond the classical host defence. During her postdoctoral research at Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), she was awarded the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Early-Career Grant and her work was recently published in The EMBO Reports journal alluding to an unexpected role of macrophage metabolic states in regulating animal body size.
- Ph.D., in Malaria Immunology, Tezpur Central University, Assam, India
- M.Sc., in Biotechnology, St. Anthony’s College, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
- Mahanta, A., Najar, S.A., Hariharan, H., Bhowmick, A., Rizvi, S.I., Goyal, M., Parupalli, P., Subramanian, R., Giangrande, A., Palakodeti, D and Mukherjee, T. (2025). Macrophage metabolic reprogramming in dietary stress influences adult body size in Drosophila. EMBO Reports (Corresponding author); https://doi.org/10.1038/s44319-025-00574-7.
- Mahanta, A., Ganguli, P., Barah, P., Sarkar, R. R., Sarmah, N., Phukan, S., Bora, M., and Baruah, S. (2018). Integrative Approaches to Understand the Mastery in Manipulation of Host Cytokine Networks by Protozoan Parasites with Emphasis on Plasmodium and Leishmania Species. Frontiers in Immunology; 9:296; DOI: 10.3389/fimmu. 2018.00296.
- Mahanta, A. and Baruah, S. (2015). Lower expression of GATA3 and T-bet correlates with down regulated IL-10 in severe falciparum malaria. Clinical and Translational Immunology; e49, doi:10.1038/cti.2015.30.
- Mahanta, A., Kar, S.K., Kakati, S. and Baruah, S. (2015). Heightened inflammation in severe malaria is associated with decreased IL-10 expression levels and neutrophils. Innate Immunity; 21: 546-552.
- Mahanta, A., Kakati, S. and Baruah, S. (2014). The association of IL-8-251T/A polymorphism with complicated malaria in Karbi Anglong district of Assam. Cytokine; 65: 210-216.
Project 1
- Title: To investigate the physiological role of myeloid cells in regulating systemic metabolic homeostasis: a comparative analysis across development
- Duration: 5 years (2020-2025)
- Granting Agency: DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance (Grant for Early-career fellowship)
- Status: Completed
- Grant Amount: 1.7 crores
- DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Early Career Fellowship (2020–2025).
- DST-AWSAR Popular Science Writing Award (2022)
- Travel Grant from International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) to present research at 18th International Congress of Immunology, Cape Town (2023)
- Best Oral Presentation at Young Scientists’ Conference, India International Science Festival (2020).
- DBT-Research Associate Fellowship (2017).
- Life membership of Indian Immunology Society
- “Macrophages: the unsung heroes of the lipid world”, popular science story for DST-AWSAR award (2022).
- “A new dawn”, fictional story published in The Assam Tribune (2017).
- “Laugh, learn and relax”, a column published in The Assam Tribune (2016).