Educational

Education:

M.Phil. dissertation :" Application of Nucleic Acid Hybridization to the diagnosis of Tuberculosis"

This work is an extension of the previous work published by Bhattacharya et al. In Ind. J. Med Res., 87, pp 144-150. My work confirmed the previous results and showed that the whole genomic DNA hybridization technique could be used to differentiate typical from atypical mycobacteria. Additionally, I extended the non-isotopic method for applications in Clinical Centres.

Ph.D. Thesis: " Organization and structure of ribosomal ribonucleic acid genes in Entamoebae histolytica. "

This work represents sequencing, rRNA gene mapping using homology approach, Secondary structure models and phylogenetic analysis. The structural models - aside from providing basic information on rRNAs - will serve as a basis for identifying reagents (drugs) that might interfere with ribosomal function in Entamoebae and to generate probes for diagnostic applications.

Post-Doctoral Fellowship: I spent a few years at The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. I joined a laboratory to work on a intestinal nematode parasite of humans called Strongyloides stercoralis. I developed markers for differentiating these group of parasites using rDNA internal transcribed spacers analysis, prepared cDNA library from the L3 infective stage and identified several clones for sero-diagnosis. The recombinant proteins were produced by the His-tagged fusion and developed for ELISA. Further, a few recombinant antigens were identified with potential to develop recombinant skin test antigens. During this time I also extended my Bioinformatics experience by analyzing newly sequenced microbial genomes and helped in improved annotation.

The Genomics Programme: After my brief post-doctoral period I returned to India to join the then Centre for Biochemical Technology now re-christened Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology to join the genomics programme. It was a new and exciting venture. I assisted in the upgradation of computational facilities. I also set up the Microarray facility with assistance from the Director. The computational facilities have now grown to become recognized as a ‘World Class’ Center. The center is now called as G.N. Ramachandran Knowledge Centre for Genome Informatics in honour of the famous Prof. G.N. Ramachandran who pioneered Computational Biophysical work on protein structure more than 4 decades ago. The Microarray facility has become country wide recognized and researchers from various parts including the Indian Institute of Science have used the facility for their research. We have developed several microarrays that are classified as Theme Chips, which have been used by various users in their research investigations. The achievements of both these arms of genomics involving me directly are listed below under various headings.