Our research is focused on understanding the mechanism of autophagy in the mammalian system. Studies include understanding the membrane dynamics during biogenesis of autophagosomes and investigation of consequent steps in autophagy. Several cellular membranes have been shown to participate in biogenesis of autophagosomes, however, it is unclear whether all these membranes are involved during a single stimulus or different membranes respond to different stress/stimulus. Moreover, the machinery required for each step of autophagy pathway in mammalian system is still not well defined. Our lab is investigating:

i) Cellular membranes involved in autophagosomes biogenesis during different stress conditions. 

ii) Mechanism of autophagosomes biogenesis in selective autophagy

Autophagy has a role in a vast variety of human pathophysiological conditions including cancer. Inhibition of autophagy and lysosomal systems is being tested in clinical trials against several types of cancer, however, the molecular mechanism of the role of autophagy in cancer is poorly understood. Our lab works on delineating the mechanism by which autophagy regulates cancer progression. We study involvement of different stages of autophagy pathways in cancer. We also study the mechanism underlying the role of autophagy mediated resistance to the chemotherapies against colorectal and breast cancer. The major research goals include:

i) Understanding the role of autophagy in lysosomal pathways in cancer progression.

ii) Delineate the molecular mechanism underlying the role of autophagy-lysosomal pathway in resistance to therapies. 

The lab utilizes multiple microscopy based techniques including super-resolution microscopy, electron microscopy and confocal microscopy to study the membrane dynamics in autophagy. We use unbiased proteomics studies, RNASeq and metabolomics approaches to study the role of autophagy in cancer. We work with  cancer cell lines, mouse models and develop organoids from  biopsies from cancer patients.