Engineer Manager

Usha Lakshmi Katari

***** ****** *****, *** **, San Diego, CA 92126

E-mail: ***********@*****.***, Phone: 832-***-****

SUMMARY

4+ years of knowledge and experience in cancer immunotherapy, molecular

biology and gene therapy.

Key Skills

T cell culture in the GMP facility, analyzing CTL immune responses through

ELIspot, flow cytometry, cytotoxicity assays, etc. and writing Standard

operating procedures (SOPs) and work sheets for clinical protocols.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant Baylor College of Medicine

Aug 2010-Present

Generate and characterize CTLs using cell culture bioreactors in the GMP

facility, product testing, sampling for QA/QC analysis, CTL infusion,

writing Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for clinical protocols.

Engineer T cells to express CAR, flow cytometric analysis of the cells

through immunophenotyping, ICS, FoxP3 staining, CFSE etc, co-culturing

effector T cells with tumor expressing cell lines, fluorescent microscopy,

cloning, qPCR, etc.

Assist in determining requirements for pre-clinical and clinical studies,

complete pre-clinical studies, prepare clinical study progress reports,

develop study protocols and maintain clinical study files, maintain an NIH-

funded lymphoma tumor bank. Design experiments and conduct literature

searches, train and supervise new hires.

Project Intern Baylor College of Medicine

April 2010-Aug 2010

Isolate PBMCs from donor/patient (blood, tissue, bone marrow), cell

culture, perform and interpret phenotypic and functional studies through

cellular/molecular based assays in vitro and in vivo.

Teaching Assistant University of Houston Clear Lake

Aug 2009-April 2010

Coordinating practical work in the laboratory, basic instructions, grading

tests, supervising student performance.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Flow Cytometry (Becton Dickinson, Beckman Coulter), ELISA, ELISPOT,

cytotoxicity assay, proliferation assay, multiplex immunoassays, IHC/IFC,

DNA isolation and purification, Cloning, Retroviral transfection and

transduction, Primer design, PCR, qPCR, RT-PCR, DNA sequencing, RNA

extraction and gene expression analysis, SDS PAGE, Western blotting,

Agarose gel electrophoresis, Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry IEF, HPLC

.

Computer/Software Skills

Cell Quest Pro, Kaluza, MS office, Clone Manager, Adobe, Matlab, Prism.

EDUCATION

MS Biological Sciences University of Houston Clear Lake, Houston, TX

Aug 2008 - Aug 2010

B.Tech Biotechnology Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India

Aug 2003 - May 2007

PUBLICATIONS

. U.L. Katari. "Engineered T cells for pancreatic cancer treatment". HPB

2011.

. Usha L Katari. "Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes Simultaneously Targeting

Multiple Tumor-associated Antigens to Treat EBV Negative Lymphoma".

Mol Therapy. 2011.

. Usha L Katari. "Rapidly Generated Multivirus-specific Cytotoxic T

Lymphocytes for the Prophylaxis and Treatment of Viral Infections".

Molecular Therapy. 2012.

. Katari UL. "Immunotherapeutic strategies to prevent and treat human

herpes virus (HHV) 6 reactivation post allogeneic stem cell

transplant". Blood 2013.

. Katari.UL. "Safety and clinical efficacy of rapidly-generated trivirus-

directed T cells as treatment for Adenovirus, EBV and CMV infections

after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant". Mol Ther 2013.

CLINICAL SEMINARS/PRESENTATIONS

. "Safety and Clinical Efficacy of Rapidly-Generated Trivirus-Directed T

Cells after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant". 54th ASH

Annual Meeting and Exposition (Dec 2012)

. "Adoptive transfer of rapidly-generated multi-virus-specific T Cells

to treat Adenovirus, EBV and CMV infections of hematopoietic stem cell

transplant recipients". CAGT Seminar (Nov 2012).

. "Improved expansion and anti-tumor activity of tumor-specific CTLs

using a transgenic chimeric cytokine receptor" CAGT seminar series

March 2012.

. "Multi-virus-specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes for Adoptive Transfer".

CAGT seminar (Dec 2011).

. "T cell therapy for Pancreatic Cancer". Annual Dan L. Duncan Cancer

Center Symposium (Nov 2011).

. "Arming tumor-specific CTL to withstand the inhibitory

microenvironment". (March 2011).

ACADEMIC PROJECTS

. Independent studies on "Co-immunoprecipitation" and "DNA sequencing"

at University of Houston - Clear Lake.

. Curriculum project on "Diet and colon cancer" Trace element detection

using Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry at Gandhi hospital in India.

. Research Project on Fermenter Design and Down-stream Processing

"Developing a purification process of cell culture derived Vaccines

using ultra filtration, size exclusion, ion exchange, affinity

chromatography techniques". Indian Institute of Chemical Technology,

India.

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