News | Boston Bangalore Biosciences Beginnings Program

On March 26, the Building Bharat Boston Biosciences (B4) program held a two-session online webinar to mark the conclusion of its final phase. The Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) Program is the second iteration of the earlier Boston-Bangalore Biosciences Beginnings Program. Funded by the Department of Biotechnology within the Government of India, the B4 program is a collaboration between the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) in Bangalore, the Harvard Global Research Support Centre India, and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University.

Each year, the Mittal Institute’s B4 Program hosts workshops that bring together talented Indian students and experts in the life sciences. The goal of these workshops is to introduce students to important issues in the life sciences through lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on learning opportunities. From March 14–21, 2021, the B4 Program will host a 7-day course, “Online Workshop on Big Data in Life Sciences and Healthcare,” organized by IBAB, Bangalore under the aegis of the Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) Program funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Learn more and apply by March 2, 2021.

“As human health is increasingly threatened by emerging pathogens, multi-drug-resistant infections, and therapy-evading cancer cells, our understanding of the dynamics of evolution is of growing importance,” writes the research team of Ramya Purkanti, one of the Mittal Institute’s 2016–2017 B4 Fellows.

Each year, the Mittal Institute sponsors several visiting scientists to pursue research in fields related to the biosciences at Harvard University and other institutions in the Boston area. Working in university laboratories under the mentorship of top bioscience mentors and faculty, the visiting scientists have the opportunity to learn through hands-on experiences and bring back new techniques and knowledge to their home institutions.

The Mittal Institute’s Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) program works to establish connections between institutions in India and Boston to promote scientific research and build new knowledge in the field of biosciences. Each year, the B4 program holds two workshops in India that convenes a group of talented Indian university students and introduces them to the latest developments in the life sciences. Over the summer, one of these workshops was hosted at IISER in Pune as part of the program, bringing in 25 students from universities and institutions all across India to receive training from experts in Advanced Light Microscopy techniques, ranging from basic microscopy to super-resolution imaging.

The Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) Program, run by the Mittal Institute and funded by the Department of Biotechnology within the Government of India, aims to connect the scientific institutions of India and Boston to collaborate, share research, and build new knowledge in the field of biosciences. As part of the program, the Mittal Institute brings five scientific fellows from India to Cambridge to work in labs with faculty mentors across Harvard University and other local institutions. This week, our five visiting B4 fellows and some of their mentors came together over a lunch hosted by the Mittal Institute with Professor Venkatesh Murthy, faculty lead of the B4 program and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard, to kick off the B4 fellowship.

On January 23, the Building Bharat Boston Biosciences (B4) program held an in-country seminar moderated by Professor Venkatesh Murthy. The panel discussion addressed important issues that impact life science advancement in India from publishing issues to diversity and ethics in the sciences.

This week, a selection of young scientists from all over India met in Bengaluru to kick off the two-week Workshop on Synthetic Biology. This workshop is a segment of the Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences (B4) program that focuses on preparing young scientists in India for the future of biosciences. In this two-week course, the students will […]

The Building Bharat-Boston Biosciences Program (B4) is offering up to eight 18-month fellowships for Indian citizens - currently residing in India - who specialize in a field related to the biosciences. Applicants must have achieved a PhD within the last five years. We may also accept applications from highly-qualified senior doctoral students.