Dipankar Nandi was awarded the BSc degree from the University of Bombay in 1983 and the MSc degree from the M. S. University of Baroda in 1985. His doctoral study was on tissue associated T cells and he was awarded the PhD degree in 1991 from the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD mentor was Prof. James Allison. Subsequently, Dipankar continued his postdoctoral research with Prof. John Monaco at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio on the characterization and assembly of proteasomes.

His diverse training led him to investigate two broad areas as an independent faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore since 1997: host immune responses and microbial responses to stress, including antibiotics, and infection. Uncovering biologically relevant observations, fostering research learning and teaching motivated students in an amiable environment are the goals of his laboratory.