Our Research

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 and machinery required for different steps in autophagy pathway

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 progression of colorectal and breast cancer.

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

Our lab also investigates the role of autophagy in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Autophagy utilizes different cellular membranes including ER, Golgi and endosomal membranes for the formation of double membrane autophagosomes, similar cellular membranes are utilized by SARS-CoV-2 replication transcriptional complex to form double membrane vesicles. We study the potential competition between autophagy and SARS-CoV-2 replication transcriptional complex for cellular membranes.

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.