Mayor studied chemistry at the and was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy in life sciences from The Rockefeller University, New New York He worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University, where he developed tools to study the trafficking of membrane lipids and GPI-anchored proteins in mammalian cells using quantitative fluorescence microscopy.
He serves as director of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore. He is also the director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) at Bangalore which has a focus on the study of stem cell and regenerative biology. Mayor started his laboratory at NCBS in 1995 after the completion of his post-doctoral research at Columbia University.
"The broad aim of Professor Mayor’s laboratory is to provide an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of endocytosis in metazoan cells, and study this phenomenon at many scales.
At the molecular scale his group wants to uncover the molecular players in endocytic processes. At the mesoscopic scale research in his laboratory attempts to provide a physical description of cell membrane structure and organization process and its material properties.
At the cellular scale the work is aimed at synthesizing a role for endocytosis in cellular signalling and cell surface homeostasis. At the scale of the tissue the group wishes to determine how control of endocytosis impinges on many developmental programs in tissue morphogenesis ()." Professor Mayor is the recipient of several national and international awards such as the Wellcome Trust International Senior Fellowship, Swarnajayanti Fellowship, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award and the JC Bose Fellowship.
Elected as Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences, 2015. Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Bombay, 2013 Elected European Molecular Biology Organization Fellow, 2013 Infosys Prize for Life Sciences, 2012 TWAS Prize in Biology, 2010 European Molecular Biology Organization Global Lecturer, 2010 JC Bose Fellowship, Department of Science and Technology, 2006-2011 (renewed till 2016). Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 2003. Swarnajayanti Fellowship, Department of Science and Technology, 2003-2008. Wellcome Trust International Senior Fellow (Biomedical, India), 1999-2004. Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience Award, 2001 Helen Hays Whitney Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1992-1995. The Rockefeller-Oxford Student Exchange Program Recipient, 1988. Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust Graduate Fellowship, 1986-1991. Visiting Students Program Recipient (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), 1984.
