Indian scientist
Vidita Vaidya
is an Indian neuroscientist and professor at the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
, Mumbai. Her primary areas of research are neuroscience and molecular psychiatry.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Vidita's parents, Dr. Rama Vaidya and Dr. Ashok Vaidya are clinician scientists, and her uncle Dr. Akhil Vaidya (a
Malaria
Parasitologist
) were a big motivation for her to pursue a career in research, with a focus on Neuroscience. Her father is a clinical
pharmacologist
, and her mother is an
endocrinologist
. She was also influenced by reading about the life and work of the primatologists
Dian Fossey
and
Jane Goodall
, during her teenage years.
[2]
Education
[
edit
]
Vidita received her undergraduate degree from
St. Xavier's College
, Mumbai in
Life Sciences
and
Biochemistry
. She obtained her doctoral degree in
Neuroscience
at
Yale University
with Professor Ronald Duman, whose mentorship shaped her research career. Her postdoctoral work was done at the
Karolinska Institute
in Sweden with Professor Ernest Arenas and at the
University of Oxford
in UK with Professor David Grahame-Smith.
[1]
[3]
Career
[
edit
]
She joined the Department of Biological Sciences,
TIFR
at the age of 29, in March, 2000, as a principal investigator.
[4]
She has been a
Wellcome Trust
Overseas Senior Research Fellow and an associate of the
Indian Academy of Sciences
from 2000 to 2005.
[5]
Vidita studies the neurocircuits that regulate emotion and how they are influenced by life experiences, and antidepressants. She also investigates how changes in brain circuits form the basis of psychiatric disorders like depression and how early life experiences contribute to persistent alterations in behaviour. One of the focus areas of her research group is the role of the serotonin
2A
receptor both as a target of serotonergic psychedelics that exert powerful effects on mood-related behavior, and also in how it contributes to shaping the long-lasting consequences of early adversity. She was awarded the National Bioscientist Award in 2012, the prestigious
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
in 2015 in the medical sciences category
[6]
and is a Fellow of the
Indian National Science Academy
,
National Academy of Sciences, India
and the
Indian Academy of Sciences
. She received the J.C. Bose Fellowship from SERB, Govt. of India in 2021 and the Infosys Prize in Life-Sciences in 2022
[1]
.
Vidita's research has also been centered around the role of serotonin in shaping neurocircuits of emotion during critical periods of postnatal development and on the mechanism of action of fast acting antidepressant treatments.
[7]
Her lab work is conducted on lab rats and mice. Vidita's particular field of interest lies in understanding how individuals develop vulnerability or resilience to stress-associated psychopathology.
[4]
Features in Books and Videos
[
edit
]
Vidita has been featured in Lilavathi's Daughters,
[8]
a compilation of biographical essays on Indian women scientists, and on "The Life in Science" blog.
[9]
In 2015, she gave a TEDx talk at
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
in which she spoke about how stress can change our neurological makeup.
[TEDx 1]
She has also been featured in TIFRs "Chai and Why".
[10]
Achievements
[
edit
]
Her work has garnered the 2015
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
for Science and Technology for Medical Sciences. She is also a recipient of the
National Bioscience Award for Career Development
in 2012.
[11]
She received the Nature Award for Mentorship in Science, 2019, in the mid-career category.
[12]
She received the
Infosys Prize
in
Life-Sciences in 2022
for her fundamental contributions to understanding brain mechanisms that underlie mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, including signals engaged by the neurotransmitter serotonin in causing persistent changes in behavior induced by early life stress and the role of serotonin in energy regulation in brain cells.
Publications
[
edit
]
Her site at
TIFR
hosts a complete list of her publications.
[13]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Vidita's research career was supported by her late husband, Ajit Mahadevan, who worked in the area of impact investing. They have a daughter, Alina Vaidya Mahadevan. In her spare time, Vidita likes to travel, read, and dance.
[2]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- Reference group
|
---|
1960s
| |
---|
1970s
| |
---|
1980s
| |
---|
1990s
| |
---|
2000s
| |
---|
2010s
| |
---|
2020s
| |
---|
|
---|
2010
| |
---|
2011
| |
---|
2012
| |
---|
2013
| |
---|
2014
| |
---|
2015
| |
---|
2017/18
| |
---|