Faculty Members

Research

MOLECULAR GASTROENTEROLOGY LABORATORY

Complex diseases are caused by interaction of multiple genes and environmental factors. We know that complex diseases do not follow the standard Mendelian patterns of inheritance. Although we inherit genes associated with these diseases, genetic factors are responsible only for partial risk associated with complex disease phenotypes. Epigenetic factors are also known to play important role along with environmental and life-style factors and it is very important to understand their relative contribution in modulating the overall pathophysiology of the disease.

Broadly, the interest of our laboratory is to identify genes, loci and epigenetic changes that confer susceptibility to some complex disorders, to elucidate how they influence the pathogenesis, and to translate this information into improved patient care both in terms of better diagnosis of the disease and better treatment options.

Currently, we are focusing on several gastrointestinal diseases.

Pancreatic Diseases:

Chronic Pancreatitis (CP) is a disease of the pancreas where progressive inflammation of the organ ultimately leads to the destruction of both exocrine and endocrine part of pancreas resulting in high morbidity and mortality. The disease also increases the susceptibility of the patients to develop pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) representing a classic model of progression of chronic inflammation to malignancy. Notably, PDAC is one of the most aggressive cancers lacking early diagnostic biomarkers. We aim to:

(a)  Elucidate genetic changes which could explain the development of CP and also finding out the mechanism of alcohol mediated injury of pancreas during the progression of alcoholic chronic pancreatitis (ACP).

(b)  Pursue comprehensive analysis and integration of transcriptome, methylome and proteome data and functional characterization of key leads to have a mechanistic idea of development of PDAC from chronic inflammatory disease of the pancreas and also to understand the metastasis of the disease to distant organs.

(c)  Focus on the role of noncoding RNAs (miRNA, piRNA, long noncoding RNA, circular RNA) in these processes with special emphasis to explore their role as non-invasive diagnostic or prognostic biomarker.

(d)  Exploring the involvement of RNA modifications- Readers/ Erasers in development and progression of pancreatic cancer.

The following figure, adopted from Chhatriya et al., PINSA., Vol 84 No 2 (2018):501-511; summarizes the core area of our research interest

Colorectal cancer:

Another area of interest is early onset aggressive subtype of colorectal cancer (Young Onset Sporadic Colorectal Cancer) in Indian population as described by Raman R et al. (Mol Carcinog. 2014 Feb; 53(0 1): E181–E186). We plan to investigate the genetic and epigenetic underpinnings of the disease and aim to relate them to the actual mechanism. Role of long noncoding RNAs mediating the disease development and comparison of total transcriptome & proteome will also be explored.

In addition to these, a part of my Laboratory is also investigating the molecular changes leading to the development of Colon cancer from Ulcerative Colitis.

CV

Education

Professional Appointments

Assistant Researcher, Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA (2007-2011)

Professional Memberships

The RNA Society, USA

Indian Society for Human Genetics (ISHG)

Society for Biological Chemists, India (SBC-India)

Indian Society for Gastroenterology (ISG)

Indian Association for Cancer Research (IACR)

Calcutta Consortium for Human Genetics (CCHuGE)

Past Major Projects

• Investigation of circulating small RNAs in patients with benign and malignant pancreatic diseases.
• Transcriptome analysis of benign and malignant pancreatic head-mass to identify potential biomarkers for detection of disease.
• Exploring the genetic susceptibility of individuals from Nort-East India for chronic pancreatitis.
• Analysis of circulating microRNAs in alcoholic chronic pancreatitis patients to assess their potential to predict alcohol mediated pancreatic tissue injury.

Publications

• Correlating tissue and plasma‑specific piRNA changes to predict their possible role in pancreatic malignancy and chronic inflammation; Barsha Saha, Shouvik Chakravarty, Sukanta Ray, Hemabha Saha, Kshaunish Das, Indranil Ghosh, Bibekanand Mallick, Nidhan K. Biswas, Srikanta Goswami; Biomedical Reports; 
  2024 Oct 7;21(6):186.
   doi: 10.3892/br.2024.1874. eCollection 2024 Dec, PMID: 39420923.
  
• Differential expression of miRNAs between Young-Onset and Late-Onset Indian colorectal carcinoma patients; Sumaiya Moiz, Varsha Mondal, Debarati Bishnu, Biswajit Das, Bodhisattva Bose, Soumen Das, Nirmalya Banerjee, Amitava Dutta, Krishti Chatterjee, SRIKANTA GOSWAMI, Soma Mukhopadhyay, Sudarshana Basu; bioRxiv; 2023.07.19.549649;doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.19.549649.
• Comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of tissue and serum samples of patients with benign and malignant pancreatic head mass to find out potential biomarker; Srikanta Goswami, Bishnupriya Chhatriya, Moumita Mukherjee, Sukanta Ray, Kshaunish Das, Samsiddhi Bhattacharjee, Saroj Kant Mohapatra; Pancreatology; Volume 23, Issue 8, December 2023, Page e1; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pan.2023.09.003.
  
• Investigating the interference of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms with miRNA mediated gene regulation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: an in silico approach; Moumita Mukherjee; Satyajit Ghosh; SRIKANTA GOSWAMI; Gene; 2022 Feb 1;819:146259. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146259. PMID: 35121024.
• Identification of key deregulated RNA Binding Proteins in pancreatic cancer by meta-analysis and prediction of their role as modulators of oncogenesis; Moumita Mukherjee and Srikanta Goswami;  Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 9:713852. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.713852. PMID: 34912796.
• Bioinformatic analysis and integration of transcriptome and proteome results identify key coding and noncoding genes predicting malignancy in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of pancreas; Barsha Saha, Bishnupriya Chhatriya, Swapnila Pramanick and Srikanta Goswami;  BioMed Research International; Vol. 2021, Article ID 1056622, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/1056622; PMID: 34790815; PMCID: PMC8592698
• Circadian rhythm genes in cancer: insight into their functions and regulation involving noncoding RNAs; Ray I, Goswami S; Chronobiol Int. 2021 May 24:1-13; doi: 10.1080/07420528.2021.1928157; PMID: 34024245
• Noncoding RNAs as key modulators of autophagy in pancreatic cancer; Mukherjee M, Pramanick S, Saha B, Chhatriya B, Goswami S; Oncol Rep. 2021 Jul;46(1):128. doi: 10.3892/or.2021.8079. Epub 2021 May 20; PMID: 34013371
• Transcriptome analysis identifies putative multi-gene signature distinguishing benign and malignant pancreatic head mass; Bishnupriya Chhatriya, Moumita Mukherjee, Sukanta Ray, Barsha Saha, Somdatta Lahiri, Sandip Halder, Indranil Ghosh, Sujan Khamrui, Kshaunish Das, Samsiddhi Bhattacharjee, Saroj Kant Mohapatra and Srikanta Goswami; J Transl Med. 2020 Nov 7;18(1):420. doi: 10.1186/s12967-020-02597-1; PMID: 33160365
• Pilot study identifying circulating miRNA signature specific to alcoholic chronic pancreatitis and its implication on alcohol mediated pancreatic tissue injury; Bishnupriya Chhatriya, Piyali Sarkar, Debashis Nath, Sukanta Ray, Kshaunish Das, Saroj Kant Mohapatra and Srikanta Goswami. JGH OPEN., (July 15, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1002/jgh3.12389) PMID: 33319040.
• Global cataloguing of variations in untranslated regions of viral genome and prediction of key host RNA binding protein-microRNA interactions modulating genome stability in SARS-CoV-2; Moumita Mukherjee and Srikanta Goswami; PLOS ONE; August 11, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237559; PMID: 32780783
• Single nucleotide polymorphisms in PRSS1 and CASR genes are associated with chronic pancreatitis in North-Eastern region of India; Chhatriya B, Paine SK, Das S, Chatterjee A, Nath D, Mukherjee A, Basu A and Goswami S;  J Gastrointestin Liver Dis., 2020 Jun 4;29(2):267-268. doi: 10.15403/jgld-788.; PMID: 32530995.
• Comparison of tumour and serum specific microRNA changes dissecting their role in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a meta-analysis; Chhatriya B, Mukherjee M, Ray S, Sarkar P, Chatterjee S, Nath D, Das K, Goswami S;  BMC Cancer., 2019 Dec 3;19(1):1175. doi: 10.1186/s12885-019-6380-z.
• Role of Non-coding RNAs in Chronic Pancreatitis; Bishnupriya Chhatriya, Piyali Sarkar and Srikanta Goswami. Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy., Vol 84 No 2 (2018):501-511.
• microRNA-340-mediated degradation of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) mRNA is inhibited by Coding Region Determinant Binding Protein (CRD-BP); Goswami S, Tarapore RS, TeSlaa JJ, Grinblat Y, Setaluri V & Spiegelman VS.            J Biol. Chem.  2015 Jan 2; 290(1):384-95
• Preclinical and clinical impact of the GLI2 transcription factor in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); Ticiana A.B. Leal, Vladimir S. Spiegelman, Srikanta Goswami, Kurt R. Oettel, Tracey L. Weigel, Wei Huang, Sangbum Choi, KyungMann Kim, Martha M. Larson, Tien Hoang, Toby Christopher Campbell, Anne M. Traynor . Abstract Number: e18537 /  J Clin Oncol 31, 2013 (suppl; abstr e18537) [2013, Annual Meeting of “American Society of Clinical Oncology”]  (https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/jco.2013.31.15_suppl.e18537)
• Wnt signaling stimulates transcriptional outcome of the Hedgehog pathway by stabilizing Gli1 mRNA; Noubissi F, Goswami S, Sanek NA, Minamoto T, Moser A, Grinblat Y and Spiegelman VS. Cancer Research., 2009, 69: 8572-8578. (November 15, 2009).
• CRD-BP protects the coding region of beta-TrCP1 mRNA from miR-183-mediated degradation; Elcheva I, Goswami S, Noubissi F and Spiegelman VS           Molecular Cell ,  31July, 2009, 35(2):240-6.
• An RNA-binding respiratory component mediates import of type II tRNAs into Leishmania mitochondria; Chatterjee S, Home P, Mukherjee S, Mahata B, Goswami S, Dhar G and Adhya S. J. Biol. Chem., 2006 Aug;281(35):25270-7.
• The alpha subunit of Leishmania F1 ATP synthase hydrolyzes ATP in presence of tRNA;  Goswami S, and Adhya S.  J Biol. Chem.*,      2006 Jul 14;281(28):18914-7. Epub 2006 May 30.        *Accelerated Publication
• A bi-functional tRNA import receptor from Leishmania mitochondria; Goswami S, Dhar G, Mukherjee S, Mahata B, Chatterjee S, Home P and Adhya S.     Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA   2006, 103(22):8354-8359 Epub 2006 May 19.
• Mitochondrial differentiation in kinetoplastid protozoa: a plethora of RNA controls, Samit Adhya, Sudarshana Basu, SuvendraNath Bhattacharyya, Saibal Chatterjee, Gunjan Dhar, Srikanta Goswami, Sanjay Ghosh, Pratik Home, Bidesh Mahata, Gayatri Tripathi.      Differentiation   2003, 71:549-556.
• Allosteric regulation of tRNA import : interactions between tRNA domains at the inner membrane of Leishmania mitochondria; Goswami S*, Chatterjee S*, Bhattacharya SN, Basu S and Adhya S.  Nucleic Acids Research. 2003; 31(19)5552-5559.   * Joint first author.
• ‘Ping-Pong’ interactions between mitochondrial tRNA import receptors within a multiprotein complex; Bhattacharya SN, Chatterjee S, Goswami S,  Tripathy G,  Dey S and Adhya S.       Mol. Cell. Biol.   2003;23:5217-24
• Role of superoxide dismutase in survival of Leishmania within the macrophage; Sanjay Ghosh, Srikanta Goswami and Samit Adhya.     Biochemical Journal * . 2003, 369: 447-452.            * Accelerated Publication

Lab members

PhD Students

Barsha Saha

Moumita Mukherjee

Indrani Ray

Rupayan Mukherjee

Preeti Mandal

Project Fellow

Swati Ghosh

Sushmita Ghosal

 
Integrated MS-PhD Student

Mourya Mondal

Lab Allumni

Bishnupriya Chhatriya (PhD Student)               Mousumi Biswas (Project Fellow)

Sutapa Ghosh (Project Fellow)                           Swapnila Pramanik (Project Fellow)

Piyali Sarkar (Project Fellow)                              Pujayita Devgupta (Project Fellow)

Sanchita Das (Project Fellow)                             Sandip Das (Project Fellow)

Suman K Paine (Postdoctoral fellow)

Molecular Gastroenterology Laboratory