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Project Manager

Location:
Atlanta, GA, 30022
Posted:
July 25, 2011

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Resume:

RASHI GAUTAM, PhD.

**** ***** *** **,

Johns Creek, GA-30022

Phone - 404-***-****, 404-***-****

ndbc4r@r.postjobfree.com; ndbc4r@r.postjobfree.com

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

• Highly successful leadership experience in collaborative projects with pharmaceutical companies.

• Extensive experience in writing grant proposals, work plans and project reports for submission to Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Georgia Research Alliance (GRA).

• Five years plus postdoctoral research experience at one of the leading cancer institutes in US.

• Expert knowledge in various fields of biology including microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, genetics, toxicology, virology, phylogenetics and preclinical drug discovery.

• Strong ability to analyze scientific data with solid computational skills.

• Well qualified, well published, dedicated scientist with exceptional communication and presentation skills.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

March’09-Present, Microbiologist, Rotavirus Surveillance, Division of Viral Diseases, CDC, Atlanta-GA

Currently working on a collaborative project between CDC and WHO entitled “Global Reference Laboratory for Rotavirus Surveillance Network”.

• Developing a Real-Time RT-PCR rapid screening assay for the detection of rotavirus vaccine strains in stool specimens of vaccinees.

• Developing a Real-Time RT-PCR assay for rapid genotyping of rotavirus strains from stool samples.

• Developing new primers to genotype rotavirus strains by conventional RT-PCR.

• Genotype rotavirus strains by RT-PCR and sequencing from domestic and international stool specimens.

• Participate in conference calls held biweekly between CDC Rotavirus surveillance team, WHO and members from national and regional Rotavirus network.

• Provide training to international visiting scientists on rotavirus genotyping.

• Co-instructed The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARAA) sponsored workshop on “Testing methods for Vaccine Surveillance and control of Rotavirus Gastroenteritis” at CDC, Atlanta.

• Volunteered for two weeks in Influenza Division for sequencing of H1N1 Influenza pandemic samples.

April’06- Aug’07 Senior Scientist Zygogen, LLC., Atlanta, GA

Zygogen, LLC - a biotech company, leading the integration of zebrafish technology into preclinical drug discovery, including drug target identification, validation, toxicity assessment and compound screening.

• Supervised Zygogen’s collaborative project with Eli Lilly entitled “Target validation for potential osteoarthritis (OA) related genes in zebrafish”.

- Checked expression of potential OA genes in zebrafish by performing RT-PCR.

- Knocked down the expression of genes in zebrafish by injecting antisense morpholinos.

- Checked gene knockdown by qPCR, RT-PCR and sequencing.

- Phenotyped morpholino injected zebrafish embryos using cartilage specific stain.

• Awarded Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) grant for a project entitled “Drug induced teratogenicity screening with zebrafish”.

• Submitted SBIR grant to National Institute of Health (NIH) for a proposal entitled “Drug induced liver and intestinal toxicity screening with transgenic fluorescent zebrafish”.

• Co-investigated SBIR, Phase I Alzheimer’s grant (R43 AG028245-04) entitled “Zebrafish Tauopathy Model for Drug Screening” awarded by the National Institute for Aging.

• Co-investigated SBIR, Phase II lipid metabolism grant (R44 DK64472-02) entitled "Zebrafish Assay for Cholesterol and Lipid Lowering Drugs" awarded by the National Institutes for Digestive Diseases, Diabetes, and Kidney.

Aug’00 – Jan’06 Post Doctoral Research Associate Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY

Conducted research on “Mouse models of Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome (HPS)”. HPS is a genetically heterogeneous, inherited disease affecting vesicle trafficking among lysosome related organelles and is characterized by hypo-pigmentation, prolonged bleeding and lung fibrosis leading to premature death.

• Identified mouse HPS genes by positional cloning approach: inter-specific backcross, recombinant study, high resolution genetic and physical maps, RT-PCR, qPCR, Northern blotting, 3’ & 5’ Race and transgenic rescue.

• Identified protein-protein interactions by yeast two-hybrid, co-immuno-precipitation, GST Pull-down, sedimentation velocity and tissue destabilization techniques.

• Raised polyclonal antibodies of HPS proteins in rabbits using GST-Tag and His-Tag columns, affinity purified antibodies and used for Western blotting, Immuno-histochemistry and Immuno-florescence.

• Studied lung fibrosis at physiological level in HPS mouse mutants.

• Constructed double and triple mouse HPS null mutants to study epistatic interaction between genes encoding different protein sorting complexes. Analyzed HPS null mutants breeding efficiency, pigmentation, lysosomal enzymes and lung physiology.

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

• Genotyping rotavirus by RT-PCR and sequencing, Real time RT-PCR assays, extraction of viral RNA by manual and automated methods.

• Isolation of plasmid and genomic DNA, Cloning of DNA in plasmids, screening for positive clones, PCR amplification, PCR walking, Sequencing of DNA, Characterization of DNA by restriction digestion, Southern blotting, Site Directed Mutagenesis, total RNA & polyA RNA isolation, insitu hybridization, molecular genotyping of mice and behavior analysis in mouse mutants.

• Protein purification from tissues and over-expressing bacterial strains, PAGE, Iso-electric focusing, Immuno-diffusion, ELISA.

• Cell culture, transfection, culturing fibroblasts and melanocytes, collection of platelets, macrophages and bone marrow, lysosomal enzyme assays, platelet serotonin analysis, lung p-lipid analysis, lung inflation fixation, Isolation and maintenance of microorganisms.

• Certified for handling, maintenance and experimentation with wild type, transgenic and knockout mice, use of radioisotopes and handling non-exempt DNA material.

• Spectrophotometry, Ultracentrifugation, Scientific photography and microscopy.

• Annotating Human, Mouse, Zebrafish and Rotavirus genome sequences.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Ph D. Microbiology, 2001- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India

• M.S. Botany, 1995- University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

• B.S Botany, 1993 - University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

TRAINING

• Zebrafish: Experimental methodology, Biology, Care and Maintenance workshop by Charles River Laboratories, Germantown, MD.

• Radiation safety training, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY.

• Responsible care and use of laboratory animals, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY.

• Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Center for Biochemicals, New Delhi, India.

• Teaching of Biological Sciences from Annamalai University, Chennai, India.

PUBLICATIONS

• Mathew D. Esona, Krisztian Banyai, Kimberly Foytich, Molly Freeman, Slavica M. Rustempasic, Jennifer Hull, Tara Kerin, Andrew D. Steele, George E Armah, Annelise Geyer, Nicola Page, Veronique A. Agbaya, Joseph C. Forbi, Maryam Aminu, Rashi Gautam, Luanda M. Seheri, James Nyangao, Roger Glass, Michael D. Bowen, Jon R. Gentsch. Genomic characterization of human rotavirus G10 strains from the African Rotavirus Network: Relationship to animal rotaviruses (2010) Infect Genet Evol. 2011 Jan:11(1):237-41

• Jennifer Cortes, Wences Arvelo, Beatriz Lopez, Lisette Reyes, Manuel Sagastume, Lisette Barrera, Tara Kerin, Rashi Gautam, Manish Patel, Umesh Parashar, Kim A. Lindblade. Rotavirus Disease Burden among Children <5 Years of Age - Santa Rosa, Guatemala, 2007-2009 (submitted to Tropical Medicine and International Health)

• Sreenivasulu Chintala, Jian Tan, Rashi Gautam, Michael E. Rusiniak, Xiaoli Guo, Wei Li, William A. Gahl, Marjan Huizing, Richard A. Spritz, Saunie Hutton, Edward K. Novak, and Richard T. Swank. The Slc35d3 gene, encoding an orphan nucleotide sugar transporter, regulates platelet-dense granules (2007) Blood, 109(4):1533-40

• Rashi Gautam, Edward K Novak, Jian Tan, Kazumasa Wakamatsu, Shosuke Ito and Richard T. Swank. Interaction of Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome genes in the regulation of lysosome related organelles (2006) Traffic, 7(7):779-92 (rated exceptional by Faculty of 1000 Biology).

• Rashi Gautam, Sreenivasulu Chintala, Wei Li, Qing Zhang, Jian Tan, Edward K. Novak, Santiago M. Di Pietro, Esteban C.Dell’ Angelica and Richard T. Swank. The Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome 3 (cocoa) protein is a component of the Biogenesis of lysosome –related organelles complex-2 (BLOC-2) (2004) J.Biol.Chem., 279(13): 129**-*****

• Wei Li, Michael E. Rusiniak, S. Chintala, Rashi Gautam, Edward K. Novak and Richard T. Swank. Murine Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome genes: regulators of lysosome-related organelles (2004) BioEssays, 26: 616-628

• Wei Li, Qing Zhang, Naoki Oiso, Edward K. Novak, Rashi Gautam, Edward P. O'Brien, Caroline L Tinsley, Derek J. Blake, Richard A. Spritz, Neal G. Copeland, Nancy A. Jenkins, Dominick Amato, Bruce A. Roe, Marta Starcevic, Esteban C. Dell' Angelica, Rosemary W. Elliott, Vishnu Mishra, Stephen F. Kingsmore, Richard E. Paylor and Richard T. Swank. Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome type 7 (HPS-7) is caused by mutations in DTNBP1, the gene encoding dysbindin, a dystrobrevin-interacting protein and a member of the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1 (BLOC-1) (2003) Nature Genetics, 35(1): 84-9

• Pei-Wen Chiang, Naoki Oiso, Rashi Gautam, Richard T. Swank and Richard A. Spritz. The Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome 1 (HPS1) and HPS4 proteins are components of two complexes, BLOC-3 and BLOC-4, involved in the Biogenesis of Lysosome- Related Organelles (2003) J.Biol.Chem., 278(22): 20332-7

• Qing Zhang, Baohui Zhao, Wei Li, Naoki Oiso, Edward K. Novak, Michael E. Rusiniak, Rashi Gautam, Sreenivasulu Chintala, Edward P. O' Brien. Yuke Zhang, Bruce A. Roe, Rosemary W. Elliott, Eva M. Eicher, Ping Liang, Christian Kratz, Eric Legius , Richard A. Spritz, T. Norene O' Sullivan, Neal G. Copeland, Nancy A. Jenkins and Richard T. Swank. Ru2 and Ru encode mouse orthologs of the genes mutated in human Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome types 5 and 6

(2003) Nature Genetics, 33(2):145-53

• Tamio Suzuki*, Naoki Oiso*, Rashi Gautam*, Edward K. Novak, Jean-Jacques Panthier, P. G. Suprabha, Thomas Vida, Richard T. Swank and Richard A. Spritz.The mouse organellar

biogenesis mutant buff results from a mutation in Vps33a, a homologue of yeast vps33 and

Drosophila carnation (2003) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 100(3):1146-50 (*joint first author)

• Juan M.Falcon-Perez, Marta Starcevic, Rashi Gautam and Esteban C.Dell' Angelica. BLOC-1, a novel complex containing the pallidin and muted proteins involved in the biogenesis of melanosomes and platelet-dense granules (2002) J.Biol.Chem., 277(31):28191-9

• Edward K. Novak, Rashi Gautam, Madonna Reddington, Lucy M. Collinson, Neal G. Copeland, Nancy A. Jenkins, Michael P. McGarry, and Richard T. Swank .The regulation of platelet-dense granules by Rab27a in the ashen mouse, a model of Hermansky-Pudlak and Griscelli syndromes, is granule-specific and dependent on genetic background (2002) Blood, 100(1):128-135



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