Dr Avinash Shenoy: recipient of Rising Star Award from his alma mater in Mumbai

In a ceremony at Ramnarain Ruia College in Mumbai, CMBI's Dr Avinash Shenoy was presented with one of two Rising Star Awards announced this year.

In a ceremony held on 21 January 2017 at Ramnarain Ruia College, among the best undergraduate colleges in Mumbai, CMBI’s Dr Avinash Shenoy was presented with one of two Rising Star Awards announced this year. The Ruia College Alumni Association selects ‘Rising Stars’ from past-students under the age of 40, and ‘Jewel of Ruia’ from among more senior achievers in their respective fields. Dr Shenoy graduated with a vocational BSc degree from Ruia College in 1999 and topped the University of Mumbai that year. The Award was presented by Professor Leena Phadke, who was one of his microbiology teachers and has since retired. Dr. Shenoy also gave two lectures at Ruia College and had a chance to interact with undergraduate students studying Microbiology, many of whom are deeply interested in infectious diseases and immunity.

Dr Shenoy completed an integrated MS-PhD degree studying signal transduction in mycobacteria at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and a successful postdoctoral stint on host-immunity at the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine. He started his first independent position at Imperial College in October 2013 as a non-clinical lecturer of Molecular Microbiology at the MRC CMBI. Dr Shenoy’s laboratory studies innate immunity to enteric bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria and pathogenic E. coli, and has obtained funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society. He currently supervises four PhD students, has mentored several BSc and MSc students on rotation projects, teaches immunity and pathogenesis in various courses at Imperial, and has published manuscripts on his work. The Award recognises his achievements and wishes him even greater successes in the future.

While receiving the award Dr. Shenoy thanked his teachers at Ruia for encouraging his inquisitiveness and interests in microbiology and infectious diseases.