Research and Teaching Interests
Hometown: India, MSc (Panjab University Chandigarh India)
Research project: “Analyze molecular interactions between Netrin1 and its Dependence Receptors”. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disorder of the Central Nervous System (CNS) characterized by failure of the myelin repair mechanisms and axonal loss. The recruitment and differentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) to mature oligodendrocytes is inhibited by local factors within MS lesions namely the chemotropic protein Nertin-1 (NET1). Deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) and Unc5 are membrane receptors expressed on OPCs that mediate the chemo attractive or repulsive effects upon NET1 binding via an intracellular signaling cascade. An objective of this study is to understand the molecular mechanism that modulates the formation, maintenance and repair of myelin sheaths via the generation of an atomic resolution model for NET1/DCC/Unc5 receptor-ligand complexes.
Reason for coming to U. Manitoba: I chose to attend Department of Chemistry (Biochemistry) University of Manitoba because Biochemistry and Molecular Biology were my main subjects during my master’s program in INDIA. And I really wanted to pursue my PhD in this field and Department of Chemistry has all facilities in terms of Instrumentations and also has great support from every faculty member and specially from my supervisor Dr. Jorg Stetefeld.
Other interests: Apart from these things, Winnipeg is very nice place. I love to do photography in my spare time because in Canada every weather has its own charm.