By Professor Siddharth Jhunjhunwala organized by IISc AANA Silicon Valley Chapter on March 1, 2026 at Aria University
Speaker’s Bio:
Prof Siddharth Jhunjhunwala (https://be.iisc.ac.in/siddharth-jhunjhunwala/), Associate Professor at the Dept of Bioengineering (https://be.iisc.ac.in/) at Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru since 2016. He has a bachelor’s degree in industrial biotechnology from Anna University, PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, Post-doctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are in immuno-engineering, biomaterials and drug delivery. In addition to various fellowships, he won the Prof Priti Shankar Teaching Award for Assistant Professors in 2019.
Description of the Talk:
Advances in modern medicine are increasingly limited not by the lack of drugs or devices, but by our inability to precisely control the human immune system. Immune reactions underlie failures in vaccines, medical implants, transplantation, and treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases – conditions that collectively affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, including a rapidly growing population in India. ‘Immunoengineering’ is an emerging interdisciplinary field that seeks to address this challenge by systematically understanding and engineering immune responses rather than suppressing them. It represents a powerful new paradigm with the potential to transform healthcare across disease areas and socioeconomic contexts. This talk will focus on introducing the field of immunoengineering and providing an overview of its current successes as well as future applications.
Alongside this introduction, an overview of the research done in the laboratory of Siddharth Jhunjhunwala at the Department of Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Science (which is among the very few groups in India working at the forefront of immunoengineering), will be provided. A central focus of the group’s work is on immune responses to medical implants across scales: from nano-particles to macroscale devices. Immune-driven implant rejection and chronic inflammation remain major, under‑recognized causes of patient suffering, repeat surgeries, and escalating healthcare costs. Addressing these challenges is particularly critical in resource‑constrained settings, where access to repeated interventions is limited.
The talk will end with a discussion on the possibility of establishing a Centre for Immunoengineering at IISc, that will have the following goals:
- Advance foundational understanding of immune–material interactions relevant to vaccines, implants, and chronic inflammatory diseases
- Develop affordable, robust immunoengineering technologies tailored to India’s healthcare needs
- Train the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists, clinicians, and engineers in an area where India is currently under‑represented.
Link to the talk: