NIBMG

Partha DasSupervisor: Kartiki V. Desai

Brief Description of Project

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers and the second most leading of cancer death in women. Breast cancer is hormone dependent tumor and estrogen is known to play a major role in the initiation and progression of this cancer. Endocrine therapy is the best therapy for breast cancer. But resistance to endocrine therapy is common. Previous studies account for only 40% of such mechanis
Read More
ms. The aim of my research is to discover newer mechanism using genomics and epigenomics tools to identify novel candidates to combat endocrine resistance.
Read less
Samadrita OjhaSupervisor: BHASWATI PANDIT

Brief Description of Project

Tuberculosis is a potentially serious infectious disease and still a major health problem worldwide. Pathogenesis of this disease is driven by a complex interaction between the host immune system and immune escaping strategies of the pathogen. Cytokines and chemokines produced by host immune cells play vital role in elimination of infection. Bio fluid level of one such chemokine, CXCL10,
Read More
is found to be elevated in active TB patients. The effect of elevated CXCL10 on immune cells is not well studied. My aim of research is to explore the role of CXCL10 in alteration of downstream signaling pathways involved in host defense mechanism in context of TB using high throughput genomic tools. I am also interested to understand the influence of the chemokine in the immunological processes with advent of M.tb infection. These approaches will help us in better understanding of potential regulatory role of CXCL10 for tuberculosis disease progression.
Read less
Seema BharatiyaSupervisor: Sreedhar Chinnaswamy

Brief Description of Project

Among the recently discovered Type–III interferon family, IFN-λ4 (IFNL4) is thenewest member. I am interested in characterizing the naturally occurring variants of IFNL4 gene for their effect on IFN-λ4’s function and their significance in different human diseases. IFNL4 gene transcription is known to generate several different splice variants. I am also interested to understand if any
Read More
of the genetic variants within the body of IFNL4 are important in generation of these splice variants.
Read less
Shamita SangaSupervisor: Moulinath Acharya

Brief Description of Project

Congenital muscular dystrophies (CMD) and congenital myopathies (CM) are a group of rare genetically and clinically heterogeneous degenerative primary muscle disorders with onset at birth or during infancy. Due to vast heterogeneity, clinical examination and protein-based analyses often fail to identify the genetic causes of these diseases making it challenging for the clinician to make an a
Read More
ccurate diagnosis. My research therefore focuses on investigating the genomic signatures causal to CMD and CM in Indian patients. I analyse whole exome sequence data using variant calling and stringent variant filtration process to identify pathogenic mutations and achieve a genetic diagnosis.
I'm also interested in functionally characterizing the candidate variants in an in vivo zebrafish model and do a mechanistic evaluation in primary muscle cells using the efficient CRISPR-Cas genome editing tools.
Read less
Shouvik ChakravartySupervisor: NIDHAN K. BISWAS

Brief Description of Project

Oral squamous cell carcinoma of the gingivo-buccal region (OSCC-GB) is a form of Head and Neck Squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Recent epidemiological studies reported – (i) India has one-third of all oral cancer cases in the world and (ii) oral cancer accounts for 30% of all cancers reported from India. Oral cancer is the topmost cancer among males in India and link
Read More
ed to tobacco chewing and smoking habits. Few driver genes were recently identified for late-stage OSCC-GB from genome-scale studies. Identification of early stage OSCC-GB biomarkers is of extreme importance, because it might potentially lead to precise understanding of the molecular mechanisms of tumor initiation, as well as the factors whose alteration might lead to progression of tumor. My research objective is to leverage state-of-the-art genomic technologies for understanding the profile of the genomic drivers of early stage OSCC-GB tumors. Deeper understanding of the molecular underpinnings of the alterations of these drivers will provide improved diagnosis, more precise risk prediction as well as better response to therapy.
Read less
Shrayashi BiswasSupervisor: SAMSIDDHI BHATTACHARJEE

Brief Description of Project

Genome wide association studies (GWAS) are used to discover association of genetic variants with various complex diseases and traits. However, testing markers across the genome in an unbiased manner leads to loss of power for such studies. My research project deals with increasing the power of such genome wide studies by incorporating information from other sources. Knowledge from pathways,
Read More
gene expression/eQTL studies and transcriptional regulation can be integrated with the information from GWAS to help in identifying variants that could be otherwise missed in an unbiased genome-wise search. My work emphasizes on building a pipeline for integrative statistical analysis of such multi-omics data. The pipeline will enable investigators to discover novel genetic variants and understand their mode of action, thus helping to elucidate the underlying genetic makeup of complex diseases.
Read less
Subhashis GhoshSupervisor: SANDEEP SINGH

Brief Description of Project

Human oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the eighth most common cancer worldwide; and, the most prevalent cancer among men and fourth most common among women in India. Owing to the highly heterogeneous nature of oral carcinoma at both cellular and molecular levels, it is important to investigate the functions of altered pathways with respect to distinct cancer cell-types present wit
Read More
hin the tumor as well as in its microenvironment. In the context of cell-cell interactions, NOTCH related signaling is intriguing because of its juxtacrine mode of action. Therefore, I am interested in studying the functional consequences of altered NOTCH related genes and its regulation within oral tumors. My focus is to examine the mechanisms of reciprocal interactions between diverse cell-types and its significance in oral cancer initiation and progression.
Read less
Sumitava RoySupervisor: ARINDAM MAITRA

Brief Description of Project

Intratumor heterogeneity is among the greatest challenges in treatment of cancer. In spite of disruptive advances in sequencing technologies achieved over the last decade, high resolution comprehension of such heterogeneity has been beyond our reach until recently. Developments in high-throughput Single Cell RNA-Seq (SC-RNASEQ) may now enable us to dissect the diverse cellular populations of
Read More
tumors. In the future these technologies might inform the selection of targeted combination therapies and enrollment criteria for clinical trials. I am working on single cell RNA-Seq approaches to investigate the role of intratumour heterogeneity in tumour recurrence in Oral squamous cell carcinoma gingivo-buccal (OSCC-GB). My objective is to excavate the landscape of intratumor heterogeneity at single cell resolution and identify important clues on how cell type diversity relates to cancer recurrence.
Read less
Vijay Laxmi RoySupervisor: PARTHA PRATIM MAJUMDER

Brief Description of Project

An individual is provided medication, whether vaccine or drug, without taking into account the genomic background of the individual; i.e., a one-size-fits-all approach is used. However, it is known that genetic differences strongly account for inter-individual variability in treatment response, leading to huge wastage of funds and resources. This economic burden can be drastically minimize
Read More
d by genomic technologies. Very little is known in India about drug-response in relation to the genomic background of medication-recipient. The investigation of genetic backgrounds of recipients of medication can unfold key mechanisms associated with medication efficacy, which could be harnessed to design better medications for overcoming failure and poor response of current therapies.

Aim of the current study is to identify the genomic correlates of medication response to design a well represented panel of pharmacogenetic markers which will enable screening of individuals. These will help clinicians in selection of appropriate drug and genotype-specific dose. With plummeting cost of DNA sequencing technologies, genetic testing using such a panel will augment clinical decision making to meet personalized needs of each patient providing quality health care, while preventing adverse events and improve many lives.
Read less