Dr. Puja Yadav, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Central University of
Haryana (CUH), Mahendergarh has received prestigious WISER grant from Indo-German
Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC). IGSTC is a joint initiative by the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Department of Science and Technology
(DST), Government of India (GoI). A total of ten (10) women researchers from India and two (2)
from Germany holding regular/long-term research positions were selected under the WISER-
2023 programme. Prof. Tankeshawar Kumar, Vice-Chancellor congratulated Dr. Puja for her
achievement.
Prof. Surender Singh, HoD, Department of Microbiology also congratulated Dr. Puja and wished
her a fruitful research collaboration in Germany.  WISER programme by the Indo-German
Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC), aims to build scientific capacity, retain, encourage,
and promote women researchers. Dr. Yadav has made important contributions to the field of
infectious diseases, both nationally and internationally. She completed her first post-doctoral
fellowship from Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Later she
joined University of Texas, Health Science Centre at Houston and completed her second post-
doctoral fellowship. Several fellowships and awards have been awarded to her for her
outstanding academic and scientific achievements including SIRE (SERB-International Research
Fellowship) in 2022. Her primary area of research focused on antibiotic resistance, biofilm and
DNA secondary structure mediated regulation of bacterial pathogenesis.
Dr. Puja Yadav will be working in collaboration with Professor Barbara Spellerberg who is
renowned scientist in field of Microbiology. The present grant is within the context of CRC 1279
(Ulm University) funded from 2017 till 2025 with the objective of discovering endogenors
human peptides that play key roles in the control of human pathogens and to optimize them for
potential therapeutic applications. The grant is for a period of three years which will allow a
research exchange between Central University of Haryana and Ulm University, Germany. The
main goal of the collaborative grant is to discover endogenous human peptides that may inhibit
biofilm formation and bacterial growth.  The long-term goal of this study is to use antimicrobial
peptides as an alternative to antibiotics. If so, these would certainly ease the antibiotic burden
worldwide.

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