Dr. Biji Balakrishnan did Ph.D in the interdisciplinary field of Biomaterials from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Kerala under the supervision of Prof. A. Jayakrishnan (retired from IIT Madras). She then joined IIT Bombay and worked at Nanomedicine laboratoy under various roles (Institute Post doc and DST Scientist) with Prof. Rinti Banerjee. Later she worked with Dr. Hassan, Head N&BS, Chemistry Division, BARC for three years as DST Scientist. Presently she is working as Associate Professor (Chemistry) in  SciSER, SK Somaiya College, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai.

Vidwan profile : https://somaiya.irins.org/profile/458408

Research interests: Biomaterials, galectin-3 targeted cancer therapy, In situ gelling systems, drug delivery systems, trigger responsive hydrogels, Tissue engineering

Grants received:

1. DST Women Scientist (2009-2012) & (2020-2023)

2. DST -SERB Start up grant for young scientists (2014-2017)

Coinvestigator-IMPRINT

Travel Grants

1. SERB ITS (2024)

2. DBT travel grant (2016)

3. SERB ITS (2012)

Achievements

1. University topper (Bachelors and Master Degree Examination)

2. Shah-shulman award for best Indian PhD thesis in the area of colloids & Interfacial science, 2007

3. Included in Top 2% scientists list prepared in August 2021 and 2022 by Stanford university ["Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators" in the list of single year impact . This data-update is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2%]

Professional affiliations

•    Life Member (LM561): Society of Biomaterials and Artificial organs, India (SBOAI)
•    Young session member: Indo italian forum on biomaterials & tissue engineering http://www.i2bite.com/young_section.html

•    Life Member (LM2704): The Materials Research Society of India (MRSI)
•    Life Member (LM438): The Society for Polymer Science India (SPSI)

•     Life Member (2328):Society for material chemistry India (SMC)

Reviewer (Adhoc)

Journal of Biomedical Material Research, Part A (Elsevier)
Journal of Material Chemistry, Part B (RSC)
RSC advances (RSC)
Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine (RETM)
Carbohydrate Polymers (Elsevier)

ACS Omega

Publications-20

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=1MiAB3wAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected Publications

1.    S Kaur, B Balakrishnan, MB Mallia, R Keshari, PA Hassan, R Banerjee
Technetium-99m labeled core shell hyaluronate nanoparticles as tumor responsive, metastatic skeletal lesion targeted combinatorial theranostics
Carbohydrate Polymers 2023,  312, 120840 (I.F. 10.723)

2.     Balakrishnan, B. Role of Nanoscale Delivery Systems in Tissue Engineering
Curr Pathobiol Rep 2021, 9, 119–132 . (I.F. 2.29)

3.    Balakrishnan, B., Payanam, U., Laurent, A., Wassef, M., A. Jayakrishnan. Efficacy evaluation of an in situ forming tissue adhesive hydrogel as sealant for lung and vascular injury. Biomed. Mater. 2021, 16, 044106. (I.F. 3.715)

4.    B Balakrishnan, S Subramanian, MB Mallia, K Repaka, S Kaur, R Chandan, P Bhardwaj, A Das, R Banerjee. Multifunctional Core-Shell Glyco-Nanoparticles for Galectin-3 Targeted Trigger responsive Combination Chemotherapy Biomacromolecules, 2020, 21, 7, 2645–2660 (I.F.: 6.988)

5.    B Balakrishnan, N Joshi, A Jayakrishnan, R Banerjee. Self-crosslinked oxidized alginate/gelatin hydrogel as injectable, adhesive biomimetic scaffolds for cartilage regeneration. Acta biomaterialia 10 (8), 3650-3663, 2014; (IF:6.319)

6.    B Balakrishnan, R Banerjee. Biopolymer-based hydrogels for cartilage tissue engineering. Chemical reviews 111 (8), 4453-4474, 2011 (I.F 72.87)

7.    B Balakrishnan, M Mohanty, AC Fernandez, PV Mohanan, A. Jayakrishnan. Evaluation of the effect of incorporation of dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate in an in situ-forming hydrogel wound dressing based on oxidized alginate and gelatin. Biomaterials 27 (8), 1355-1361, 2006 (I.F 12.479)

8.    B Balakrishnan, A Jayakrishnan. Self-cross-linking biopolymers as injectable insitu forming biodegradable scaffolds. Biomaterials 26 (18), 3941-3951,2005 (I.F 12.479)

Patents-4

Book- 1 "Engineered Biomaterials-Progress and prospects" P.A.Hassan, B.Balakrishnan, A.K. Tyagi (editors), World Scientific Publishers (Singapore), 2024

Book chapters 4

Other achievements

• Research got published in IIT research highlights
  https://www.iitb.ac.in/en/research-highlight/injectables-osteoarthritis
  https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/iit-team-offers-a-cheap-painless-treatment-for-osteoarthritis/
• Selected one of the publications as top 25 hottest articles in the area of chemical engineering, material science and biochemistry (biomaterials) in the year 2005 (October-December)

Selected one of the publications as top 25 hottest articles in the area of material science of the  journal Acta biomaterialia ( July to September 2014)

Selected Conference presentations

1.    B. Balakrishnan, N. Joshi, R. Banerjee.Self cross-linking, biodegradable,injectable, insitu gelling carboxymethyl cellulose/gelatin cogels as tissue engineering scaffolds. Oral presentation at 9th World Biomaterials Congress, June 1-5, 2012 held at Chengdu, China.

2.    B. Balakrishnan , N. Joshi , S. Kaur , K. Thorat , R. Banerjee .Miltefosine incorporated hydrogel-doxorubicin conjugate as tumor responsive locoregional drug depot for combination chemotherapy. Poster presentation,10th World biomaterial conference, 2016 Montreal, Canada on 17th to 22nd May, 2016.

3.    Biji Balakrishnan, Somnath Kar, Madhava B. Mallia,, Rajesh C., and P.A. Hassan Galectin-3 Targeting Niosomes For Cancer Therapy: A Preliminary Evaluation, DAE-BRNS 8th Interdisciplinary symposium on material chemistry, ISMC 2020, June 17-22.

4    Biji Balakrishnan, Suresh Subramanian, Madhava B. Mallia, P.A. Hassan.Development and radio labeling of trigger responsive, bio-polymeric nanoparticles for galectin-3 targeted cancer therapy.  ", Proceedings of 15th Biennial DAE BRNS Symposium Nuclear and Radiochemistry (NUCAR-2021), Feb 22-26, 2022, BARC, Mumbai  

Teaching

BS-MS (chemistry of life, reactivity and synthesis, chemical kinetics)

M.Sc Industrial Biotechnology (Reaction Engineering)

M.Sc Chemical biology and drug design (Biorganic chemistry)