Authorized to work in USA

POORNIMA S. RAO ab1x90@r.postjobfree.com

Division of Biomedical Engineering

PRB, 65 Landsdowne Street, Suite 319,

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cambridge, MA Cell Phone: 781-***-****

AREAS OF INTEREST FOR FUTURE POSITION

Molecular Biology, Drug development and delivery, Bioprocess Engineering, Process Research and

Development, Biomaterials, Material Chemistry and Adsorption.

HIGHLIGHTS

Developed assays for in-vitro screening of new anticancer agents and signaling inhibitors for their

efficacy. Performed in-vivo experiments in different animal models. Experience in PK/PD studies.

(Publication Nos. 1 -3, 5, 6).

Expertise in mammalian and human cancer cell culture maintenance and bankin g, aseptic

technique, cell harvesting, media and buffer preparations.

Expertise in protein extraction, separation and purification from cell samples and animal samples.

Expertise in Histology, Immunohistochemistry and Fluorescence-based assays.

Evaluated synergistic drug combinations based on signaling pathways and mathematical modeling.

(Publication Nos. 3 and 5).

Expertise in design and synthesis of new drugs, rationally engineered nano-sized formulations for

target specific delivery of drugs. (Publication Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6).

Instrumental in setting up of high pressure batch reactor system and fixed bed adsorption system

for mercury adsorption from flue gases at University of Cincinnati. (Publication No. 4).

Experience in process and product development from bench scale to plant scale – Acetone

Recovery system and 4-Nitro-diphenylamine plant with 500 tons per year capacity.

Demonstrated excellent written and communication skills (6 Publications, 1 Book chapter).

Supervised research of 2 master and 6 undergraduate students at BWH, trained 3 new engineers at

NOCIL, India – Ability to lead the team.

Proven success in a collaborative and multidisciplinary environment with diverse audiences - Ability

to communicate and work in a team.

Core Competencies:

o Cell/Molecular Biology: Cell culture and maintenance, Cytotoxicity assay, Proliferation assay,

SDS-PAGE, Western blot, FACS, Electron Microscopy, ELISA, Internalization Study, Cryo-

sectioning, UF/DF, In vivo animal study, Protein array, qPCR, RT PCR, Immunoprecipitation,

Histology, Immunohistochemistry, Protein extraction and quantification.

o Computer: CHEMCAD, HYSIS, ASPEN, MATHEMATICA, Matlab, Microsoft Office (Word,

Excel, power point), AUTOCAD, GraphPad Prism, CompuSyn (drug combination evaluation).

o Instrumentation: HPLC, FTIR, Thermo Gravimetric Analysis, UV Spectrometry, Fluorescence

Spectrometry, Dynamic Light Scattering, 96 Well Plate Reader, NMR, Confocal Microscopy,

Electron Microscopy.

o Synthetic Chemistry: Synthesis of new drugs, synthesis and characterization of polymeric

nanoparticles and liposomes, peptide synthesis and characterization, drug-antibody conjugation

and characterization.

o Chemical Engineering: Heat and mass balance calculations, Preparation of SOP, PFD, PI&D,

scale up from lab scale to pilot plant and plant scale, commissioning of plant .

WORK EXPERIENCE

Lab Manager 2011- present

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, MA

(Promoted with maximum salary increase to Lab manager from Research Associate based on

exceptional performance in research and leadership shown in managing lab)

Evaluated the biological efficacy of new pharmacological drugs in vitro by performing cytotoxicity

assay, proliferation assay, FACS and Western blot.

Performed in vivo animal experiments to validate in vitro results. .

Engineered chemotherapeutic drugs and signaling inhibitors loaded nanoparticles which overcome

challenges associated with conventional formulations.

Lab management duties that include lab equipment maintenance, resources allocation and

purchases and supervising students.

Helped PI in writing NIH RO1 and DoD grants which resulted in increase in number of grants

submitted per year by our group.

Graduate Research Assistant 2007- 2010

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

(Highest GPA in core Chemical Engineering classes, Recognized as BEST graduate student)

Synthesis of chelating adsorbent with high adsorption capacity and selectivity for mercury.

Conducted fixed bed and batch experiments to understand the characteristics of adsorbent s

Performed modeling studies of fixed bed adsorption column to predict effluent concentration and

breakthrough profile.

Technical Officer (Process Engineering and Technology Dept.) 2004- 2007

National Organic Chemical Industries Ltd, Rubber Chemical Division (NOCIL, RCD), Mumbai, India

(Promoted to Process Engineer from Engineering Trainee in 2005, Technical Officer in 2006 - Directly

reported to VP of Research/Product Development)

Scaled up new processes from lab scale to plant scale.

Designed and Commissioned a Continuous Acetone Recovery System. This lead to 50% reduction

in operation cost (Approx. $50,000/year).

Designed a new plant for production of 4-Nitro-diphenylamine. (Plant Capacity = 500 tons/year.

Total Investment of Project = $1.0 million).

Conducted process hazard analysis (HAZOP, FMEA) for new projects and maintained safety

related documents (OSHA, ISO 9001, ISO 14001).

EDUCATION PROFILE

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering 2007- 2010

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 3.90/4.00 GPA

Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering 2000- 2004

National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), India 3.98/4.00 GPA

PUBLICATIONS

1. Kulkarni A. A., Rao P. S., Roy B., Mahmoud A., Sengupta S., "Enhancing anticancer activity of PI-

103, a dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor by designing a self-assembled nanoformulation", Manuscript under

minor revision at Cancer research.

2. Pandey A., Roy B., Kulkarni A. A., Goldman A. J., Rao P. S., Sarangi S., Sengupta P., Sengupta S.,

Mathematically modeling the sequential application of a cytotoxic nanoparticle and a PI3K -inhibitor

enhances anti-tumor efficacy” Manuscript under minor revision at Cancer research.

3. Kulkarni A. A., Rao P. S., Mahmoud A., Goldman A., Soh H. X., Sengupta S., “Targeted

multifunctional taxane nanoparticles exhibit enhanced antitumor efficacy in breast cancer model”,

Manuscript under review in Science Translational medicine.

4. Rao P.S, Thiel S.W, Pinto N.G. “Removal of Elemental Mercury using Ionic Liquid -Dicarboxylic Acid

Coating on Silica from Syngas”. Manuscript in preparation.

5. Kulkarni A. A., Rao P.S., M. Khorami Llewellyn, Sengupta S., “A co-delivery of PI-3K inhibitor and

Paclitaxel using chimeric nanoparticles enhance anticancer effect and reduce toxicity”, Manuscript

in preparation.

6. M. Khorami Llewellyn., Rao P.S., Kulkarni A. A., Sengupta S., Menciassi A., “ Targeted co-delivery

of anti-cancer drugs in magno-liposome nanostructure increases the anticancer effect, while

reducing toxicity”, Manuscript in preparation.

BOOK CHAPTER

Kulkarni A.A., Rao P. S., Woodhead Publishing, Gaharwar A.K., Sant S., Hancock M.J., Hacking A.

in Nanomaterials in Tissue Engineering: Characterization, Fabrication and Applications. In

preparation. Synthesis of polymeric nanomaterials for biomedical applications. In print.

PATENT

Kulkarni A. A., Rao P. S., Roy B., Sengupta S, “Compositions for treating Cancer and Methods for

making the same”. Assignee: The Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 2013: Patent Pending.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

Kulkarni A. A., Rao P. S., Mahmoud A., Goldman A., Sengupta P., Sengupta S., “Targeted

multifunctional nanoparticles for breast cancer chemotherapy”, AACR Annual Meeting, Chicago,

Illinois, April 2012.

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