Project Assistant

SMRITI MALASI

● **** Holly Hall St, Houston, TX -77054 ● ************@*****.*** ● 832-***-****

OBJECTIVE

To pursue a career-oriented position in the field of biotechnology and biomedical science that offers challenging opportunities

based on skills, professional expertise, achievements and dedication.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION

Master of Science in Biotechnology Graduated May 2012

Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL

GPA: 3.27/4.00

Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology Graduated August 2009

Padmashree Dr. D.Y Patil University, Maharashtra, India

Equivalent GPA: 3.60/4.0

CAREER SUMMARY

Investigating the knockout vaccine from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and BCG derived novel vaccine strains for

the development of better vaccine against tuberculosis.

Investigating the role of a novel class of thermo sensitive proteins (part of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family

of proteins.

Identifying FAK (Focal Adhesion Kinase) at the protein level in starfish oocytes or eggs.

Performed tissue culture and soft agar assays to evaluate the contribution of STAT3 in cellular transformation.

Performed immunohistochemistry procedures for localizing HSP 47 and 70 in an attempt to assess the extent of non -

visible damage to surrounding tissue of the albino mouse when irradiated with laser.

Performed detailed Bioinformatics and background study of Salmonella typhi to find surface proteins with a significant

role in typhoid fever in order to develop aptamers to target these proteins and thus prevent infection due to Salmonella

typhi efficiently.

TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS

Molecular Biology: PCR, RT-PCR, DNA and RNA isolation, Immunohistochemistry, Plasmid preparation and purification,

Restriction enzyme digestion for plasmid DNA analysis/cloning, Western Blotting, Agarose and SDS-Polyacrylamide Gel

Electrophoresis, Karyotyping, Fluorescent in situ Hybridization (FISH).

Cell Biology: Mammalian cell culture of primary cells and transformed cells, Soft Agar Assay, Gene expression induction

(transfection and retroviral transduction), Immunostaining, and use of confocal microscope, Flow cytometry

Biochemistry: High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), ELISA, ELISPOT

Pharmacology: Cell survival assay (MTT), Colony Forming Unit (CFU)

Histology: Tissue sectioning using cryostat

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

The university of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX July 2012-June2013

Dr. Jagannath’s Lab

Research Assistant I

My current research interest is concerned to understand the role of Toll Like Receptors (TLR’s) in protective

immune response against tuberculosis. The main focus is to evaluate different synthetic peptides of mycobacterial

origin for their ligation and activation capability of TLR’s.

Analyzing strains of mice, gene knockout Mtb strains, various cell culture models and the mouse model of

tuberculosis for the induction of long term immunity in mice followed by working in BSL3 lab.

Assaying cellular markers using flow cytometry and analyze cellular signaling cascades with immunochemistry.

Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL January 2012-May2012

Dr. Michael S. Grace’s Lab

Research Student

Performed bioinformatics study to find TRPV4 sequence homology with other species.

This project focuses on standardizing the protocol for TRPV4 using chicken tissues and hence investigating the

role of novel class of proteins (TRPV4).

Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL August 2011-December2011

Dr. David Carroll’s Lab

Research Student

Analyzed FAK phosphorylation changes during oocyte maturation and fertilization.

State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY June 2011-August 2011

Dr. Nancy C. Reich’s Lab

Summer Intern

Studied the role of STAT3 in transformation and performed soft agar assays with the cell lines that lack STAT3

(obtained by using CRE/Lox system) and express HRAS.

Performed single colony selection to increase the population of the STAT3 deleted to study its role in cancer.

Performed PCR to check the genotype of mouse embryos when the parents are homozygous mutant and

homozygous wild type.

Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL January 2011-May2011

Dr. Michael S. Grace’s Lab

Research Student

The focus of this project is on “characterizing the over expression of two specific heat shock proteins (HSP) in

the epithelium of mice”. My duties consist of immunohistochemistry procedures for localizing HSP 47 and 70

in an attempt to assess the extent of non-visible damage to surrounding tissue when the albino mouse is

irradiated with continuous and pulsed Laser This work includes the preparation of tissue cross-sections by

cryostat and the use of a Nikon C1Si Confocal microscope.

ACADEMIC PROJECT

IIT Roorkee - under Prof. NK Navani, Dept. of Biotechnology January2009-June2009

Enrolled in the project entitled ‘Development of aptamers against Salmonella typhi’ which involved developing

aptamers against specific proteins of the bacteria Salmonella typhi so that the bacteria can be killed efficiently.

Performed Bioinformatics study in order to find the homology of the protein found with the other organisms and tried

to find how related are the other organisms to Salmonella typhi.

CLINICAL EXPERIENCE

Reliance Life Sciences Molecular Medicine Group, Navi Mumbai July2008-August2008

Study of Beta Thalassemia and performed Thalassemia screening.

Performed extraction of DNA from Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and extraction of RNA from Hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Performed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing, Nucleotide sequencing, Immunoassay and Fluorescent in situ

Hybridization (FISH).

Reliable Analytical Laboratories, Thane January, 2008

Performed DNA extraction techniques using Conventional Methods and Kits.

Detection of Genetically Modified Cotton using Real-Time PCR.

MGM Hospital, Navi Mumbai July2006-August2006

Study of different Chromosomal Disorders.

SKILL SETS

Computer skills

Basics of C programming, Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)

Bioinformatics software & tools:

Molecular Visualization Software’s: Swiss Pdbviewer, Emboss, Argus lab chemsketch, Ligandscout, phylogenetics.

Alignment Tools: BLAST, Clustal W, Clustal X.

Knowledge of biological databases NCBI, PDB, Swissprot.

REFERENCES

1.Dr, Chinnaswamy Jagannath, Professor, UT Health Sc. Center at Houston. email:***********.*********@***.***.***

2.Dr. Xu, Shaohua, Associate professor, Florida Institute of Technology. email:********@***.***

3.Dr. Micheal S. Grace, Associate Dean, Florida Institute of Technology. email: ******@***.***

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