Journal of Cell Science and Apoptosis
Open Access

Biography

Experienced in mouse bone marrow macrophages extraction, polarization, tissue digestion to separate immune cells. • Experienced in design, synthesis and bioanalytical characterization of small peptide/peptidomimetic molecules for protein-protein interactions inhibition between co-stimulatory molecules for immunomodulation which have significance in autoimmune diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis. Worked on grafting active peptide sequence onto multicyclic stable peptide (Cyclotide) frameworks. • Expertise in cell culture and several in-vitro cells-based model assays which includes human T lymphocytes, synoviocyte cells from rheumatoid arthritis patient (HFLS-RA), and several cancer cell lines. • Worked on the study of molecular mechanism of immunomodulation by evaluating T-cell signaling by western blot analysis. • Expertise in bioanalytical methods including, Flow Cytometry, RTPCR, Confocal microscopy, HPLC, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), Circular Dichroism, and Mass Spectrometry. • Experienced in the evaluation of protein-protein interaction by Proximity Ligation assay (PLA), Cell adhesion assay and E-rosette assay. • Worked with collaborators on transgenic animal models (ex-vivo) to study the T-cell proliferation and immunogenicity of small peptide molecules in case of Rheumatoid arthritis. • Developed Thermal, Chemical and Human serum stability methods for the peptide/peptidomimetic and peptide-drug conjugate molecules. • Worked on S2 insect cell transfection and protein purification using ultrafiltration, ion exchange chromatography, dialysis of proteins and detection of proteins by HPLC/FPLC analysis. • Expertise in computational methods for docking and dynamics for small ligand molecules (Autodock tools 4.1 and Discovery Studio 4.0). • Experienced in basic statistical data analysis by SAS software.

Research Interest

2017 – Present: Cancer Research Training Award Postdoctoral Fellow at National Cancer Institute (NCI): Peptide based Cancer Immunotherapy involving M2- Tumor Associated Macrophages (TAM) for pancreatic cancer. 2013 – 2016: Research/Teaching Assistant at University of Louisiana at Monroe, LA (Ph.D.): Designing of peptidomimetics to modulate autoimmune response by inhibiting costimulatory molecules protein-protein interaction (CD2-CD58) in the progression of Rheumatoid Arthritis. I worked on grafting of cyclotide framework based peptide drugs, which were found to be more stable than normal peptides. It includes design, synthesis, in-vitro cellular assays, stability testing and in-vivo studies. 2015 - Summer Research Internship program 2015 Louisiana State University (LSU) at Baton Rouge LA. (Internship): Design and synthesis of fluorescent conjugates of grafted peptides to study the molecular mechanism behind their immunomodulation property in case of autoimmune diseases