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Having completed my MD degree from India, I wanted to work in the biomedical
research field and try to solve the clinical diseases from both the
perspectives, as a CLINICIAN and a RESEARCHER. I joined the Molecular &
Cellular Pathology graduate program in Fall 2004. |
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Hometown:
Chennai,
INDIA
Undergraduate/Masters Institution:
Government
Kilpauk Medical College
General Research
Interests:
Gene Therapy, Transcriptional and Translational Controls
of Gene Expression.
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| I'm currently working under Dr. David
T. Curiel in the Human Gene Therapy Center. I am working on 3 different
projects. The first project is a basic virology project of modifying Adenoviral
vectors to make them more reliable vector for transferring therapeutic genes.
I'm constructing a mosaic adenovirus with 3 different fibers, targeting 3
different receptors. The second one is also a vector-related project.
Adenoviruses cannot cross the epithelial/endothelial barriers when injected. So,
they cannot be used to deliver therapeutic genes across these barriers. Various
approaches are being tried to overcome this limitation. Our lab has shown the
exploitation of naturally occurring receptor mediated transcytosis pathway to
overcome this barrier. I'm working on retargeting the adenovirus to a neonatal
IgG receptor mediated pathway and transcytosing it across the endothelial
barrier. The third project is more of a clinical one. I'm trying to modulate the
SDF-1/CXCR4 biological axis using RNAi technique, specifically in the pulmonary
vasculature in the context of breast cancer metastasis. SDF-1/CXCR4 axis has
been implicated in the organ specific metastatic pattern of breast cancer cells
to lung and bone. By modulating this axis in the lung, we propose that the
metastatic burden of the lung in breast cancer patients would be decreased and
has a potential for translation into a clinical setting. |
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