Institute of Molecular Medicine,
254 , Okhla Industrial Estate,
Phase III
New Delhi 110020, India
Phone: Off: 41028710
Fax: 011-41028709
E-mail: binuja@tcgaresearch.org
Ph.D. School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2003).
M.Sc. Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Kerala (1995).
2008-Present, Research Scientist; Institute of Molecular Medicine, New Delhi
2006-2008, Research Associate, Institute of Molecular Medicine, New Delhi
2002 -2004, Post Doctoral Fellow, National Institute of Immunology
Gestational Hypertension: Genetics of Preeclampsia
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-specific disorder, characterized by hypertension and proteinuria and/or peripheral edema after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It is a major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide affecting about 3-5% of all women. We are studying the feto- maternal polymorphisms of genes of renin-angiotensin pathway in Preeclampsia using genotyping platform technologies. This would be extended to other vital pathways involved in the disease condition. In addition we are exploring the usage of placental gene expression profiling to study the pathophysiology of Preeclampsia, in developing gene signatures for disease diagnosis and prognosis.
Mitochondrial genome variations with relevance to biomarker application
Our lab has developed a database of heteroplasmic variations of mtDNA for forensic application. This research has been extended to study the Mt genome for identification of tissue specific variations and validating its significance in disease genomics.
Predictive markers for therapy response in cancer
Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which participates in signaling pathways that are deregulated in cancer cells, is a promising target in epithelial cancer, notably colorectal cancer. Cetuximab and Panitumumab, monoclonal antibodies targeting EGFR, are currently used in EGFR expressing metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy. However, clinical benefit with EGFR-targeting antibodies seems to be restricted to a particular subgroup of mCRC patients and no validated predictive factor is currently available to improve the rational administration of these therapies in this patient population.
Our lab is involved in studying the EGF pathway to derive upon a set of genes using target that can be used as predictive markers to monitor drug efficacy of Cetuximab treatment when used as first-line treatment. Our work will aim in arriving on strategies to increase median progression free survival and overall survival of patients with mCRC.
Our lab is also working on therapeutics in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Imatinib mesylate has revolutionized the treatment of CML. It is the first disease to be treated by a small molecule targeted drug. Imatinib has succeeded in increasing the duration of the chronic disease and a majority of the patients remain in the chronic phase. In the Indian scenario, poor screening modality in the country is prevalent and Indian patients present much later in the disease. Due to possible late presentation, there is a possibility of adverse BCR-ABL mutations at diagnosis that might contribute to the poor cytogenetic response. While this might be true, currently there are no studies in Indian patients that BCR-ABL mutations present prior to starting imatinib are responsible for resistance to imatinib, especially in newly diagnosed chronic phase CML. We hypothesize that Indian Imatinib-naïve patients have baseline BCR-ABL mutations which will affect treatment response.
Our lab is using advance platform technologies to validate the baseline BCR-ABL mutations that are present in Indian patients with chronic phase CML using sequencing, qPCR and MassArray technology.
Gupta, Meenal., P. Bhatnagar., S. Grover., H. Kaur., R. Baghel, Y Bhasin., C. Chauhan, B. Varma, V. Manduva., O. Mukherjee, M. Purushottam., A. Sharma., S. Jain., S. K. BrahmacharI and R. Kukreti. Association studies of Catechol-o-methyl transferase (COMT) gene with Schizophrenia and Response to Antipsychotic Treatment. Pharmacogenomics, 2009 Mar; 10 (3): 385-97
Majumder, Partha., P. P. Majumder., N. S. Roy., B. Varma., T. Ghosh., K. Narayanasamy., C. Whisnant., J. Stephenson and D. Wagener. Genomics of Immune-Response to a Typhoid Vaccine: A Study of 282 Genes, Using an Internal Cross-Validation Design, Identifies 16 SNPs in 7 Genes. Submitted to ASHJ 2009
Verma, B., S. Bhaskaran., A. Sunega and N. Vaid. Feto-maternal polymorphisms in genes of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and angiogenesis pathway in preeclampsia and eclampsia”; XVI World Congress for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy (ISSHP-2008), at Washington, DC, USA 2008.
Genetic polymorphisms of RAS genes in Preeclampsia: A pilot study in Indian sample set, oral presentation at 4th International Conference on Birth Defects and Disabilities in the developing world. Oct 2009
Sharma, S., B. Varma and K. Narayanasamy. Allele frequency determination in pooled DNA samples at MALDI-TOF. Biotechniques 2009
|
