DEPARTMENTS
Dr. Cecil Antony
Dr. Cecil Antony

Assistant Professor

Office Address:

Infection Immunology Lab, Room no 306, Bioscience and Engineering, East Campus, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode, Kerala 673 601

Contact no:

2285474

Email ID:

cecil@nitc.ac.in

Home Address:

  • PhD-University of Delhi

  • Postdoc-University of Washington Medical Centre, Seattle, WA, USA

  • Postdoc-Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

  • Educational Qualifications

    • PhD-University of Delhi

    • Postdoc-University of Washington Medical Centre, Seattle, WA, USA

    • Postdoc-Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Journals

    1. N. N, Ali AM, K. P. S, Mehto S and Antony C (2026) Modulation of macrophage survival during Klebsiella pneumoniae infections. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 16:1757662. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2026.1757662

    2. Deepika Sharma, Subhash Mehto, Brijender Tiwari, Cecil Antony, Yogendra Singh and Krishnamurthy Natarajan. “Suppression of protective responses upon activation of L-type Voltage Gated Calcium Channel in macrophages during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. PLoS One. 2016 Oct 10;11(10):e0163845

    3. Subhash Mehto, Cecil Antony, Nabab Khan, Rahul Arya, Arti Selvakumar, Brijendra Tiwari, Yogendra Singh, Sahid Jameel, and Krishnamurthy Natarajan “Mycobacterium tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 cooperatively modulate macrophage apoptosis via Toll Like Receptor 2 and calcium homeostasis” PLoS ONE, 2015; 10(7): e0131767

    4. Cecil Antony, Subhash Mehto, Brijendra K Tiwari, Yogendra Singh, and Krishnamurthy Natarajan “Regulation of L-type Voltage Gated Calcium Channel CACNA1S in macrophages upon Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection” PLos ONE 2015;10(4): e0124263

    5. Aneesh Chandran, Cecil Antony, Leny Jose, Sathish Mundayoor, Krishnamurthy Natarajan and Ajay Kumar “Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection induces HDAC1 mediated suppression of IL-12B gene expression in macrophages” Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 2015, 5:90

    6. Arti Selvakumar, Cecil Antony, Jhalak Singhal, Brijendra K. Tiwari, Yogendra Singh and Krishnamurthy Natarajan "Reciprocal Regulation of Reactive Oxygen Species and phospho-CREB Regulates Voltage Gated Calcium Channel Expression During Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection” PLos ONE, 2014; 9(5): e96427

    7. Deepti Gupta, Sachin Sharma, Jhalak Singhal, Akash T. Satsangi, Cecil Antony and Krishnamurthy Natarajan. “Suppression of TLR2 Induced Interleukin-12, Reactive Oxygen Species, Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Expression by Mycobacterium tuberculosis Antigens Expressed Inside Macrophages During the Course of Infection” Journal of Immunology, 2010;184;5444-5455

    Projects

    S.No Grant Status Agency Year PI/Co-PI

    1

    Deciphereing the cross-talk between macrophages and ependymoma cancer stem cells Approved SERB-SIRE 2022 PI

    2

    Deciphering human macrophages genes that promote Klebsiella pneumoniae intracellular survival Approved ICMR 2024 PI

    3

    Immune modulatory role of Klebsiella pneumoniae antigens with human macrophages Under revision DST 2026 PI

    4

    CRISPRi/a toolkit generation to engineer yeast models Approved DBT 2026 Co-PI

    5

    Proteo-Transcriptomic mapping of resistant gram negative bacterial pathogens Under revision ICMR 2026 PI

    6

    Development and engineering of high-affinity peptides against Klebsiella, Acenetobacter and Pseudomonas, to sense and target the critical priority pathogens Under revision DBT 2026 PI

    7

    Development of blocking peptides against Nipah Virus structrual genes Under revision ANRF 2026 PI

     

    The Infection Immunology Lab, BSED is now accepting applications for short-term summer internships and long-term dissertation projects. We specialise in providing intensive, hands-on training in Cell Culture, Infection Microbiology, and Molecular Biology.

    🔬 Advance Your Research Career in Infection Immunology!

    If you are looking for genuine hands-on experience in cutting-edge biotechnology. Get yourself trained with us, unlike mass-training programs, we focus on individual technical mastery. You will get direct experience in: Cell Culture, Infection Microbiology and Molecular Biology.

    Training Portfolios

    Summer internship

    1. Mammalian cell maintenance and cell counting
    2. Mammalian cell cryopreservation
    3. RNA isolation
    4. cDNA synthesis
    5. Primer designing
    6. PCR standardizations
    7. qPCR

    Dissertation Project

    Standard level 

    1. Mammalian cell cryopreservation and revival
    2. Differentiation of human monocytes to macrophages
    3. Cell counting and Live/Dead staining
    4. Preparation of bacterial cultures for infection
    5. Infection of human macrophages with bacterial pathogens
    6. Enumeration of extracellular and intracellular bacteria
    7. RNA isolation and cDNA synthesis
    8. Primer designing
    9. PCR standardizations
    10. qPCR

    Advance level

    1. Transcriptomics (RNA-Seq)
    2. LC-MS/MS acquisition and analysis
    3. CRISPR-Cas9 Gene editing

    Consumable Fees structure :

    • Summer Internship (2–3 Months): Rs. 16,500/-
    • Standard Dissertation (4–6 Months): Rs. 30,000/-
    • Advanced Dissertation (4-6 Months): The cost exceeds the standard due to expensive consumables

    Important Note: In accordance with NITC Notification (No. R&C/PhD/2023-24 dated 13.06.2023), candidates are required to pay a One-Time Project Implementation (OTPI) Fee in addition to the consumable costs, based on the duration of stay. The fee has to be deposited only to the institute bank account through online/UPI methods and details of the institute bank accounts will be provided on the day of joinig the program.

    To join the program, please submit the following:

    1. Application addressing HoD BSED (Same letter hardcopy addressing HoD, BSED, NITC)

    2. Bonafide certificate from college

    3. Parent/Guardian Letter

    4. Payment of fee

    ⚠️ Limited Seats Available.
    We believe in quality over quantity. Contact cecil@nitc.ac.in today to discuss your research interests and secure your spot! Interested candidates are encouraged to get in touch with us directly to discuss specific training portfolios and seat availability.

     

    KINDLY FILL THE GOOGLE FORM IF INTERESTED IN JOINING THE INTERNSHIP/DISSERTATION TRAINING

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXmCxIEaQpCk9lXMQJgeW2ebJ38JdS6vCGahAe8ejOfFb3Lw/viewform?usp=publish-editor

    Thank you

    Interest

    As an infection immunologist I have been studying the host-pathogen interaction to elucidate the suppressor responses induced by intracellular pathogen Mtb. I am also interested in isolating high affinity peptides/antibodies against viral/bacterial antigens by harnessing combinatorial peptide/antibody libraries.

    Currently, the pathogens in which I am interested to explore the host-pathogen interactions are as follows,

    • Klebsiella pneumoniae

    • Staphylococcus aureus

    • Enterococcus spp

    • Enterobacter spp

    • Pseudomonas aeruginosa

    • Acinetobacter baumannii