Wednesday, June 4th 2025 CIBR (H1 seminar room) 14-15h

Prof. Shubha Tole, Senior Professor and Dean – Graduate Studies Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India

INVITED TALK:

“Regulation of cell fate in the developing cerebral cortex”

Shubha Tole obtained her BSc in Life Sciences and Biochemistry from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai (1987). Her MSc and PhD are from Caltech, USA. She worked at the University of Chicago as a post-doctoral fellow, and joined the Tata Institute in Mumbai, India as a faculty member in 1999.
Tole group explores a range of open questions in the field of forebrain development. These include the mechanisms that regulate the early patterning of the cortical primordium; neuronal subtype specification in the neocortex; cell fate determination in the hippocampus; and the control of axon pathfinding and innervation of the cortex using the mouse as a model system and human embryonic stem cell (hESC) organoids to address questions in these areas.
Prof. Tole is a recipient of the Infosys Science Foundation Award for Life sciences (2014); the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (2010); the Research Award for Innovation in Neurosciences (RAIN) from the Society for Neuroscience (2008); the National Woman Bioscientist award from the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India (2008); the Swarnajayanti Fellowship awarded by the Department of Science in Technology, Govt. of India (2005); and the Wellcome Trust Senior International Fellowship (1999). She is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Science, and the National Academy of Science. Internationally, she is an Associate member of EMBO and the current President of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience (ISDN).
Tole served as Chair of the Women in Science panel and as a member of the panel on Scientific Values of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 2019-2022, and on the Board of Directors of the ALBA Network 2021-2024.
Tole is the newly elected President-elect of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO). She will be the first IBRO President from a developing country.
Tole believes that communicating science is as important as pursuing it, and actively engages in public outreach via workshops in schools and colleges, and writes blogs aimed at helping students and postdocs plan their careers. In 2022 she was recognized for her mentorship by being awarded the Bernice Grafstein Award for Oustanding Accomplishments in Mentoring by the Society for Neuroscience, USA.