CHINTA’s First Co-Affiliated Work with Centre for Neuroscience (IISc) Published
CHINTA’s co-affiliated work with the Center for Neuroscience (IISc), titled “Lateral hypothalamus directs stress-induced modulation of acute and psoriatic itch” was recently published in the journal Cell Reports (March 2026). Article highlights include: LHA neurons mediate stress modulation of itch, LHA neurons are sufficient and necessary for stress-induced itch suppression, LHA neurons are potentiated by chronic psoriatic itch, stress-sensitive LHA neurons mediate itch through downstream PAG neurons.
Read the paper here: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(26)00103-8
MOOSE v4.2.0 Kalakand Is Here!
We are excited to announce the release of MOOSE v4.2.0 Kalakand — a major update bringing significant improvements to neuron morphology handling, model loading, the Python interface, and the build system. SWC files with 2-point soma and 3-point soma formats are now acceptable for loading neuron morphologies. We have now made the NeuroML2 model path configurable and given a consistent string representation for all MOOSE Python objects. With this version building MOOSE from source is much simpler!
Explore it here: https://www.mooseneuro.org/news/moose-v420-news/
Dr. Anant Jain Inducted as an Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc)
Dr. Anant Jain, Assistant Professor at CHINTA, has been inducted as an Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) for a tenure up to December 2028. Instituted in 1983, the IASc Associateship recognises outstanding young scientists in India and fosters their active engagement with the national scientific ecosystem through research initiatives, scholarly publications in all major areas of sciences, and science education programmes for Senior Undergraduate and Masters’ level students, and the Academy Lecture Workshops and Refresher Courses for Teachers. This prestigious induction is a testament to Dr. Jain’s impactful contributions to neuroscience research and translational science.
Dr. Shona Chattarji Awarded Wellcome Trust’s Target Validation Grant in Mental Health Programme
Prof. Sumantra Chattarji has been awarded a prestigious collaborative grant under the Wellcome Trust Target Validation program for novel mental health drug discovery, in partnership with Dr. Tom Otis (Lario Therapeutics) & Prof. Sonja B Hofer. This two-year collaboration will focus on validating CaV2.3 as a therapeutic target for Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), leveraging Lario’s small molecule inhibitors of CaV2.3 which are selective and brain-penetrant. This grant is also a vital step towards solving complex mental health disorders such as PTSD and it’s lifelong effects.
Dr. Palamou Das Awarded National Postdoctoral Fellowship by ANRF
Dr. Palamou Das from CHINTA, TCG CREST, has been awarded the National Post-Doctoral Fellowship by ANRF for her pioneering project proposal on how neurons learn and adapt. Guided by Dr. Anant Jain, her work explores organellar interactions, how the brain’s internal architecture communicates at a microscopic level, to decode the molecular basis of learning and memory.
