Dr. Niti Puri
Cellular and Molecular Immunology lab.
School of Life Sciences,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067.
Work Phone: 91-11-26738742
Emails: purin@mail.jnu.ac.in ,
puriniti68@gmail.com
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RESEARCH AREA
RESEARCH AREA
Our group investigates the molecular mechanisms of effector responses of Mast Cells in infectious and non-infectious diseases-in search of novel therapeutic and vaccine targets. Mast cells are central effectors in hypersensitivity, immune defense to pathogens, inflammatory and immunoregulatory responses. We investigate the molecular mechanisms, and novel effector responses involving mast cells during infectious diseases like Leishmaniasis, Tuberculosis, Candidiasis and non-infectious inflammatory disease like an allergic response, anemia and cancer.
Our studies on molecular mechanisms of mast cell exocytosis during an allergen response have revealed the importance of t-SNARE SNAP-23, its dynamic membrane associations, post-translational modifications, and many conserved residues, in regulating the quantity, and kinetics of the mediator release. We are further exploring the role of SNARE machinery in regulating the kinetics of exocytosis, and it’s implications for neuronal and immune cell networks. We are also exploring ‘trained immunity’ in mast cells. Our studies are revealing a novel scavenger role for mast cells in anemia and important role of mast cell mediators in cancer microenvironment. Mast cells responded to pathogens by phagocytosis, mediator and reactive oxygen species (ROS) release, and generation of mast cell extracellular traps (MCETs). These studies therefore highlight the importance of mast cells in these infectious disease outcomes and vaccine or therapeutic strategy development.
Multifunctional nature of mast cells within diverse immunological paradigms elucidated within distinct biological contexts
AWARDS/ FELLOWSHIPS/ RECOGNITIONS
Awards/Fellowship/Recognition/Membership:
Indian patent (2018) Generation and characterization of hybridoma clones producing monoclonal antibodies against specific domains of human pregnane and xenobiotic receptor (PXR)
Fogarty Fellow (2000-2005) in National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Project Associate (1997-1999), DBT, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India
Research Associate (1995-96), DBT, JNU, New Delhi, India
Life Member of Indian Immunology Society
TEACHING
TEACHING
M.Sc. Courses:
LS431A Life Sciences Practical-II
LS493 Dissertation
Ph.D. Courses:
LS 636A Current Concepts in Immunology
LS 611A Research Methodology-II
LAB MEMBERS
LAB MEMBERS
CURRENT MEMBERS
Rahul Srivastava
Ph.D.Thesis: A proteomic approach to decipher the innate immune signals
from MAST Cells during infection and immunity to
LEISHMANIA
Kaviraj
Ph.D. (Pursuing)
Thesis: Exploring the mechanisms of modulation of mast cell effector responses due to previous allergen or pathogen challenge
Mohd. Suleman
Ph.D. (Pursuing)
Thesis: Exploring interactions of SNAP-23 with Rab proteins for regulation of Mast cells exocytosis during allergen challenge
Deeksha Mehtani
Ph.D.Thesis: Exploring the therapeutic potential of mast cells or their mediators for Cancer treatment by studying their interaction with cancer stem cells
Surbhi Badhwar
Ph.D. (Pursuing)
Thesis: Testing the potential of targeted gene deleted L. mexicana as live attenuated vaccine against Leishmaniasis
Poonam
Ph.D. (Pursuing)
Thesis: Identification of growth or virulence-related targets in intracellular pathogens- a study using mammalian cell lines and mouse models.
Simran Bajaj
Ph.D. (Pursuing)
LAB ALUMNI
DISSERTATION
Akanksha Sharma (2009)
Shipra Jain (2009)
G. A. Lakshmi Deepa (2009)
Savita (2009)
Dhiraj Kumar Singh (2011)
Govind Prasad Sah (2011)
Shelja Modi (2012)
Renu Sejwal (2012)
Durgesh Agase (2012)
Santosh Panthi (2012)
Neha Johar (2013)
Pratikshya Adhikary (2013)
INjila Ahmad (2014)
Tark Raj Bhatta (2014)
Gauri Thapa (2015)
Pooja Sawargiary (2015)
Rashmi Nair (2016)
Sayed Hadi Toughyan (2016)
Sumeena Karki (2017)
Ruchia Duggal (2019)
Racheeta (2019)
Farheen (2020)
Udita Ghosh (2021)
Bidisha Chakraborty (2021)
Ragini Bhalla (2022)
Anwesha Mandal (2023)
Mahak (2024)
Jharashree Das (2024 - Ongoing)
Training Students
Ruchia Duggal (2010)
Dhiraj Kumar Singh (2010)
Nibedita Nayak (2011)
Durgesh Agase (2011)
Keshav Saini (2012)
P. Vakhulaa (2012)
Ritu Raj Bhatth (2012)
Rani Kumari (2013)
K. Varsha Mohan (2016)
Priyanka Gupta (2022)
Swara Singh (2023)
Lavanya Saini (2023)
Anwesha Sahoo (2023)
Kshitij Rawat (2024)
Preeti (2024)
PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS
Puri, N. and Roche, P. A. (2008) Mast cells possess distinct secretory granule subsets whose exocytosis is regulated by different SNARE isoforms. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., U.S.A. 105(7): 2580-2585. Impact Factor: 9.2 Citations 266
Naskar P., and Puri N.* (2017) Phosphorylation of SNAP-23 regulates its dynamic membrane association during Mast Cell exocytosis. Biology Open 6(9):1257-69 doi: 10.1242/bio.025791 Impact Factor:2.432. Citations:25
Naqvi N., Ahuja K. , Selvapandiyan A., Dey R., Nakhasi H., and Puri, N.* (2017) Role of Mast Cells in clearance of Leishmania through extracellular trap formation. Scientific Reports 7: 13240 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-12753-1 Impact Factor:4.3. Citations:60
Sharma P., and Puri N.* (2018) A new role for mast cells as scavengers for clearance of erythrocytes damaged due to oxidative stress Immunology Letters 199: 23-35 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imlet.2018.04.002) Impact Factor:3.5. Citations:16
Khurana, G.K., Vishwakarma P., Puri N.*, and Lynn A.M.* (2018) Phylogenetic Analysis of the vesicular fusion SNARE machinery revealing its functional divergence across Eukaryotes Bioinformation 14(7),361-368, Impact Factor:1.9 Citations 8(* Co-corresponding authors)
Rizvi Z.A., Puri N.*, and Saxena R.K. (2018) Evidence of CD1d pathway of lipid antigen presentation in mouse primary lung epithelial cells and its up-regulation upon Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection. PLoS One. 2018 Dec 31;13(12):e0210116. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210116. eCollection 2018 Impact Factor:2.9 Citations 14 (*Corresponding author)
Varma R., and Puri N.* (2019) Dampening of mast cell secondary responses to allergen involves specific signalling and epigenetic changes, Cell Immunol. 2019 Oct;344:103944. doi: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2019.103944. Epub 2019 Jun 8, Impact Factor:4.3 Citations:5
Agarwal V., Naskar P., Agasti S., Khurana, G.K., Vishwakarma P., Lynn A.M., Roche P. A., and Puri N.* (2019) The Cysteine-rich Domain of Synaptosomal-associated Protein of 23 kDa (SNAP-23) regulates its Membrane Association and Regulated Exocytosis from Mast Cells, Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Res. 2019 Oct;1866(10):1618-1633. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2019.06.015. Epub 2019 Jun 29. Impact Factor: 4.9 Citations:12
Paudel . S., Mehtani. D. and Puri. N.* (2019) Mast cells differentially regulate growth of lymphoid neoplasms by opposite modulation of histamine receptors Frontiers in Oncology Front oncol. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2019.01280 . Impact Factor:4.7 Citations 7 (*Corresponding author)
Naqvi N., Srivastava R.. , Selvapandiyan A., and Puri, N.* (2020) Host Mast Cells in Leishmaniasis: Friend or Foe? Trends in Parasitology 36(12):952-956 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2020.09.010 , Impact Factor:7.0 Citations 13
Laboratory Videos/ Pictures/(selected )
Launch of a book edited by Dr. Niti Puri
Viva voce of Dr. Suchhandha Agasti
Posters presented by students at Jamia Hamdard University.
Students at IMMUNOCON 2023
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