Dr Jyothi Prasanna has undergone doctoral training at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in the field of molecular immunology, where she explored the role of Interferon-gamma responses in the context of hepatocellular carcinomas. She later worked in health care setups such as Stem Cell Research Center, Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru, where she headed the Corneal Stem Cell group. At the stem cell research center, she developed corneal grafts for burn victims using amniotic membrane scaffolds. She was also instrumental in setting up the Immunobiology program at the center and was involved in the first ICMR-approved pre-clinical and clinical trials with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. She has an international patent for upscaling human mesenchymal stem cells for clinical usage.

As a founding member of MIRM since its inception in 2007, Dr Jyothi was instrumental in the establishment of Infrastructural facilities at MIRM and in drafting and conceptualising the interdisciplinary program on stem cells and regenerative medicine. She was the academic coordinator for the Indo-Sri Lankan joint program on Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine for Medical students (Collaboration between the University of Colombo and MAHE) (2011-2014).

At MIRM, she runs a focused research program exploring immune system roles in stem cell fate decisions in physiological and pathological contexts with a specific emphasis on chronic metabolic diseases. She has attracted extra-mural funding from several granting agencies, including ICMR, DBT, DST, SERB and CSIR. She has presented her research work at several international platforms for which she was awarded travel grants. She was involved as an academic partner in several company-sponsored grants, such as Stempeutics Research Pvt Limited, Elbit Diagnostics Pvt Limited, Apollo Hospitals Group Pvt Limited and BD Biosciences. Her group has published several very well-cited papers in the field of immunobiology of stem cells. Recently she has developed a novel reprogramming approach to convert human Mesenchymal stem cells to immune-compatible Hepatocyte cells which can serve as scalable in-vitro models for drug toxicity testing. 

Dr Jyothi has significant clinical collaborations with JSS Medical College, Ramaiya Institute of Applied Health Sciences and KLE Hospital. She is on the doctoral advisory committee of NIMHANS, JSS Medical College Mysore and Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore. She has served as a stem cell and cell biology expert member for Institutional Committee for Stem Cell Research (IC-SCR) for IISc and NCBS, Bangalore. She is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Stem Cell Research and Transplantation (IJST), Recent Advances in Immunology, Bentham Science Publishers, and Cell Transplantation.

Dr Jyothi Prasanna has 18 years of experience in the field of Regenerative Medicine and has been heading MIRM since July 2023.

Jahnavi S, Garg V, Vasandan AB, SundarRaj S, Kumar A, Prasanna SJ. Lineage reprogramming of human adipose mesenchymal stem cells to immune modulatory i-Heps. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2022 Jun 27;149:106256. doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2022.106256.

Garg V, Chandanala S, David-Luther M, Govind M, Prasad RR, Kumar A, Prasanna SJ. The Yin and Yang of Immunity in Stem Cell Decision Guidance in Tissue Ecologies: An Infection Independent Perspective. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Feb 7;10:793694. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.793694.

Vasandan AB, Jahnavi S, Shashank C, Prasad P, Kumar A, Prasanna SJ. Human Mesenchymal stem cells program macrophage plasticity by altering their metabolic status via a PGE2- dependent mechanism. Sci Rep. 2016 Dec 2;6:38308. doi: 10.1038/srep38308

Ashwini A, Naganur SS, Smitha B, Sheshadri P, Prasanna J & Kumar A. Cyclosporine A-Mediated IL-6 Expression Promotes Neural Induction in Pluripotent Stem Cells. Mol Neurobiol. 2018 May;55 (5):4267-4279.

Vasandan AB, Shankar SR, Prasad P, Sowmya Jahnavi V, Bhonde RR, Jyothi Prasanna S. Functional differences in mesenchymal stromal cells from human dental pulp and periodontal ligament. J Cell Mol Med. 2014 Feb;18(2):344-54

Exploring the molecular mechanisms underpinning arterial calcifications in ADCC/CALJA (a rare disease marked by NT5E gene mutations) by CRISPR-CAS9 mediated gene editing (ICMR-Rare Disease Task Force)

Identification of novel molecular mediators instructing altered adipogenic programs in Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exposed to pro-inflammatory cytokine, IFNgamma (DST-SERB)

Discerning the influence of ecto-nucleotidases on reparative properties of Mesenchymal stem cells (DBT-Stem cell Task Force)

Analysis of hepatic trans-differentiation from mesenchymal stem cells isolated from human bone marrow and umbilical cord matrix (DBT-Stem Cell Task Force)

Dissecting the role of physiological glucocorticoid cortisol in early developmental decisions using human embryonic stem cells as a model system (CSIR)