CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute
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CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute
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| Qualification | |
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| Area of interests | |
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| Professional Experience |
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Faculty Member (Hon), Anna University
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Ramanujan Fellow, CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, “Investigation of Chromium(III)-DNA adducts in DNA Replication/Repair Machinery: Role of Ligand Structure in Chromium (III) Toxicity” - April 2012 to current |
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Visiting Professor, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Rhode Island, USA - Sep 13 to Nov 13 |
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Project entitled: “Understanding the Sequence context of aminofluorene-adducted DNA at the Replication Fork By Biochemical and Biophysical Approaches” - Sep 08 to Apr 12 |
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Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota, Worked on the project entitled: “Development of Chemical Strategies to Probe Carcinogenesis Mechanisms” - Sep 05 to Aug 08 |
| Research Interest |
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(i) A High Throughput Screening Kit for COVID-19 The ongoing outbreak of the pandemic disease COVID-19 poses serious challenges to the public as it spreads throughout the world. So far, more than 4.5 million people affected and 300000 fatalities are reported till date. The screening kit to diagnose COVID-19 currently available is based on PCR and consumes much longer time. Further, the diagnosis is required at different stages and multiple times to know whether the patient is infected/recovered from the virus and incurs high cost. To overcome these issues, here we propose screening kit based on DNA aptamer that can bind specifically to RBD of spike protein present in SARS-Cov-2 virus. The rationale to target the RBD region of spike protein is that in comparison to other acute respiratory diseases such as SARS and MERS, the sequencing data shows that RBD in COVID-19 differentiates between the coronavirus genome and has a high binding affinity to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE-2).
(ii) DNA Aptamer Conjugated Nanoprobes for REACH Chemicals Recognition The stringent regulations by European Union and other monitoring agencies on application of chemicals in leather and textile industries keep increasing constantly. This leads to increasing labour intense procedures that require strict compliance to the regulations for analysing the unwanted or toxic chemicals. High cost instruments such as GC-MS, ICP-MS and UPLC-MS etc are currently employed for analysis. Moreover, rigorous attention is required for development of protocol for each chemical analysis. This leads to increasing costs on manpower, maintenance and chemical reagents. Overall, the chemical analysis not only becomes more tedious but also an expensive endeavour. To overcome these issues, a greener and simplistic solution needs to be developed. In this regard, DNA aptamers will be a viable alternative for the above-mentioned methods. DNA aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotides that bind specifically with target molecule with high affinity. Aptamers for specific targets are identifiable using Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential enrichment (SELEX) methodology. These aptamers are stable compared to RNA aptamers and most widely used in the biological processes. However, studies on small molecules such as REACH chemicals or any other molecules with less than 1000 Da molecular weight are still in primitive stage. Here, our goal is to screen DNA aptamers and conjugate with nanoparticles and study its optimal sensitivity for various banned REACH chemicals. (iii) Development of transition metal complexes as probes for detecting different DNA adducts Transition metal complexes have been extensively studied as probes for DNA structures, photodynamic therapy and anticancer agents. However, only few studies have been reported on transition metal complexes as probes for the damaged site viz., abasic sites. The classical hypothesis of the DNA-adduct chemistry is that each DNA adduct adopts different conformations and each adduct conformation leads to multiple different mutations. The majority of toxicology research has been focused on determining the DNA adduct conformation using NMR as a key tool. Proposed models of binding of L -[Ru(phen) 2(dppz)] 2+ to AAF-dG adduct. (a) stacked and (b) major groove The disadvantage of this method is (i) it requires large quantity of samples, (ii) time consuming and (iii) complexity in structural analysis. To overcome these drawbacks, we are interested in developing transition metal complexes as a tool to identify the conformations of the DNA adduct in a sequence dependent context.
(iv) Understanding the role of Cr(III) adducts in replication and repair machinery at molecular level Chromium has been extensively used in dyes, chrome plating and leather industries. Chromium in +3 oxidation state is susceptible to form different DNA adducts including DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs), DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) as well as with DNA phosphates. Though various reports have shown that DPCs exhibit different mutagenicity, the detailed mechanistic pathway is not yet ascertain. Our hypothesis is that the nature of adducts influence DNA replication fork progression and repair pathway in a sequence dependent manner. We use both biophysical as well as biochemical techniques to understand the mechanistic pathway. |
| Professional Affiliations |
| Member of American Chemical Society (ACS) / Division of Chemical Toxicology |
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Life Member of Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) |
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Lifetime Member of Indian Society of Nanomedicine (ISNM) |
| Research Grant |
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As Principal Investigator (Total Grants Received: Rs. 14.6 millions)
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Project Title:
Paper-Based Plasmonic Aptamer Linked Immobilized Sorbent Assay (pALISA) for Screening COVID-19 Disease
Funded by: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Project Cost:
Rs. 1.2 million
Duration: July 2020-Dec 2020
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Project Title:
A High Throughput Screening Kit for COVID-19
Funded by: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Project Cost: Rs. 2.5 million Duration: May 2020-April 2021 3. Project Title: DNA aptamers based nanoprobes for REACH chemicals recognition Funded by: DST Nanomission Project Cost: Rs. 3.4 million Duration: Jan 2020-Dec 2022
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Project Title: Metal Complexes based Probes for Arylamine modified biomolecules
Funded by:
Science and Engineering Research Board(SERB)
Project Cost:
Rs. 2.3 million
Duration:
June 2017-May 2020
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Project Title: Investigation of Chromium(III)-DNA adducts in DNA Replication/Repair Machinery: Role of Ligand Structure in Chromium (III) Toxicity
Funded by: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Project Cost: Rs. 5.2 million
Duration:
April 2012-Mar 2017
As Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) 1. Project Title: First Principle Design and Development of Multifunctional and van der Waals and Non-van der Waals solids
2. Project Title: Designing an Admittance based experimental tool to evaluate mechanical properties and stability of supported lipid bilayers , liposomes, biological cell membranes
3. Project Title: Understanding collagen- functionalized metal/metal oxide nanostructure interactions for tuning tissue engineering applications
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| Book Chapter |
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Recent Advances in Gene Expression and Regulation
Title: Chromium (III): Bio-significant or Bio-toxic? Authored by: Yamini Asthana, V.G. Vaidyanathan and B.U. Nair Published by: Nova Publishers ( 2013 ) |
| Patent Filed |
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TITLE : Platinum(II) complex as Cell Staining Agent
INVENTORS :
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Complete List of Publications |
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