Determining molecular targets of sertraline in fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans

Advisor: Prof. Matthew S. Sachs, Texas A & M University,College Station, USA  
Collaborator: Prof. Xiaorong Lin, University of Georgia, USA
Optimized antifungal assays for independent or synergistic drug conditions and determined minimal inhibitory concentrations for sertraline, fluconazole or in combination
Determined differential gene expression during drug treatments through qRT-PCR and ribosome profiling and RNA
Utilized Next Generation Sequencing technology or NGS and identified genes that play crucial role in elicitation of drug response in individual or combination therapy

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Determining genetic expression profile during sexual mating in Cryptococcus neoformans

Advisor: Prof. Matthew S. Sachs, Texas A & M University,College Station, USA
Collaborator: Prof. Joseph Heitman, Duke University, USA
Optimized sexual mating assays of a and α cells of different wild type and mutant strains of Cryptococcus
Developed strategies to harvest mating filamentous fungal mass and standardized molecular techniques for total
RNA extraction
Generated ribosome profiling and RNA sequencing libraries for mating samples (NGS)

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Determining the mechanism of action of novel therapeutics against human fungal pathogens using flow cytometry

Advisor: Prof. Matthew S. Sachs, Texas A & M University,College Station, USA
Collaborator: Paul de Figueiredo, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University, USAOptimized flow cytometric cell assays on Cryptococcus neoformans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae treated with drugs such as fluconazole or sertraline or both to study cell cycle defects

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Understanding the effect of inositol in the regulation of inl gene of Neurospora crassa

Advisor: Prof. Matthew S. Sachs, Texas A & M University,College Station, USA
Collaborator: Thomas Dever, National Institute of Health, USA
Identified the effect of inositol by differential gene expression through ribosome profiling and RNAsequencing (NGS)
Confirmed regulation in translation of inl gene product by upstream conserved consensus sequence (uCC) inresponse to inositol through in vivo luciferase reporter assays

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Studying nonsense-mediated mRNA decay(NMD) in Neurospora crassa

Advisor: Prof. Matthew S. Sachs,Texas A & M University,College Station, USA
Cloned constructs and transformed Neurospora crassa to study NMD
Studied the role of 3’UTR intron in the gene encoding translation termination factor involved in NMD
Determined mRNA abundance of known targets in NMD mutants and compared to wild type Tested pigmentation phenotypes of nuclear cap binding protein mutant strains in N. crassa Pursued in vitro reconstitution assays for NMD using Luciferase reporters in Neurospora cell free translation extracts.
Mentored a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students; negotiated quoted rate for lab reagents and consumables from commercial vendors; optimized lab made buffers and reaction master mixes to exercise precise control on experiments that cannot be achieved through proprietary market products

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Factors for healing of diabetic foot infection with special reference to treatment with honey

Advisor: Dr. Diptendra Kumar Sarkar, Associate Professor, Dept. of Surgery & Microbiology, IPGMER, India
Blood from untreated and topically treated pre-amputation diabetic patients were tested for anaerobic pathogenic bacteria
Pursued immunocytochemical analysis on blood samples

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Understanding the role of mitochondrial gene(s) in the dysfunction of hypertrophied heart

Advisor: Prof. Arun Bandopadhyay, Head, Molecular Endocrinology Department, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, India
Homogenized murine cardiac tissue sample and extracted total RNA in time course
Determined expression levels of the gene encoding Voltage-gated Anion Channel protein 1 in the mitochondrial membrane in response to hypertrophy induced by hormones in a murine model

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