Bhanu Pratap Jena

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Bhanu Pratap Jena (born November 1, 1955) is an Indian-American cell biologist and a professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is best known for discovering the porosome in the mid-1990s, a tiny, permanent structure in the cell’s plasma membrane where secretory vesicles dock and release their contents. This finding revealed a universal secretory machinery across many cell types.

Jena was born in Jajpur, Odisha, India. He studied chemistry, zoology, and botany at BJB College (Bachelor of Science, 1975) and zoology (endocrinology) at Utkal University (Master of Science, 1978). After teaching at various colleges in Utkal University (1978–82), he received a teaching and research fellowship to Iowa State University, where he earned a PhD in zoology (molecular endocrinology) in 1988. He did postdoctoral work at Iowa State and Yale, and joined Yale University as an assistant professor before moving to Wayne State University in 2000 as a professor of physiology.

Using an atomic force microscope on live cells, Jena first reported the porosome and studied its structure and dynamics at nanometer resolution in real time. The porosome has been shown to be the universal secretory machinery in cells, found from pancreatic exocrine cells to neuroendocrine cells and neurons. Its structure has been confirmed by electron microscopy in whole cells and isolated preparations, and it has been reconstituted in lipid membranes with defined composition. Jena’s work has opened a new field called nano cell biology.