Reviews in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Biography

My long-term research interests involve the development of a comprehensive understanding of macrophage-specific microRNAs and their involvement in regulating inflammation and metabolic alterations in diabetes-associated atherosclerosis. My academic training and research experience have provided me with an excellent background in immunology, molecular biology, cardiovascular biology and immunometabolic diseases such as diabetes and cancer. As a predoctoral student with Dr. Rajesh Katare, I was trained in studying the pathological role of cardiovascular microRNAs in diabetic heart disease. I published five first authored articles in major journals and 3 co-authored publications in collaborative projects. During my graduate career, I received several travel awards, which gave me an opportunity to expand my existing knowledge and helped me to develop a multidisciplinary approach toward my projects. During my first postdoctoral fellowship, I had the exciting opportunity to work under Dr. Edward Fisher, pioneer in the field of atherosclerosis regression and liver lipoproteins research. I worked specifically on immune cell trafficking in atherosclerosis progression and regression and was focused on targeting critical factors in macrophages and neutrophils that impair atherosclerosis resolution. Under the mentorship of Dr. Fisher, I also gained expertise in several mouse models to study immune cells trafficking, as well as crosstalk between macrophages and other cell types such as Tregs in atherosclerotic plaques. We are in the process of publishing 3 major first author papers in high ranked journals. As I developed deep interest in understanding the metabolic changes in macrophages in different disease models, I joined for my second postdoctoral fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Alain Charest at BIDMC, HMS. As tumor associated macrophages have altered metabolic signature, I was working on understanding the role of tumor infiltrating macrophages in the context of glioblastoma. This helped me to further expand my knowledge in immunometabolism. I specifically gained experience in performing immunophenotyping of different immune cells in tumor microenvironment using spectral flow cytometry as well as studying the transcriptomic landscape of the tumor at single cell level using single-cell RNA sequencing and my contributions resulted in co-first authorship in a manuscript (under revision, Nature Immunology). My sponsor/mentor, Dr. Mark Feinberg, is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nod-coding RNA biology and metabolic diseases and has an extensive record of training postdoctoral fellows. My expertise in the field of microRNA in diabetic cardiovascular diseases as well as vascular immunology will help in driving the proposed research in the Feinberg lab.

Research Interest

Vascular Biology Cardiovascular diseases Atherosclerosis Diabetes Obesity